The Road to Civil War
I. The Missouri Question
A. In 1818, the
Senate was
balanced between
11 free states and
11 slave states.
1. Therefore, each
side has the same
representation in
the Senate.
B. In 1820, Missouri
wanted to join the
United States as a
slave state.
1. The Southern
states would have
the majority of
seats in the
Senate.
2. Northerners
fought against this.
C. The Missouri Compromise
1. Missouri would
enter the U.S.
as a slave state.
2. Maine would
enter the United
States as a free
state.
3. As part of the Missouri Compromise,
Congress drew an imaginary line
across the southern border of
Missouri a latitude 36*30’N. Slavery
was permitted in the part of the
Louisiana Purchase south of that line.
But it was banned north of the line.
(Missouri was the only exception.)
II. Slavery in the Mexican
Cession
A. The Missouri
Compromise only
applied to the
Louisiana
Purchase.
1. The land the U.S.
received from the
Mexican Cession
added a large
amount of land to
the U.S.
2. The question
arose: “Would
slavery be allowed
in the Mexican
Cession?”
B. Americans Take Sides
1. The Mexican American War
strengthened
feelings of
sectionalism in the
North and South.
2. Sectionalism means
that people feel
loyalty to their state
or section, instead of
to the whole country.
3. Northern
abolitionists
demanded that
slavery be
abolished
throughout the
whole country, and
a growing number
of people agreed.
4. However,
southern slave
owners thought
that slavery should
be allowed in all
territories and also
that escaped
slaves should be
returned.
5. Wilmot Proviso (1846)
 An
amendment proposed to
appropriate the new territories
acquired from the Mexican-American
War should not be open to slavery. It
was passed twice in the House but
was denied in the Senate causing
more tension between the North and
South.
III. Compromise of 1850
A.
B.
California entered
the Union as a free
state.
The rest of the
Mexican Cession was
divided into the
territories of New
Mexico and Utah. In
each territory, voters
would decide the
slavery question
according to popular
sovereignty.
C. The slave trade
was banned in
Washington D.C.,
but Congress
declared that it
had no power to
ban the slave trade
between slave
states.
D. A strict fugitive
slave law was
passed.
IV. Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
A. Demanded all
citizens help catch
runaway slaves.
People who let
fugitives escape
would be fined
$1,000 and jailed
for six months.
B. Thousands of
African-Americans
fled to Canada for
fear of being
kidnapped.
V. An Antislavery Bestseller
A.
B.
In 1852, Harriet
Beecher Stowe
wrote the novel
Uncle Tom’s
Cabin.
It was written to
show the evils of
slavery and the
injustice of the
Fugitive Slave Act
C. The novel was widely
published in the
North, but
Southerners claimed it
did not accurately
portray slavery.
D. Stowe had seen little
slavery firsthand, but
this book helped
change the way
Northerners felt about
slavery.
VI. Kansas-Nebraska Act
A. This bill would
divide the
Nebraska Territory
into Kansas and
Nebraska, and
popular
sovereignty would
be used to decide
the question of
slavery.
B. However, slavery was
already banned by the
Missouri Compromise,
so this bill would undo
the Missouri
Compromise.
1. Slavery could now
spread to areas that
had been free for
thirty years.
VII. Kansas Explodes
A. Proslavery and
Antislavery forces
sent settlers to
Kansas ready to
fight for control of
the territory.
B. 1,000 abolitionists
left New England
for Kansas.
1. Proslavery bands
from Missouri,
called Border
Ruffians, often
rode across the
border to battle
anti-slavery forces.
C. When elections
were held in 1855,
hundreds of Border
Ruffians voted
illegally and helped
elect a proslavery
legislature. They
quickly began to
pass laws in
support of slavery.
D. Anti-slavery
forces elected their
own governor and
legislature.
1. With two rival
governments,
Kansas was in
chaos.
E. In response to a
F. Over 200 people
drunken proslavery
were eventually
attack that
killed. Newspapers
destroyed homes
called the territory
and a newspaper,
Bleeding Kansas.
John Brown and his
sons went to
Pottawotomie
Creek and killed 5
proslavery settlers.
VIII. Dred Scott Decision
A. Dred Scott had
lived in Missouri,
and later he moved
with his owner to
Illinois and then to
Wisconsin where
slavery was not
allowed.
B. When his owner
died, antislavery
lawyers helped him
file a lawsuit.
C. The Court Decided:
1.
2.
3.
Scott could not even file a lawsuit
because, as a black, he was not a
citizen.
The Court agreed that slaves were
property.
The Court ruled that Congress did not
have the power to outlaw slavery in a
territory. Only when a territory was
ready for statehood could it ban slavery.
a.
b.
Made the Missouri
Compromise
unconstitutional.
Means slavery
was legal in all
territories.
IX. The Republican Party
A. Angry Free
Soilers, northern
Democrats, and
antislavery Whigs
met in Michigan to
form a new party,
the Republican
Party in 1854.
B. Main goal was to stop
the spread of slavery
into the western
territories.
C. 1856, Republican
candidate John
Charles Fremont
nearly won the
Presidential election
without the support of
a single southern
state.
1. Southerners worried
that their influence in
the national
government was
fading fast.
X. John Brown’s Raid
A. In 1859, John
Brown and
supporters raided a
federal arsenal, or
gun warehouse, in
Harpers Ferry,
Virginia. He hoped
that slaves would
flock to the
captured arsenal.
B. U.S. troops led by
Robert E. Lee
ended the uprising
and John Brown
was captured.
C. When John Brown
was executed,
church bells rang
throughout New
England to mourn
his death.
D. To Southerners,
the northern
response was
outrageous. To
criticize slavery
was one thing, but
to sing the praises
of a man who
hoped to lead a
slave revolt was
intolerable.
John Brown
 I,
John Brown am now quite certain
that the crimes of this guilty land will
never be purged away; but with
Blood
XI. Lincoln’s Rise to Power
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Lincoln Douglas
Debates
IL Senate race
Freeport
Doctrine
A House
Divided
Stop the
Spread of
Slavery
XII. The Election of 1860
A.
1.
2.
3.
4.
The Candidates:
Republicans Abraham Lincoln
Northern DemocratsStephen Douglas
Southern DemocratsJohn Breckinridge
Constitutional Union
Party- John Bell
B. With the Democratic
Party split, Republican
victory was certain.
C. Lincoln carried the
North and won
without the South.
D. To many
Southerners, Lincoln’s
election meant the
South no longer had a
voice in the national
government.
XIII. The Union is Broken
A. Southerners felt
that the North had
put an abolitionist
in the White
House. Secession,
they believed, was
their only choice.
B. On December
20th, 1860: South
Carolina became
the first state to
secede from the
Union.
1.
2.
By February 1,
1861, Alabama,
Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana,
Mississippi and
Texas also
seceded.
Created the
Confederate
States of America.
XIV. The War Comes
A. The Confederacy
had started to
seize federal forts
in the South. It felt
the forts were a
threat because the
United States was
now a “foreign”
power.
B. If Lincoln sent
troops to hold the
forts, he might
start a war.
C. Fort Sumter was
an important fort
because it guarded
Charleston Harbor.
1. Robert Anderson,
the Union
Commander,
refused to
surrender.
2. Confederate guns
blasted Fort
Sumter and
Anderson was out
of ammo.
3. Anderson
surrendered and
nobody was
injured.