Slavery and Civil War in
America
UNIT 1 LESSON 4
LEQ:
Why was a nation
founded on life, liberty,
and the pursuit of
happiness practicing
slavery?
Drill:
Why do you think there
is no mention of slavery
in the Constitution?
The image was taken from the seal of the Committee for
the Abolition of the Slave Trade, founded 1787
Our Founding Fathers:
•acknowledged that slavery violated the core American Revolutionary
ideal of liberty
•BUT their commitment to private property rights, principles of
limited government, and desire to maintain harmony among the
states prevented them from making a bold move against slavery
•By the time of the Revolution, slavery was a well-established
American institution
Why African Slaves in America?
1. Native American populations declined and were harder to “tame”
2. Decline in the number of Europeans arriving as Indentured Servants
3. African slaves were easily identifiable, they were far from home, could
not speak or write the language, slaves made more slaves
Slavery had a legal “reign of terror: in America
Slavery Auction video clip
Economics in America 1789-1860
NORTHERN STATES
SOUTHERN STATES
•Industrialization – factory work
•Plantations: cotton, tobacco,
rice, sugarcane
•Growing Cities
•Large immigrant population (5
million b/w 1815-1860) =
workforce
•Increased demand for these cash
crops = increased demand for
enslaved labor
Slave Narratives
LEQ:
What were the
differences between
the northern and
southern states in
Antebellum America?
Drill:
Have you ever witnessed
the following:
What one person was doing
prevented someone else
from doing what he or she
needed to do.
One person was so different
from another that neither
could understand the other
or that their needs were
conflicting.
Population Engaged in Manufacturing
LEQ:
What are the
causes and effects
of the American
Civil War?
Drill:
Interpret the
following phrase “A
house divided against
itself cannot stand.“
Do you know who
said this?
Slave State or Free State
1819 Missouri requests admission to the Union as a slave state = Missouri Compromise of 1820:
- granted Missouri’s request
- admitted Maine as a free state
- passed an amendment that drew an imaginary line across the former
Louisiana Territory establishing a boundary between free and slave regions
1849 California requests admission to the Union as a free state = Compromise of 1850:
- admitted California as a free state
- slavery in New Mexico and Utah each to be determined by popular sovereignty
- ended the slave trade in Washington, D.C.
- Fugitive Slave Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854
With the country growing there was a desire among some for a transcontinental railroad
Suggested the railroad run through a new territory = Nebraska Territory (reserved as a free
state)
Southern representatives wanted the Missouri Compromise repelled first
The Nebraska Territory was divided in two: Nebraska and Kansas
Nebraska = could be free
Kansas = could be slave
Dred Scott Case
Supreme Court Case: Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857
Dred Scott was an enslaved man who had been taken north to work in a free
territory. Scott sued for his freedom
Chief Justice Taney ruled that African Americans – enslaved or free – were not
citizens and had no rights under the Constitution. Taney also decreed that Congress
did not have the authority to ban slavery in the territories. This made the Missouri
Compromise unconstitutional
The Union Dissolves
John Brown and Harpers Ferry
Election of 1860
The South Secedes
The Union Dissolves
John Brown and Harpers Ferry: an attempt at rebellion against slaveholders;
savior to some aggressor to others
Election of 1860: Dissention in the Democratic Party over Presidential candidate;
Republicans nominate Abraham Lincoln = opposed the spread of slavery; Lincoln
won the Presidential election
The South Secedes: viewed Lincoln’s election as a threat to southern society and
culture; South Carolina repealed the states ratification of the Constitution =
dissolved ties to the Union = seceded from the Union in Dec. 1860
- Joined by MS, AL, FL, GA, LA, TX, AR, TN, NC, VA by Feb. 1861
= the Confederate States of America a.k.a. the Confederacy
LEQ: Part 1
Causes of the Civil War:
1. Controversy and Compromise over Free and Slave
States/Territories
2. John Brown and Harpers Ferry
3. Election of 1860
4. Southern states secede from the Union
The Civil War
•Fought between 1861-1865
•Northern States lead by President Lincoln vs. Southern States lead by Jefferson
Davis (President of the Confederate States of America)
•Emancipation Proclamation January 1st 1863 = all slaves in the rebellious
states “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”
•North won and preserved the Union
•600,000 casualties
LEQ: Part 2: Effects of the Civil War
•Nation is reunited; Federal government proved itself supreme to state government
•End of slavery; 13th Amendment to the Constitution makes slavery illegal
•Former slaves struggle with freedom; lack of education forces most to become
sharecroppers
•Military Occupation of the Southern states are “occupied” by soldiers from the
North
•Reconstruction & New Technologies – plan to rebuild the southern states that had
been devastated by war “putting the country back together
America the Story of Us: Civil War