THE COMING OF
THE CIVIL WAR
Why it Matters
John Browns’ raid intensified tensions between North and South. The
Republican Party also grew which put the nation on path to war
THE NATION DIVIDED
Election of 1860 created a sense of
crisis
The nation was heading towards a civil
war.
What is a Civil War?
ELECTION OF 1860
Republican Party (Limit growth of slavery) chose
Abraham Lincoln
Northern Democrats (Popular soveriegnty) chose
Stephen Douglas
Southern Democrats (To support slavery) chose
John Breckinridge of Kentucky
Constitutional Union (Protect slavery and keep the
nation together) chose John Bell of Tennessee
LINCOLN WINS
Lincoln wins every free state
Won without one electoral vote
from slave states
Lincoln won 40% of votes
SOUTHERN STATES SECEDE
Many Southerners felt they no longer had
voice in their government
Stated in a Virginia Newspaper “A party
founded on the single sentiment…..hatred of
the African slavery, is now the controlling
power. The honor, safety, and independence
of the Southern people are to be found only
in a Southern Confederacy.”
SOUTH CAROLINA IS FIRST
TO SECEDE
“the union now subsisting between south
Carolina and the other states, under the
name of the United States is hereby
dissolved.”
CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA
 Six more states followed South Carolina:
 February 1861, seven seceding states met in Alabama
to form a new nation called The Confederate States
of America.
 The CSA wrote a Constitituion and elected Jefferson
Davis from Mississippi as their president.
 Lincoln had not even taken office yet.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUkKWNHzEwA