Slavery and Pre-Civil War

Slavery and Pre-Civil War Unit 6: Chapter 15-Section 1

Slavery in Texas • 182,000 slaves in Texas in 1860 • Prices varied…$100 to $2500 (= to about $35,000 today) • Slaves didn’t have any rights…were considered property • Only 5% of Texans owned slaves…most were poor • They were simple farmers with large families – kids provided labor

Slavery in Texas • Most Texans defended slavery because it benefitted Texas’s agricultural economy • Planters – men who owned more than 10 slaves • Plantations – large farms of 20 or more slaves

Pre-Civil War • From 1861 to 1865, more than 600,000 Americans were killed in the Civil War. Of those, roughly 200,000 were killed in battle; the rest died from disease. More men died in this war than all other wars we have fought combined!

Pre-Civil War b. The Civil War is known by several other names: • War Between the States • North vs. South • Blues vs. Grays • Yankees vs. Rebels * Union vs. Confederacy (include this too!)

Pre-Civil War c. Causes of the War (issues that divided them) • Tariffs • Land • States Rights • Slavery d. Abolitionists were people who worked to end slavery in the U.S.; in 1854, Americans against the slavery formed the Republican Party.

Pre-Civil War e. Presidential Election of 1860 • Abraham Lincoln was the Republican candidate • Southern leaders threatened to secede, or withdraw, from the Union if Lincoln won • The South feared he would abolish slavery • Lincoln won the election and angered the South

Pre-Civil War f. Texas Secession Convention • After many southern states seceded in 1861, the Texas legislature called a convention to consider secession • Result? They approved an ordinance of secession and joined the South

Pre-Civil War g. Confederate States of America (C.S.A.) • At a southern convention in Montgomery, Alabama, delegates voted to form a new nation, the Confederate States of America. • The new nation’s constitution gave more power to the states and less to the federal government.

Pre-Civil War g. Confederate States of America (C.S.A.) iii. They also elected Jefferson Davis as president. iv. Meanwhile, in Texas, Governor Sam Houston was removed from his post because he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy; the Secession Convention also declared his office vacant.

Pre-Civil War g. Confederate States of America (C.S.A.) v. U.S. President Lincoln believed the Union was perpetual, or continuing forever; and that the southern states could not leave it. h. The first battle of the Civil War occurred at Fort Sumter, South Carolina on April 12, 1861 which resulted in a Confederate victory.

Slavery and Pre-Civil War