The Road to the American Civil War

Early attempts at containing slavery

A Series of Compromises

Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Incidents of Suspicions

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

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

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

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 it

The Compromise of 18501. California is admitted

to the Union as a free state

2. The slave trade, not slavery, is abolished in Washington D.C.

3. New Mexico and Utah will decide if they want slavery or not by “popular sovereignty”

The Compromise of 1850 Cont…

4. Texas gives up its land claims in New Mexico for payment of their debts ($10 million dollars)

5. Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (Favored the South)

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

Underground Railroad

• The Underground Railroad was established in response to Slave Codes and the Fugitive Slave Act • Harriet Tubman (an escaped slave) returned to the South nineteen times to help slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad• The Railroad was a network of people who helped aid slaves during their escape to the North

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) a novel by abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe 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. They felt the book attacked the Southern way of life.

• When Lincoln met Stowe during the Civil War, he said, “So this is the little lady who made the big war”

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Kansas – Nebraska Act

• Stephen Douglas pushed the Act through Congress which called for popular sovereignty in the unorganized territories of Kansas and Nebraska

• Repealed the Missouri Compromise

• Settlers from both the North and South rushed into the territory

Bleeding Kansas • Kansas became known as “Bleeding Kansas” because of the violence between abolitionists and pro-slavery settlers

• Abolitionist John Brown led the “Pottawatomie Massacre” by kidnapping and killing five proslavery men.

• Over two hundred people were killed

• A civil war broke out in Kansas

Sumner-Brooks Incident•Senator Charles Sumner from Massachusetts denounced the Kansas-Nebraska act in a speech that lasted for two days

• Sumner was later approached by SC Congressman, Preston Brooks who was insulted by Sumner’s speech. Brooks beat Sumner with a cane, causing him to be absent from the Senate for three years while recovering from the near death beating. (Sumner-Brooks incident)

Dred Scott v. Sanford

• Dred Scott was a slave from Missouri (slave state) who lived with his owner in free territory for four years

• They returned to Missouri where his owner later died.

•After his owners death, Dred Scott sued for his freedom. He thought he should be free since he had lived in free territory.

• Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney ruled that Scott, as a slave had no right to sue because he was not a citizen

• He also ruled the Missouri Compromise as unconstitutional because it was a violation of the Fifth Amendment to declare slaves free of their owners without due process of the law.

Lincoln – Douglas Debates

• 1858 Illinois Senate race debate on the issue of the extension of slavery in the territories.

• Congressman who based his politics on expansion and believed popular sovereignty would eventually kill slavery (Freeport Doctrine)

• Lincoln opposed expanding slavery into new territories; argued that legislation was required to end slavery

• Lincoln and his beliefs were introduced to the nation

• Douglas won the Senate seat, but his refusal to support the court’s decision in the Dred Scott vs.. Sanford case cost him the support he needed from the South

John Brown’s Raid

• Radical abolitionist • He and his followers attacked the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia in October 16, 1859 in hopes to seize weapons to give to slaves who could rise up in an armed rebellion• The plan failed when Colonel Robert E. Lee surrounded the arsenal and forced Brown and his men to surrender• Brown was captured and hanged

Election of 1860• Republicans chose Abraham Lincoln as their candidate

• The South was felt threatened by Lincoln because he considered slavery evil. They were afraid Lincoln would try to prevent slavery in the new territories and dismantle it in the South.

• No Southerners voted for Lincoln.

•Lincoln won the election without winning any Southern electoral votes.

• South Carolina becomes the 1st state to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860.

• By February 1861, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas had seceded as well to form The Confederate States of America (Confederacy).

• Jefferson Davis was elected President of the Confederacy.

Fort Sumter• The first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina on April 12, 1861 when Confederate soldiers fired upon Union troops whose ships were bringing them food.

• The Union troops were forced to surrender the next day.

• Lincoln considers this an act of rebellion and treason.

• Border states were forced to

take sides.

• Kentucky, Maryland, and

Missouri remained in the Union

while Arkansas, North Carolina,

Virginia, and Tennessee joined

the Confederacy.