The Road to the American Civil War

1. The Road to the American Civil War Early attempts at containing slavery A Series of Compromises Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Incidents of Suspicions

2. Early Attempts of Containment • 1808 the slave trade is no longer allowed in the United States • Missouri Compromise of 1820 divides the nation at the 36 30’ parallel • Slavery is prohibited above the line while slavery is allowed below the line

3. The Wilmot Proviso • During the Mexican War, Pennsylvanian Congressman David Wilmot proposes an amendment called the Wilmot Proviso • In 1848 the Wilmot Proviso attempted to prohibit the expansion of slavery into territory acquired from the Mexican War • The proviso does not pass

4. The Wilmot Proviso • John Calhoun will propose laws that state Congress has no right to prohibit slavery in any part of the U.S. • Southerners like Calhoun would like the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to expand to the Pacific Ocean and into other areas

5. The Compromise of 1850 • Kentucky Congressmen who seeks to keep the Union together through compromises • Henry Clay, “The Great Compromiser” suggested a compromise • He had assisted with the Compromise of 1820 • John Calhoun will be against the compromise and argues against

6. The Compromise of 1850 • California is a free state • The slave trade is abolished in Washington D.C. • New Mexico and Utah will decide if they want slavery or not • Texas gives up its land claims in New Mexico for payment of their debts • Fugitive Slave Act (1850)

7. The Fugitive Slave Act (1850) • The Fugitive Act allows southerners to recover escaped slaves in the North • Blacks in the North panic and move to Canada and Abolitionist stop the enforcement of the Act and make its enforcement very difficult • Southerners are outraged at its limited enforcement

8. Uncle Tom’s Cabin • Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) a novel that becomes a national best seller because it reveals the ugliness of slavery • Northerners are shocked by the novel’s stories of slavery whereas Southerners are angered by the “lies” about the south

9. Enter Stephen Douglas • Congressman who based his politics on expansion and popular sovereignty • Popular sovereignty • He opposes expansion of slavery but he does not admit that it is evil • Douglas argues that slavery cannot expand in the southwest (climate)

10. Kansas Nebraska Act (1854) • Douglas desires a railroad through Nebraska Territory but southern congressmen are against it • Southerners want the railroad in the south to benefit them • A railroad in the north would not benefit the south but the north and Douglas

11. Kansas Nebraska Act (1854)

12. Kansas Nebraska Act (1854) • To pass his idea Douglas divides the Nebraska Territory into Nebraska and Kansas • He also repeals the Missouri Compromise of 1820 ban on keeping slavery below the 36 30’ line • Popular sovereignty will decide if states will be either slave or free

13. The Rise of the “Know- Nothings” • Come from all parts of the nation • They are anti-immigrant, anti-catholic, dislike Blacks, and support slavery

14. The Republican Party • All members are located from the north • They want to keep slavery from expanding into near the west • They fear slavery will replace free white labor because slaves are not paid

15. Bleeding Kansas, 1855 • Voters will decide if Kansas will be a free or slave state • Abolitionists and proslavery supporters rush to occupy Kansas • Proslavery supporters elect a proslavery legislature in Lecompton

16. Bleeding Kansas, 1855 • Abolitionists elect their own anti-slavery legislature in Topeka • Angered abolitionist John Brown and his sons will hack 5 proslavery men in front of their families at Pottawattomie Creek Kansas

17. Bleeding Kansas

18. Brooks Sumner Incident • Senator Charles Sumner demands that Kansas be a free state and personally insulted Stephen Douglas and South Carolinian Senator on the floor of the capital • Congressman Preston Brooks beats Sumner with his cane for the insult leveled at his uncle

19. Brooks Sumner Incident • After the beating Brooks receives hundreds of canes so he may bash northerners again • Preston Brooks becomes a southern national hero • Northerners are shocked and have evidence of southern brutality

20. Dred Scott Decision, March 1857 • Dred Scott was a slave who moved from a Missouri a slave state to free states Illinois and Wisconsin • In 1846 Scott sues for his freedom because he know lives in free states • 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that slaves are not citizens

21. Dred Scott Decision, March 1857 • The court also rules that the Missouri Compromise cannot infringe a slave owners rights to take his property where ever he chooses • The north is convinced that the south is attempting to spread slavery

22. Enter Abraham Lincoln • Illinois congressmen and successful lawyer • He opposes the expansion of slavery into new territories like Kansas and Nebraska • Lincoln takes the moral high ground against slavery and he attacks the slave system

23. The Lincoln and Douglas Debates • Both are against the expansion of slavery • Both argue that it will not survive in the west • Both do not want to use the government to end slavery • Lincoln comes out of the debates looking like an abolitionist

24. John Brown’s Raid October 1859 • John Brown hopes to lead a slave revolt at Harpers Ferry, Virginia • Slaves do not rush to join and he is captured and hung • Northerners look at him as a hero and southerners worry that more like Brown are coming to the south

25. The Election of 1860 • Lincoln is elected as the 17th president of the U.S. in 1860 • Southerners fearing Lincoln is going to end slavery secede from the United States • Lincoln has no plans to deal with the slave issue as the south believes

26. The Confederate States of America • Southern states before Lincoln takes office secede from the Union • On December 20, 1860- South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas leave the Union • They become the Confederate States of America

27. Fort Sumter, April 1861 • After the southern states secede from the Union • South Carolina demands that Union property be surrendered to the south • Lincoln refuses to allow Fort Sumter to surrender • Confederate forces fire on fort and eventually force its surrender