Objective: To examine the immediate causes of the U.S. Civil War.
• Violent abolitionist
•Involved in the
Bleeding Kansas as a
northern fighter
•Murdered 5 proslavery men in
Kansas
• Wanted to lead a slave
revolt throughout the
South by raising an
army of freed slaves and
destroying the South.
John Brown’s Raid:
• In 1859, John Brown
and his followers seized
a federal arsenal in
Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
John Brown in August,
1859.
• Attacked a
U.S.
Ammunition
depot in
Harper’s Ferry,
Virginia in Oct.
of 1859 to
capture
weapons and
begin his slave
revolt.
Engine house at Harpers
Ferry.
View photos of eight members of Brown’s raiding party.
Interior view of the engine house
at Harpers Ferry during the siege.
Marines storm the engine house.
•Unsuccessful and captured by USMC under the
leadership of Robert E. Lee
•Put on trial for treason.
• Brown was caught and sentenced to death by hanging.
Brown as a wounded prisoner after his capture.
•He was found guilty of treason
and sentenced to death
•His last words were to this effect:
“I believe that the issue of slavery
will never be solved unless through
the shedding of blood.”
•Northerners thought of John
Brown as a martyr to the
abolitionist cause.
•Southerners were terrified that if
John Brown almost got away with
this, there must be others like him
in the North who are willing to die
to end slavery.
•South’s outcome: To leave the
U.S. and start their own country.
Last Moments of John Brown
(Thomas Hovenden)
Brown being carried from court to prison.
The hanging of John Brown.
"Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the
ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of millions in this slave
country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I say,
let it be done."
--John Brown, statement at his sentencing on Nov. 2, 1859
Brown's grave in North Elba, New York
"[John Brown is] that
new saint, than whom
none purer or more brave
was ever led by love of
men into conflict and
death,--the new saint
awaiting his martyrdom,
and who, if he shall suffer,
will make the gallows
glorious like the cross."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson,
from his lecture
"Courage," delivered in
Boston on Nov. 8, 1859
John Brown painting at Harper's Ferry
The Election of 1860
• The Republicans
nominated Abraham
Lincoln (IL), who ran on
a platform of free-soil
(keep slavery out of
territories) & protective
tariffs
• The divided Democrats
nominated 2 candidates:
Northern Democrats:
Stephen Douglas (IL)
Southern Democrats:
John C. Breckinridge
(KY)
• The Constitutional Union
party nominated John
Bell (TN). Their platform
was to save the Union.
Lincoln
Breckenridge
Douglas
Bell
Country is
polarized over the
issue of slavery.
•303 total
electoral votes
and 152 to win.
Election of 1860
Once Lincoln is
elected as
president, South
Carolina will
secede from the
U.S. along with
several other
Southern States to
form the
Confederate
States of America--CSA
• Southern secessionists threatened to leave
the Union if Lincoln won the election.
• Lincoln was not an abolitionist. He wanted
to placate the slave owners, but he was
afraid to make any statement that would
alienate anyone.
• Only 40% voted for Lincoln, but he won
due to electoral votes. (He wasn’t even on
the ballot in 10 southern states.)
• South Carolinians rejoiced since now they
had a reason to secede
Secession
• Four days after the election, South Carolina
voted unanimously to leave the Union
• Within weeks, six other states in the lower South
also left (MS, FL, AL, GA, LA, TX).
• In 1861, these seven states met in Montgomery,
Alabama to form the Confederate States of
America and chose Jefferson Davis as president
• Four more joined later
(VA, AR, TN, NC),
bringing the total to
eleven
Secession:
• In response to Lincoln’s victory, the southern states seceded
from the Union in 1861, forming the Confederate States of
America.
• Jefferson Davis: president of the Confederacy
Original Confederate flag
Eventual Confederate flag
Fort Sumter
• Fort Sumter,
South Carolina,
was important
because it
guarded
Charleston harbor
• Therefore, the
Confederates
attacked,
defeating the
Union soldiers.
* The Civil War had now begun!
Fort Sumter: April 12, 1861
• Confederate officials
began seizing federalmint branches, arsenals,
and military posts.
• Fort Sumter was a
Federal outpost in
Charleston, SC.
Ruffin, Pvt. Edmund, Confederate soldier
who fired the first shot against Fort Sumter
Anderson, Maj. Robert, defender of
Fort Sumter
Bombardment of Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor
April 12 and 13, 1861
Fort Sumter, S.C., April 4, 1861, under the Confederate flag.