Civil War Causes Document A: Domestic Slave Trade

This graph is based on the research of University of Liverpool historian Michael Tadman.

1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s0

500000

1000000

1500000

2000000

2500000

3000000

3500000

Southern Population Change 1820-1840

Slaves sold across state lines Total slave population

Source: Michael Tadman, Speculators and Slaves: Masters, Traders, and Slaves in the Old South. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989, 12.Statistics on Slavery, “Population of the South, 1790-1860.” http://faculty.weber.edu/kmackay/statistics_on_slavery.htm

Source: Average price of slave over time (current money). Historical Statistics, Table Bb212. Average Slave Price. https://www.measuringworth.com/slavery.php

Civil War Causes Document B: Mingo White’s Narrative (Modified)

Levi D. Shelby Jr., an African American interviewer for the Federal Writers’ Project, conducted this interview with former slave Mingo White sometime between 1936 and 1938. White was in his 90s at the time of the interview, which took place in Tuscumbia, Alabama.

I was born in Chester, South Carolina, but I was mostly raised in Alabama. . . . When I was about four or five years old, I was loaded in a wagon with a lot more people in it. Where I was bound, I didn’t know. Whatever became of my mother and father I didn’t know for a long time.

I was told there were a lot of slave speculators in Chester to buy some slaves for some folks in Alabama. I remember that I was taken up on a stand and a lot of people came around and felt my arms and legs and chest, and asked me a lot of questions. Before we slaves were taken to the trading post, Old Master Crawford told us to tell everybody that asked us if we'd ever been sick to tell them that we’d never been sick in our life. We had to tell them all sorts of lies for our Master or else take a beating.

I was just a little thing, taken away from my mother and father just when I needed them most. The only caring that I had or ever knew anything about was given to me by a friend of my father. His name was John White. My father told him to take care of me for him. . . . My father and mother were sold from each other, too, at the same time as I was sold. . . .

I was nothing but a child enduring slavery, but I had to work the same as any man. I went to the field and hosed cotton, pulled fodder and picked cotton with the rest of the hands. I kept up too, to keep from getting any lashes. . . .

Source: "Interview with Mingo White." In A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves, c. 1936-1938.

Vocabularyhosed: watered

pulled fodder: harvested the portions of plants fed to livestocklashes: whippings

Civil War Causes Document C: Slave Trader Letter (Modified)

A. J. McElveen was an agent for Ziba B. Oakes, a prominent slave trader and auctioneer in Charleston, South Carolina. This is a letter McElveen sent to Oakes.

A. J. McElveen to Z. B. Oakes,Sumterville, S.C., 10 July 1853.

I send you one boy, which I hope will please you well. I think he is as near number one as boys get. The price I think is rather high. I hope he will pay a tolerable profit. It is the best that can be done.

[For] boy Wilson Bough of Mr. Semore I paid $775. I hope you will be able to get $900 for him.

I refused a girl 20 years of age at $700 yesterday. I offered $675 for her. I think it’s enough. If you think it’s best to take her at $700 I can still get her. She is very badly whipped but has good teeth. The whipping has been done long since. She is tolerably likely.

The prices up here are tall. They ask from $950 to $1000 for fellows and $800 for girls generally.

I weighed this boy Wilson. His weight is 100 pounds by the scales this evening. I will try and have some more next week. Do let me hear from you. I leave here Thursday for below. I will return next week.

VocabularyBoy: term used to refer to an enslaved manGirl: term used to refer to an enslaved womanLikely: promising

Civil War Causes Document D: Political Cartoon, 1856

Caption: Forcing slavery down the throat of a Freesoiler. The Freesoiler is saying, “MURDER!!! Help me, neighbors, help. O my poor wife and children…” The Freesoiler is tied to the Democratic Platform.

Civil War Causes Document E: John Brown's Speech (Modified)

I have, may it please the court, a few words to say. In the first place, I deny everything but what I have all along admitted -- the design on my part to free the slaves. That was all I intended. I never did intend murder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection.

I have another objection: had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends . . . it would have been all right; and every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.

I believe that to have done what I have done--on behalf of God’s despised poor was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life to further the end of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust acts—I say: so let it be done!

Source: This was John Brown's last speech. November 2, 1859.

VocabularyInsurrection: revoltForfeit: give up

Civil War Causes Document F: Missouri Compromise 1820

Civil War Causes Document G: Fugitive Slave Act (1850), Impact in Boston

Civil War Causes Document H: Dred Scott v. Sanford, Chief Justice Taney’s Statement

4. A free negro of the African race, whose ancestors were brought to this country and sold as slaves, is not a "citizen" within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States.

5. When the Constitution was adopted, they were not regarded in any of the States as members of the community which constituted the State, and were not numbered among its "people or citizens." Consequently, the special rights and immunities guaranteed to citizens do not apply to them…

6. The only two clauses in the Constitution which point to this race treat them as persons whom it was morally lawfully to deal in as articles of property and to hold as slaves….

Taney relied on historical analysis to support the Court's decision that Scott was not an Article-III citizen, and summarized the historical attitudes thusly:

“[Black Africans imported as slaves] had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it. …”

Source: Scott v Sanford, Supreme Court. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/60/393

Civil War Causes Document I: Race-Based Legislation in the North

Before 1800, free African American men had nominal rights of citizenship in the north. In some places they could vote, serve on juries, and work in skilled trades. But as the need to justify slavery grew stronger, and racism started solidifying, free blacks gradually lost these limited rights. Through intimidation, changing laws and mob violence, whites claimed racial supremacy, and increasingly denied blacks their citizenship. …

… Segregation was rampant, and African Americans were excluded from concert halls, public transportation, schools, churches, orphanages, and other places. Blacks were also forced out of the skilled professions in which they had been working. And soon after the turn of the century, African American men began to lose the right to vote -- a right that many states had granted following the Revolutionary War. Simultaneously, voting rights were being expanded for whites. …

The situation in what was then the northwest region of the country was even worse. In Ohio, the state constitution of 1802 deprived blacks of the right to vote, to hold public office, and to testify against whites in court. Over the next five years, more restrictions were placed on African Americans. They could not live in Ohio without a certificate proving their free status, they had to post a $500 bond "to pay for their support in case of want," and they were prohibited from joining the state militia. In 1831 blacks were excluded from serving on juries and were not allowed admittance to state poorhouses, insane asylums, and other institutions…. In Illinois there were severe restrictions on free blacks entering the state, and Indiana barred them altogether. Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin were no friendlier. Because of this, the black populations of the northwestern states never exceeded 1 percent.

African Americans also faced violence at the hands of white northerners. Individual cases of assault and murder occurred throughout the North, as did daily insults and harassment. Between 1820 and 1850, Northern blacks also became the frequent targets of mob violence. Whites looted, tore down, and burned black homes, churches, schools, and meeting halls. They stoned, beat, and sometimes murdered blacks. …

Source: “Africans in American: Judgment Day”. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2957.html