ANTEBELLUM AMERICA
1830-1860: The period BEFORE the Civil War
The
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nd
2
Great Awakening
The Abolition Movement was not the only movement going on
before the Civil War that tried to reform society. Some of
these other movements were:
a. The 2nd Great Awakening-- a religious movement that
tried to get more people involved in attending Protestant
churches.
b. The temperance movement tried to get people to quit
drinking.
One of the most long lasting movements was the Women’s
Suffrage (voting) Movement. This movement was led by
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton who continued
fighting for women’s rights long after the Civil War. In 1848
they met in New York and wrote the Seneca Falls Declaration
which stated that women should have the same rights as men,
and was modeled after Jefferson’s Declaration of
Independence.
Did the
writing
Made the
speeches
Organized
the
meetings
Drama Over Slavery
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The admission of new states continually led to
conflict over whether the new states would allow
slaves and be called “slave states” or prohibit
slavery and be called “free states.”
Several compromises were struck in attempts to
keep a balance of power between the North and
South in Congress.
Missouri Compromise Revisited
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Missouri Compromise (1820) was
created by Henry Clay in an attempt
to keep the peace when Missouri
applied for statehood. This
compromise had three parts:
i. Missouri would be allowed to enter
as a slave state
ii. Maine would be allowed to enter
as a free state, thus ensuring a
balance of power between slave and
free states in the Senate
iii. A line would be drawn through the
Louisiana Purchase at 36’30. Any
land above the line (except for
Missouri) would be free and any land
below the line would be slave.
Manifest Destiny
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Justification for
western expansion–
idea it is God’s will for
the US to expand from
the Atlantic to the
Pacific Ocean.
The Mexican-American War
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James K. Polk was elected President
in 1844 by running on a platform of
Manifest Destiny.
He promised that if elected, the first
thing he would do is annex Texas and
Oregon. This was super popular and
he was elected in a landslide.
Politically, abolitionists split from the
Whigs and formed a new party,
descriptively named the “Free-Soil
Party.” This party was opposed to the
spread of slavery because they said it
hurt the union by causing conflict and
aggressive policies like promoting the
Mexican-American War.
The War Itself
Causes
1. Manifest Destiny
2. Annexation of
Texas
3. Texas boundary
dispute with Mexico
Events
1. Taylor invaded
Texas
2. Kearney took over
California
3. Scott invaded
Mexico & captured
the capitol: Mexico
City
Results
The war ended with
the Treaty of
Guadalupe-Hidalgo
in which Mexico
gave the US all of
Texas & land to
California
The California Question
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In 1849 gold was found at Sutter’s Mill
and people rushed to California to seek
their fortunes. Suddenly California was
ready to become a state. The problem
was the Missouri Compromise Line would
cut California in half! A new solution was
needed.
In 1850 California and the other territories
acquired from Mexico in the MexicanAmerican War applied to become part of
the USA as free states. The South was
deeply alarmed, especially because
California was likely going to be a rich
state due to the discovery of gold!
The Compromise of 1850
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To settle this dispute, Senator
Stephen Douglas of Illinois
proposed the Compromise of
1850. This compromise called for
three things:
i. California would enter as a
free state
ii. The rest of the Southwest
territories would decide whether
to be slave or free by popular
sovereignty (voting).
iii. To pacify the south, Congress
passed the Fugitive Slave Act
which allowed southern slave
owners to retain their property
rights by requiring northerners to
return escaped slaves to the south.
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The Democrats supported an idea called “popular sovereignty” in
which people living in a territory would get to vote for which policy
(slave or free soil) their territory would adopt. It was put into the
Compromise of 1850 in order to resolve any future disputes over
slavery in the territories.
As people started to move west, the first new territories ready to
join the union were Kansas and Nebraska. The new policy of
popular sovereignty had to be put into effect. However, there
were no laws to do this.
In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This Act gave
the people in Kansas and Nebraska the choice of whether to allow
slaves in their state by putting popular sovereignty into effect.
The Fugitive Slave Act
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· Southerners grew alarmed by the
growing force of the Northern
response to the abolitionists.
· Fugitive slave events pitted
Southern slave owners against
outraged Northerners who opposed
returning escaped slaves to bondage.
· Part of the Compromise of 1850
included the Fugitive Slave Act in
order to gain support from the South.
The Fugitive Slave Act said: ALL
Americans (even in the North) had
to help catch escaped slaves. Slaves
were not freed just by reaching the
North!
Dred Scott v. Sanford
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A final divisive point occurred in
1853 with the Supreme Court verdict
in the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford.
Dred Scott was a slave who was
suing his master for freedom,
arguing that because his owner had
taken him to live in Ohio (free state)
he was a free man. Therefore, he
did NOT have to move back to the
Missouri with his master. The
Supreme Court ruled that Scott was
not a free man, and had to return to
slavery because as a slave, he was
NOT a citizen of the USA and was
not subject to its laws.
Bleeding Kansas
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The Republican party was born in 1854 and had a
platform of:
a. Slavery was a “great moral, social and political evil”
b. repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the
Fugitive Slave Act
c. unite in battle against the expansion of slavery West
People from the North (free) and the South (slave) rushed
to Kansas to get a majority and decide the slavery issue
with popular sovereignty. This led to violence and the
state became known as Bleeding Kansas.
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As a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, bloody fighting occurred in
Kansas as pro and anti-slavery forces battled each other. Settlers
began flooding into Kansas from neighboring Missouri to cast their
votes for or against slavery. Fighting broke out and the affair
became known as Bleeding Kansas Eventually, President Franklin
Pierce (Democrats) sided with the South, and made Kansas a slave
state.
Northern Democrats were so upset over Pierce’s decision regarding
the “Bleeding Kansas” Affair that the party split. Opposition to
slavery united the Northern Whigs with the Northern abolitionists
and together they formed the Republican party. These Republicans
opposed any further expansion of slavery.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
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Because the Kansas-Nebraska Act was so controversial, its writer,
Stephen Douglas was challenged for his Senate seat by
congressman Abraham Lincoln. The real issue was whether or not
popular sovereignty was a good idea.
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates took place in 1858 during the
election for this spot in the Senate.
Lincoln
Douglas
Douglas
Lincoln
1860 Election
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In February of 1861
representatives from 7
southern states met and
drew up a constitution
for the new nation
known as the
Confederate States of
America The first and
only president of this
new country was
Jefferson Davis
Start of the Civil War
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The Union refused to turn over Ft.
Sumter to the Confederates. When
Lincoln tried to re-supply the fort,
the Confederacy bombarded the
fort and took it over. This marked
the beginning of the Civil War.
Lincoln believed that no state may
leave the union once it has joined.
He said, “A house divided against
itself cannot stand.” In other
words, the nation could not continue
as half slave and half free.
Causes of the Civil War
Mounting sectional tensions and a failure of political will led to the
Civil War.
 · Sectional disagreements and debates over tariffs, extension of
slavery into the territories, and the nature of the Union (states’
rights)
 · Northern abolitionists versus Southern defenders of slavery
 · United States Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case
 · Publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
 · Ineffective presidential leadership in the 1850s
 · A series of failed compromises over the expansion of slavery in
the territories
 · President Lincoln’s call for federal troops in 1861
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The secession of Southern states triggered a long and
costly war that concluded with Northern victory and
resulted in the restoration of the Union and
emancipation of the slaves.
The Civil War put constitutional government to its most
important test as the debate over the power of the
federal government versus states’ rights reached a
climax. The survival of the United States as one nation
was at risk, and the nation’s ability to bring to reality
the ideals of liberty, equality, and justice depended on
the outcome of the war.
At the Start in 1861
Advantages of the North
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Advantages of the South
More money
a. Better trained troops
officers
More men
More factories/supplies b. More experienced
officers
More farmland for food
c. Home-field advantage
Moral ideology
d. Ideological motivation