Causes of the Civil War
1845-1860
Long Term Causes of the Civil War:
1.
Slavery in the South
2.
Extension of Slavery
3.
Manifest Destiny/Expansion
4.
Tariff Policy
5.
Industrial Revolution (South- Cotton plantations,
North-Textiles)
6.
States Rights/Compact Theory
How did these issues contribute to sectionalism
prior to 1860?
Annexation of Texas (1845)
• Controversial
States.
in the United
• Destroyed
relationship
with Mexico
• Guaranteed
MexicanAmerican War (1846-1847)
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)
• Ended
the
Mexican War
• Added
Mexican
Cession
(SW American
States including
California)
• Slave
or free?
Compromise of 1850
• Arranged
• California
state.
• Enacts
• Allows
by Henry Clay
enters as a free
Fugitive Slave Law
popular sovereignty in
Mexican Cession.
• Video
Fugitive Slave Act (1850)
• Provided
for the return of escaped
slaves in the North to their owners in
the South.
• Changes
hearts and minds in North
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
• Written
by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
• Fictional
narrative of slaves’ lives .
• Most
widely read book in the
North.
• Changes
slavery.
northern opinions on
Gadsden Purchase (1853)
• Small
piece of land
needed for southern
route of the
transcontinental
railroad.
• Video
Ostend Manifesto (1854)
• Written
by
southern
Congressmen
who wanted to
purchase or
fight to acquire
Cuba.
• Would
create an
additional slave
state.
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
• Authored
Douglas.
• Allowed
by Stephen
the decision of
slave/free be left to the
people of Kansas and
Nebraska (known as popular
sovereignty)
• Video
Formation of the Republican Party
(1854)
 Formed after the KansasNebraska Act and death of the
Whig party.
 Single issue: stop the extension
of slavery
 Abraham Lincoln – founding
member.
Caning of Charles Sumner (1856)
Congr. Preston
Brooks
(D-SC)
Sen. Charles
Sumner
(R-MA)
Bleeding Kansas (1856-1860)
• Raids
and massacres caused by abolitionists and
pro-slavery voters pouring into the territory.
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
• Supreme
Court ruling that
slaves were not citizens.
• Also
stated that a slaveholder
could not be denied his
property.
• Invalidated
Comp. of 1850 and
the K-N Act.
John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry
(1859)
• Unsuccessful
armed slave rebellion
led by John Brown at the U.S.
arsenal in Harpers Ferry, VA.
• Brown
was executed for treason.
Election of 1860
• Abraham
Lincoln
wins despite not
appearing on the
ballot in 11
southern states.
• Secession
follows.
Election of 1860
√ Abraham
Lincoln
Republican
John Bell
Constitutional
Union
Stephen A.
Douglas
Northern
Democrat
John C.
Breckinridge
Southern
Democrat
Fort Sumter April 12-14, 1861