THE CIVIL WAR
Growing Divisions
Secession vs. Union
Slavery vs. Freedom
Main Issues
• Growing contradiction between white freedom and black
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slavery
Growing divide between north and south
Lack of compromise solutions
Southern secession vs. Union goals
Lincoln and Emancipation
Role of slaves in Civil War and emancipation
Course and outcome of the war
Main Issue: Would America live up to its ideals of
freedom, equality, and democracy?
Causes of the Civil War
Major Questions:
• What were the major political and
social events that led up to the Civil
War?
• What caused the divide between North
and South to grow?
• Why were they unable to work out
compromise?
Ideological and Political Divisions
Pro-Slavery South
• Slavery good institution
• Protected blacks
• Christian institution
• Profited whites
• White male political
patriarchy
• States rights to protect
slavery
• Western expansion of
slavery
Free Soil North
• Northern states and
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territories stronger w/o
slavery
Slavery morally and
economically corrupt
Free Soil = land of free
white laborers
Freedom from slavery,
freedom for whites
Against western expansion
of slavery
Political Failures and Conflicts
• Constitutional Convention – institutionalized slavery, did
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not tackle abolition at the time, pushing it on later
generations
Missouri Compromise (1820) – free and slave state tit-fortat
Mexican-American War – war of territorial expansion
Compromise of 1850 – tried to appease both sides, but
offended both
Bleeding Kansas – civil war over slave/free state status
Dred Scott Decision – blacks had “no rights which the
white man was bound to respect” – C.J. Taney
Dred Scott Decision – Congress had no right to outlaw
slavery in territories
Group Work
• Split up into 7 small groups and briefly summarize the
importance of these incidents or issues as causes of the
Civil War:
• Group #1: Wilmot Proviso, 395
• Group #2: Clay’s Compromise Efforts, 396
• Group #3: Fugitive Slave Act, 398
• Group #4: Kansas-Nebraska Act, 401
• Group #5: Bleeding Kansas, 403
• Group #6: Dred Scott Decision, 407
• Group #7: John Brown’s Raid, 410
• Your summary should fit on one PowerPoint slide
Wilmot Proviso
• Amendment attached to a bill banning slavery from
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territories gained in war with Mexico (1846-48).
Cause: Preserve Western land for white settlement.
Whigs and Democrats supported
Paralyzed Congress for years in late 1840s
4 Positions
• Ban
• Calhoun - no right to interfere
• Missouri Compromise with property.
• Popular Sovereignty rights
• Summary: Caused a threat of secession & escalated
regional conflicts
Henry Clay’s Compromise Efforts
• Henry Clay proposed eight resolutions to balance the different
interests in the North and the South, his “Omnibus Bill”:
• California to be admitted as a free state
• Mexican territories could not attach any conditions of slavery to their
application of statehood.
• In return for the govt assuming Texas debt, limitations were put on slave
states that could be carved from it's territory.
• Slave trade in Washington to be abolished but slavery itself protected from
federal interference.
• Formal promise not to interfere with inter-state slave trade and fugitive
slave law.
• The proposal failed because extremists on both sides believed solely
in their own interests.
• Antislavery supporters believed it supported slavery and pro-slavery
believed it restricted slavery.
Fugitive Slave Act
• The Fugitive Slave Act was part of the Compromise of
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1850, requiring that fugitive slaves be returned to owners
The 1850 statute gave jurisdiction for fugitive slave cases
to federal commissioners and took it away from northern
courts
Southerners supported the fugitive slave act
The federal commissioners were paid by southerners to
return blacks back to slave catchers regardless if they
were free or not
FSA escalated regional divisions – northerners feared
“slave power conspiracy” of southern slave owners
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• In 1853 the House of Representative banned slavery in Nebraska, however
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the senate killed the bill.
Stephen Douglas reintroduced “the principle of popular sovereignty” so they
(residents of state) were able to decide if it was going be a Free State or a
Slave State.
Stephen Douglas’s idea became law – free states thought that it was proslavery, and the southerners mistrusted the law.
Law backfired for Stephen Douglas and the northern Democrats in Congress;
their number fell from 91 to 25.
A major result of this act: the emergence of Abraham Lincoln – tried to
reestablish the “Missouri Compromise”
Lincoln was against slavery because he thought it was dehumanizing of
slaves, showed greed and selfishness.
This act was a major cause of the Civil War because it reopened the
controversy of slavery and led to battle in Kansas over whether it would be a
free state or slave state.
Dred Scott Decision
• The Dred Scott case of 1857 addressed the issue of whether a slave
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was a citizen or property
Dred Scott, a slave, sued for his freedom based on the fact that he
had been transported by his owner to a free state
The Supreme Court’s Decision: Dred Scott’s case would not be
heard b/c he was not a citizen
The Supreme Court ruled that slaves were property and could not
hold citizenship, regardless of where they resided
As a result of the Supreme Court's decision, slave-states found the
legal protection to oppose the abolition of slavery
Supreme Court upheld state’s rights: the federal govt. could not
infringement on a state's sovereignty or an individual's right to hold
property
This protection allowed them to draw the proverbial line in the sand,
which only escalated tensions between the north and the south
John Brown’s Raid, 1859
• Raided federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, VA (now WV)
• Hoped to arm slaves for slave rebellion
• Raid a failure and Brown executed
• Applauded by northerners; denounced by southerners
• Indicates growing divide, animosity, and hatred between
regions
• Conspiracy theories on both sides
• Fears of southern Pro-Slavery power
• Fears of northern abolition and slave insurrection
• Link to John Brown reenactment video: PBS, Meet the
Past: John Brown
• Link to PBS, John Brown’s Holy War
Slavery & the Civil War: Review of the
Data
• Analyze the statistics on slavery in the U.S. leading up to
the Civil War
• What conclusions can you make?
• Questions?
• What statistics are most useful in understanding the onset
of the Civil War?
Slaves in the Original Thirteen Colonies (1750-1860)
Slaves as Percentage of Southern Population (1750-1860)
Slaves as Percentage of Southern Population (1750-1860
Slaves in the South (1790-1860)
Political Divisions: 3rd Party System
• Solid South white male Democratic Party
• Northern urban Democrats (immigrants/workers/Irish)
• Constitutional Union Party (1860) – Whigs, Democrats,
and Know-Nothings who supported Union, but didn’t want
slavery to be major issue
• New political party: Republican Party formed in 1854 by
anti-slavery activists
• Opposition to slavery in Kansas and Nebraska
• Free Soil ideology
• Pro-Union
• Equal rights
• Big Government for social and economic goals
1860 Election
1860 Election Effects
• Lincoln ran on nationalist platform – Union most important
• But his anti-slavery views were well-known: slavery was
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immoral; eventually, nation would become all slave or all free
Lincoln won 1860 election, which was unacceptable to most
southerners
Southern states rejected federal authority over slavery in any
form – led to secession from Union
South Carolina first to secede from U.S. on Dec. 20, 1860,
followed by MS, LA, GA, AL, FL – formed Confederacy
Secessionists rejected Lincoln’s offer of compromise in 1861
Inaugural Address: “no purpose, directly or indirectly, to
interfere with slavery in the States where it exists.”
Fort Sumter, SC
• Confederates fired on U.S. fort on April 12, 1861
Official
beginning
of the
Civil War
Why Did Southern Whites Fight in the
Civil War?
• Non-slaveholding whites?
• “way of life” threatened
• Anti-northern/urban/
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industrial
Something in common with
slaveholders
Social connections between the
classes of whites
Economic connections: renting
slaves, foremen on plantations,
debt
Fears of black people and slave
rebellion
• The vote & political participation
• Ideas of white racial superiority
• States rights
Why Did Poor Southern Whites Fight in
Civil War?
• Many lower-class whites bought into southern hierarchy –
household
• Control of land, household, labor, and political rights
• White male authority, honor, power, and monopoly of violence
Male Planter Elite
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White Women & Children
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White Laborers
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Slaves & Free Blacks
Poor White Landowner
or Renter
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Wife & Children
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Slaves and Free Blacks
Why Did Northerners Fight?
• Abolitionist minority – fund. opposed to slavery – slavery
was an evil, a stain on the nation – represented belief in
full INCLUSION of blacks into nation
• Free Labor majority – opposed to expansion of slavery
• Slavery hurts free labor
• Free labor = economic and political independence
• Free people would not allow themselves to be enslaved
• Republican and “republican”
• Pro-Union – unification of nation [under free labor ideals]
• Belief a pivot point to judge whether people are worthy of citizenship
or rights
Important Points about Civil War
• Change from limited to “total” war
• First “modern” technological war
• More casualties (1 million) and deaths (620,000) than any
other U.S. war
• War for the future of the country
• War of competing ideals
• Would the U.S. live up to the ideals of democracy,
freedom, and equality?
• Would the union of states survive?
Civil War Casualties by Battle
Odds of Dying from Combat Wounds
First “Modern” War
• Increased death and brutality
• Both sides fighting for causes they believed in
• Length of war = increasingly hardened soldiers
• Mentality of victory at all costs
• New military technologies increased deaths and casualties:
• Long-barreled muskets – shot farther and more accurately than ever
before
• Cannons
• Arms outpaced traditional military strategies – marching in formation,
close-range fighting in long lines
• Defensive strategies best, but generals refused to give up on charges
• Lag in medical technology: lack of sanitation
• Became a “total war”: attacks on civilian populations
Early War: 1861-1862
• Idea of limited short war on both sides
• Most northerners fighting to preserve union (the nation),
not to end slavery – believed the war would be short quick
victory for North
• Most southerners fighting to preserve slave system and
homeland – believed quick victory would force north to
give in to demands for separate country
• General George McClellan, Union military leader, believed
that quick victories would convince most southerners to
rejoin the Union – but he never won those victories and
war dragged on
• Became a long, total war
Major Front: Eastern Front
• Most battles fought in Virginia
• The North wanted to capture the Confederate capital in
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Richmond, VA
Virginia and Richmond defended by Robert E. Lee and
Army of Northern Virginia
Lee and Stonewall Jackson effective defenders
Union General George McClellan overly cautious – didn’t
pursue Confederates after victory at Antietam in 1862
(bloodiest one-day battle in U.S. history)
McClellan removed from command
Union defeated at Fredericksburg in next attempt to
capture Richmond
Civil War Battles Map
Union Naval Blockade of the South
• Goal: cut off south from Atlantic and interstate trade
• Goal: cut off cotton trade to Europe, limit southern war funds, keep
Europe out of war
Major Front: Western Front
• Between the Appalachian Mountains and Mississippi
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River
North wanted to capture the MS River and use it for
invasion of the South
Succession of Union victories, led by U.S. Grant
Victories at Shiloh (April 1862), New Orleans (April-May
1862)
Needed to capture Vicksburg, MS to gain control of MS
River
Capture of Vicksburg, combined with Emancipation
Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, turned the tide of the war –
South on the defensive militarily and ideologically
Siege of Vicksburg, MS
Slaves, Freedpersons, and Freedom
• Slaves and freedpersons and their attempts to realize
American ideals
• Slaves had already made great efforts to achieve freedom
during slavery and Civil War
• Resistance during enslavement – multiple forms and
tactics
• Emancipation Proc. (Jan. 1863)
• Fought for Union
• Fled to Union lines
• Attempted to reunify with families during war
Documents:
Black Christianity & Spirituals
• MANY THOUSAND GO.
"No more peck o' corn for me,
No more, no more,No more peck o' corn for me,
Many tousand go.
"No more driver's lash for me, (Twice.)
No more, &c.
"No more pint o' salt for me, (Twice.)
No more, &c.
"No more hundred lash for me,
(Twice.)
No more, &c.
"No more mistress' call for me,
No more, No more,No more mistress' call for me,
Many tousand go."
• WE 'LL SOON BE FREE.
"We 'll soon be free,
We 'll soon be free,
We 'll soon be free,
When de Lord will call us home.
My brudder, how long,
My brudder, how long,
My brudder, how long,
'Fore we done sufferin' here?
It won't be long (Thrice.)
'Fore de Lord will call us home.
We 'll walk de miry road (Thrice.)
Where pleasure never dies.
We 'll walk de golden street (Thrice.)
Where pleasure never dies.
My brudder, how long (Thrice.)
'Fore we done sufferin' here?
We 'll soon be free (Thrice.)
When Jesus sets me free.
We 'll fight for liberty (Thrice.)
When de Lord will call us home."
Everyday acts of resistance –
What are they talking about?
Eastman Johnson, “A Ride for Liberty, the Runaway Slaves,” 1862
Brief History of the U.S. Emancipation
Proclamation
• Lincoln’s mixed messages on abolition of slavery
• ‘House Divided’ speech, 1858, Senate Campaign: "A
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house divided against itself cannot stand" – Union would
become all slave or free
Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, 1861: “no purpose,
directly or indirectly, to interfere with slavery in the
States where it exists.”
By early 1862, Lincoln advised Union border states to
accept compensated abolition of slavery, delayed over 30
years, congressmen rejected it
Later in 1862 had decided to announce E.P.
How and why did this happen?
Why did Lincoln and northerners shift from war for Union to
war of emancipation?
Brief History of E.P.
• Preliminary E.P., Sept. 22, 1862 – slaves will be freed in
states still in rebellion on Jan. 1, 1863 – ignored by
Confederate states
• Emancipation Proclamation, Jan. 1, 1863 –
• freed all slaves in rebellious states (excluded Union slaveholders)
• Intention to enlist slaves in army and navy
• Lincoln: “military necessity, absolutely essential to the
preservation of the Union”
• “We must free the slaves or be ourselves subdued. The
slaves [are] undeniably an element of strength to those
who [have] their service, and we must decide whether that
element should be with us or against us...The
Administration must set an example, and strike at the
heart of the rebellion.”
• E.P. made the Union army an army of liberation in
Confederate states
• Slavery not completely abolished until 13th Amendment to
Constitution, Dec. 18, 1865
Change in War Goals
• Slaves pushed Union to change war goals
• “Contraband” slaves fled to Union lines, demanded role in war
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effort, demanded freedom
Thousands of slaves on the move in the south
They undermined the South’s ability to sustain economy at
home on backs of slave labor
Undermined South’s ability to control population and borders
A revolution from within the Confederacy
At same time, Radical Republicans pressured Lincoln to
change goals
Confederate military victories convinced him of necessity of
different war strategies
After Vicksburg, Total War
• Generals Grant and Sherman shifted war goals and
strategies towards complete subjugation and destruction
of Confederate ability to fight
• Attacked economic, social, and physical infrastructure
• Sherman’s March to the Sea through the South –
destroyed railroads, farms, towns – tried to break the will
of the people to fight
Sherman’s
March to
the Sea
Gettysburg, July, 1863
• While Grant and Sherman fought in west and lower south,
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Lee went on offensive
Lee invaded the north, hoped to relieve pressure on
Vicksburg
Met Union forces under George Meade at Gettysburg, PA
Lee was defeated and had to retreat to VA
Called “the high water mark of the Confederacy”
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
• Address delivered Nov. 19, 1863 at dedication of
Gettysburg National Cemetery
• Two main issues: Constitutional Liberties &
Equality
• War for Union, national unity
• War for human equality
• Link to text of Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address”
• Link to video/audio of reading of “Gettysburg
Address”
• Link to Library of Congress site on “Gettysburg
Address”
End of the War & New Am. Revolution
• Defeats at Vicksburg and Gettysburg sealed the fate of the
Confederacy
• War lasted 2 more years, however
• But the Union victory signified a New American Revolution:
• Hopes of fulfillment of American ideals for all Americans
• Questions about fate of freed slaves
• New battles over freedpersons’ rights, citizenship, and economic
possibilities
• Reaction of white southerners to black freedom – battle for soul of
the south and the country
• Question of government role in sustaining equality and freedom for
all Americans – Is freedom real if the conditions for freedom don’t
exist?
Definitions of Full Freedom:
• Conflicts over the definition of freedom for newly-freed
slaves during and after the Civil War
• What would FULL FREEDOM look like?
• How to guarantee Full Freedom?
Definitions of Full Freedom
• Equality of rights
• Vote
• Land
• Ways to provide for themselves, take care of own
• Organize, form groups
• Churches and schools
• Right to defend country, join military (180,000 during the war)
• Necessity of enforcement
• Equality under law, opportunity
• Money, other forms of support
• Protection = military/law enforcement
• Take land from someone and give it to another
• Infrastructure
• Peace?
Fight for Full Freedom During the War
• Slave efforts:
• Fought for or worked for Union victory
• Sought out family members
• Geographic mobility - moved to new areas
• Sought land and economic freedom
• Union confiscation of lands
• General Sherman’s Field Order #15, Jan. 1865 – Sea
Islands and other lands set aside for freedpersons
• Goal of 40 acres and a mule
• Northern Republican support for freedmen – formation of
religious and governmental aid groups during war
Black Refugees Seeking Freedom
Post-Slavery Connections
• Goals of Emancipation continue into the present
• Common goals: fight racial and economic
exploitation; fight for democracy and equality
• Public expression and celebrations
• Juneteenth and Emancipation Day celebrations
throughout the Atlantic
• Radicalism and Reform in the Black Atlantic or
African-Atlantic
• Anti-colonial activists
• Civil rights activists
• Human rights activists
• Labor activists
Emancipation Day, 1863,
South Carolina
Juneteenth
Musicians at the Austin, Texas,
Emancipation Day picnic, June 19,
1900
Ex-slaves at the Austin, Texas,
Emancipation Day picnic, June 19,
1900
Emancipation Day Parade,
Richmond, VA, 1904/5
Further Resources
• U.S. Emancipation Timeline:
http://www.history.umd.edu/Freedmen/chronol.htm
• Library of Congress E.P. site:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/EmanProc.html
Video Links
• PBS, Ken Burns‘ Civil War, part 1, “The Cause”: Link
• PBS, Freedom, A History of US, part 5, “A Fatal
Contradiction”: Link
• PBS, Meet the Past: John Brown: Link
• PBS, Harpers Ferry and John Brown: Link