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The Road to the Civil War

The Road to the Civil War. Slavery Issues in pre-war America. Colonial period Declaration of Independence Northwest Ordinance Constitution. Slavery – racial and personal dimensions. 10 - 15 million Africans shipped to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

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The Road to the Civil War

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  1. The Road to the Civil War

  2. Slavery Issues in pre-war America • Colonial period • Declaration of Independence • Northwest Ordinance • Constitution

  3. Slavery – racial and personal dimensions • 10 - 15 million Africans shipped to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th centuries. • Of these, approx 645,000 brought to what is now the United States. • The slave population in the United States had grown to four million by the 1860 Census

  4. Slavery – personal dimension • African slave markets • Second Middle Passage • on-board slave insurrections • Amistad (1839) • slave pens • plantation life • religion • family

  5. Slavery – social and economic dimensions • The significance of the cotton gin • Total number of slaves in 1860 – approx 4 million • Total number of slaves in the Lower South: 2,312,352 (47% of total population). • Total number of slaves in the Upper South: 1,208758 (29% of total population). • Total number of slaves in the Border States: 432,586 (13% of total population). • Almost one-third of all Southern families owned slaves. In Mississippi and South Carolina it approached one half.

  6. Slavery – social and economic dimensions • The total number of slave owners was 385,00088% of slave owners held fewer than twenty, and nearly 50% held fewer than five. • On a typical plantation (more than 20 slaves) the capital value of the slaves was greater than the capital value of the land and implements. • Slavery was profitable, although a large part of the profit was in the increased value of the slaves themselves. With only 30% of the nation's (free) population, the South had 60% of the "wealthiest men." The 1860 per capita income in the South was $3,978; in the North it was $2,040.

  7. Slavery – a political issue • economic and political differences between North and South • balance of political power in Congress • Sectional conflict and the Civil War – not about 'slavery', but about the 'spreading of slavery' • the ethical dimension of the conflict neglected by political powers prior to the war, although raised by abolitionist movements

  8. Keeping a fragile balance of power

  9. Territorial expansion and slavery issues • Louisiana Purchase • Florida Cession • Missouri Compromise • Maxican-American War and the Annexation of Texas • Wilmot Proviso • California • Territory of Oregon • California Compromise (The Compromise of 1850)

  10. Lousiana Purchase (1803) • Thomas Jefferson and his presidency • Jeffersonian democracy • Lousiana Purchase (1803) • Lewis and Clark Expedtion (1804 - 1806)

  11. Missouri Compromise (1820) • regulation of slavery in westward territories • Missouri applies for statehood • Missouri Compromise • Missouri admitted as a slave state • Maine created as a free state • slavery prohibited in the territories of the Louisiana Purchase north to parallel 36°30' north (except for the territories already within the bounderies of Missouri)

  12. Texas Annexation, Mexican – American War • American Settlers in Texas • Republic of Texas (hence – The Lone Star State) (1836) • Texas Annexation (1845) • Mexican – American War (1846 – 1848) • California campaign • Republic of California (1846) and annexation of California • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) • Mexican Cession

  13. Mexican Cession

  14. Wilmot Proviso (1846) • proposed slavery be benned in territories of the Mexican Cession and any other territories to be aqcuired from Mexico in the future • failed in Congress • fired up the sectional conflict between free states and slave states • led to the Compromise of 1850

  15. Compromise of 1850 (California Compromise) • Texas divided (New Mexico, Utah), but receives federal help • New Mexico Teriitory and Utah can decide slave issues according to popular sovereignty rules • California admitted as a free state • new fugitive slave law • Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 • Slave trade banned in Washington D.C (Alexandria County returned to Virginia)

  16. Kansas – Nebraska Act (1854) • The principle of popular sovereignty • Sponsor: Sen. Stephen Douglas • Main provision • organization of Kansas and Nebraska into territories • Results: • It nullified the Missouri Compromise • Nebraska:a free state • Kansas was north of the Missouri Compromise line, which means it also should be free • Kansas became the focus of anti-slavery and pro-slavery activists • chaos in Kansas – two legislatures, several constitutions (Topeka Constitution , Lecompton Constitution, Wyandotte Constitution) • Emergence of the Republican Party • Eventually, Kansas admited as a free state in 1861, months before the beginning of the Civil War

  17. Growing regional tension • Bleeding Kansas (1855 – 1856) • John Brown, Pottawatomie Massacre • Preston Brooks attacks Charles Sumner (1856)

  18. The Dred Scott Decision (1857) • Dred Scott • born a slave in Virginia, sold to an army major John Emerson • travelled often with his owner, often to free states, including Illinois, and teriitories of Wisconsin, steyed for long periods of time in free states, eg. Wisconsin • after Emerson's death attemted to buy his freedom from Emerson's widow, and sued for hsi freedom after she refused • a series of trials followed, some he won, some he lost • Dred Scott v. Sanford - majority decision of the court • people of African descent, slaves or free, cannot be citizens of the U.S.A. and hence are not protected by the constitution, and cannot sue in courts • Dredd Scott remains a property • property protected by the Fifth Amendment • slavery cannot be banned by territorial gevernments and by the federal government • hence the Missouri Compromise – unconstitutional • Dissenting opinion by Justice McLean • "more a matter of taste than the law" • Reactions to the decision • panic of 1857 • shock in the North • further divison of sentiments • divisions within the Democratic Party • emergence of the Republican Party

  19. Abolitionist movements • Immediate abolition vs. gradual abolition • William Lloyd Garrison • Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin • Underground Railroad • John Brown • Pottawatomie Massacre, 1856 • Raid on Harper's Ferry, 1859

  20. The rise of the Republican Party • Democratic Party • Republican Party • Stephen Douglas vs. Abraham Lincoln

  21. Election of 1860 and secession • Abraham Lincoln • rose to national prominence after the debates against Stephen Douglas in his homestate of Illinois • considered a radical anti-slaver in the South • Southerners declare secession should Lincoln become the President • Lincoln wins the election • Secession, 1861

  22. Confedarate States of America • 1. South Carolina • 2. Mississippi • 3. Florida • 4. Alabama • 5. Georgia • 6. Louisiana • 7. Texas • four more states declared their secession after the atttack on Fort Sumter (April 1861) • 8. Virginia • 9. Arkansas • 10. Tennessee • 11. North Carolina • Slave states that did not leave the Union (border states) • Delaware • Kentucky • Maryland • Missouri • West Virginia,

  23. Confederate states and border states

  24. Civil War begins, 1861

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