Era of Sectional
Conflict
1848-1877
South and Slavery

Two Souths



Upper South: 8 states
Lower South: 7 states
North and Its Relationship to the South


Upper North. Zone of New England
Influence. Most hostile to Southern
manners and morals
Lower North. Zone of Southern influence.
People sometimes called “Butternuts”
Slavery as an Economic
System
Slavery, a labor system
1.
Slavery was relatively widespread



Strongest in the Lower South
Overall, 25%-33% of all
households owned slaves
Large slave holders rare. Fewer
than 2,500 slave owners in 1860
owned more than 100 slaves
Slavery, a labor system (cont.)
2.
Slavery on Great Plantations




3.
Gang System. Each gang
supervised by slave driver
Slaves as skilled workers
Domestic slaves
Overseer, a white man, oversaw
all the work
Slavery on small farms
Slavery, a profitable
labor system
1.
2.
Thesis of slavery in decline
Time on the Cross: As Civil War
approached, slavery become more
profitable


Wealth and wealth per capita growing
faster in South than North
Slaves, a valuable investment


3.
4.
1849: $1,000
1859: $1,700
Slavery as a glue holding South
together. Intranational (not
international) slave trade
Slave owners have an economic vested
interest in perpetuating slavery
Slavery as an economic drag
1.
Neo-colonial character of Southern
antebellum economy


2.
South not urbanizing like North


3.
Producing agricultural commodities for
processing elsewhere
South lacked manufacturing facilities
More of population lives in rural areas.
Few cities
Cities like Atlanta were transporation
depots
South neglected manufacturing and
services like transportation & insurance

Slavery was a magnet attracting capital.
Returns were great
Slavery as a social
system


White and black American/slave
cultures existed side-by-side
Slavery necessary as a means of social
control.
1.
Law as a tool of social control. Slavery
spelled out in state slave codes


As a labor force. Slave owners had to
meet certain minimum requirements
Physical punishment, even severe
physical punishment allowed, but
wanton killing of a slave was murder
Slavery as a social
system-social control
2.
3.
Property Law: Could not own property
Family and Personal Law



4.
Slave status & race defined
It was a crime to teach slaves to read
and write
Slave marriages and families were not
legal but extralegal institutions
Slave codes enforced white supremacy.
Every white superior to every black
American
Slavery as a social
system-”World the
Slaves Made”
1.
Families important to slaves


Slaves sought to form functional
families
Barriers to forming functional families
1.
2.
3.

Marriage & families extralegal
Sexual exploitation of female slaves by
white males
Slave trade threatened integrity of
families
Importance of real and fictional
extended families
Slavery as a social
system-”World the
Slaves Made”
2.
Religion important to slaves


Christianity widespread
Attraction of “the story”




Jesus as liberator
Exodus a very popular story
Slave songs: Spirituals
Baptist and Methodist churches
predominant
Slavery as a social
system-”World the
Slaves Made”
3.
Slave Resistance

Open Resistance



Rebellion: 1831: Nat Turner’s
Rebellion in Virginia
Escaping: Underground Railroad
Passive Resistance


“Docile” Slaves
Malingering slave
White Southern Defense
of Slavery

Concept of slavery as a
necessary evil giving way to
notion as a positive good
because
1.
2.
3.
The Bible sanctioned slavery
Free societies were always built
on slavery
Southern slavery superior to
“wage slavery” of the North
North growing critical of
slavery



Southern control of national politics
result of “slave power conspiracy”
Slavery contradicted by work ethic.
In North, hard work led to
economic & social betterment, but
in the South, slaves worked hard,
but did not benefit
Emergence of the Free Soil
Ideology
End of National Unity

1848-1861
Wilmont Proviso




Mexican War pushed slavery into the
political system in a big way. What was
to be the legal status of slavery in the
West?
Wilmont Proviso’s answer: “…neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude shall
ever exist…” there.
Congress did not enact this, but the
House of Representatives approved it
Pushed sectional divisions to forefront.
Southern fears of encirclement deepen
Compromise of 1850
1.
California Controversy



2.
California gold rush draws avalanche of
settlers
Political organization of California an
immediate necessity
California’s Constitution proposed making
the new state a free state. Question of
slavery in the West no longer academic
United States now confronted a crisis of
the first order


Southern politicians seek to defend their
section by emphasizing southern rights,
including a right of secession
Northern politicians complain about
Southern control of the federal government
& a slave-power conspiracy
Compromise of 1850-Continued
3.
Henry Clay’s proposed compromise




Admitting California as a free state and providing for New
Mexico’s territorial organization “without restrictions on
slavery (Popular Sovereignty)
Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute settled in a way
favorable to New Mexico, but U.S. assumed Texas debt
District of Columbia: Slave Trade ended, but slavery
continued
No federal interference in interstate slave trade & a
stronger fugitive slave act
Compromise of 1850-Continued
4.
Rejection of Clay’s compromise
shows depth of divisions, but
Senator Stephen Douglas
resurrected it


5.
Southern emotions cooling
President Zachary Taylor died
Congress enacted compromise
with Douglas providing skilled
leadership
Compromise of 1850-Continued
6.
Weaknesses of this compromise

Fugitive Slave Act reinforces northern belief
in a slave power conspiracy
Kansas-Nebraska Crisis:1854
1.
Redefinition of the eastern Great Plains


2.
Eastern Nebraska & Kansas opening to settlement
Senator Douglas presented a plan to encourage settlement:
organize this area as a territory, but without the Missouri
compromise restriction
End product: two territories organized according to
principles of Popular Sovereignty


Douglas miscalculated. North refused to accept the
elimination of the restriction
Enactment of Kansas-Nebraska Act shattered the illusion of
sectional peace & broke up the existing party system

Election of 1854: Northern wing of Democratic party damaged,
Whig party all but gone in the South, a new party emerged in the
North: the Republican party
Bleeding Kansas



How popular sovereignty worked in
Kansas. Pro-slavery legislature
governing an anti-slavery
population
Sack of Lawrence & John Brown’s
raid on pro-slavery settlers
Dress rehearsal for Civil War
Election of 1856

Newly emerging party system



Democratic party remains, national in scope, but with
special strength in the South
Republican party emerging as major second party, but
exclusively a party in the non-slave states. Virtually
non-existent in slave states
Two other parties complicate matters:



American party as political expression of anti-immigrant
sentiment
Remnant of Whig party in the South
Election results



Republican nominee Fremont triumphant in the North
Democratic nominee Buchanan the winner. He owed
the South big-time
American party dying out
Dred Scott Case & Kansas Again
1.
Dred Scott Case


2.
Details of case extremely complex
Supreme Court findings. Most important conclusion
was that the United States constitutionally could NOT
exclude slavery from territories.
Kansas Again


Kansas legislature rammed the Lecompton
Constitution down the people’s throats
Congress refused to accept it. Senator Douglas
asserted himself as leader of Northern Democrats as
his party began to divide. He defied President
Buchanan who asserted a pro-Southern position
Harpers Ferry Affair (late 1859)
1.
2.
Raid on Harpers Ferry: October 16, 1859
John Brown’s Trial: Ended November 2, with Brown sentenced to
hang:
“I believe that to interfered as I have done … in behalf of [God’s] despised poor is no
wrong, but right. Now, if it becomes necessary that I should 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.”
3.
Execution of John Brown: December 2, 1859
“I John Brown now quite
certain that the crimes of this guilty land: will never be
purged away; but with blood.”
4.
Sectional Result

North: John Brown, a misguided fanatic, but in his death a martyr
to liberty

South: Fear & rage about the North. Loyal unionists -Secessionists
United States in 1860: Presidential
Election
1.
2.
3.
Presidential race a strange one: two separate elections

North: Stephen Douglas vs. Abraham Lincoln

South: John Breckinridge vs. John Bell
Lincoln’s victory is sectional. He unified the non-slave states.
Lincoln’s victory triggered the secession of the seven slave
states in the Lower South

February 1861: Confederate States of America formed in
Montgomery, AL

Confederate problem: Eight slave states remained in the
Union. Would the Confederacy collapse without at least
some of them joining the Confederacy

Union problem: Preventing additional states from leaving the
Union
From Crisis to War: February-April


Focus on Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC harbor
 Why is it important to the Union? To the Confederacy?
 James Buchanan finally stood firm
 Abraham Lincoln, upon becoming President, tried to mix firmness
and flexibility. Trying to avoid Civil War
 Late March: Crisis becoming acute. Fort must receive supplies or
surrender
 Early April: Confederacy demanded surrender of fort or it would use
force? Why did Confederate officials want to force the issue?
 April 12: War began with bombardment of Fort.
Union decision to fight to maintain Union. Lincoln’s call for 75,000
troops
 Effect in North: Rally the country. Effect in South: Four more
secessions
Civil War

1861-1865
At the Start of the War

Union advantages
Superior material resources
 Advantage in leadership: Lincoln vs.
Davis
 Established government vs a new
government



Central problem for the Confederacy:
What was it about, Southern Nationalism
or States’ Rights
Conclusion: Was the war the Union’s to
win or lose?
At the Start of the War--Continued

Union’s Biggest Challenges
Time is on the side of the Union
 Hold on to the 4 “loyal” slave
states: Delaware, Maryland,
Kentucky, Missouri. If these join
the other side all may be lost


Holding on to these 4 states
Course of the War in the West

Union Strategy
Emphasize the Union as perpetual
& avoid making it a war for
abolition of slavery
 Squeeze the Confederacy using
the “Anaconda” strategy

 Blockade
 Hold
out in the East
 Crush the Confederacy in the West
Course of the War in the West—
Cont.

1862: Union thrust down and up the
Mississippi River

Under U.S. Grant, Confederacy forced
out of much of Tennessee & into northern
Mississippi. Done by April 1862.



Battle of Shiloh:6-7 April 1862. Why
important?
U.S. Navy under David Farragut captured
New Orleans, 25 April 1862. Union gun
boats can range up the Mississippi River
Focus on Vicksburg. Why did the
Confederacy have to hold this one place?
Course of the War in the West—
Cont.

Battle for Vicksburg: late 1862-4
July 1863
What did this campaign show
about Grant?
 What did he do AFTER he failed
twice?
 Union success meant Lincoln now
had the key in the pocket

Course of the War in the West—
Cont.

Fall of Chattanooga, TN—Late 1863



What opportunity was now open to the Union military force?
Union change in command. Why did Lincoln replace Grant
with Gen. William T. Sherman?
Atlanta Campaign


Confederate forces fought desperate campaign to keep the
“Yankees” out of Georgia. Joe T. Johnston used delaying
tactics, aided by geography, until replaced by John Bell
Hood.
Fall of Atlanta, 3 September 1864


Sherman operated against the breadbasket. “March through
Georgia” to Savannah: Confederacy on ropes
End of this phase of the war: Johnston, in command,
surrendered to the Union forces under Sherman in late
April 1865.
Course of the war in the East
1.
2.
Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee,
fought the Army of the Potomac. Lee in command, June 1862
Battle of Antietam & Turning the Civil War into a War on Slavery

One day battle, 17 September 1862, cost 7,800 dead and 15,000 +
wounded. Bloodiest single day of war

Aftermath: Lincoln issued two emancipation proclamations



3.
4.
5.
Preliminary Proclamation: 22 Sept. 1862. Declared slaves in states still
in rebellion “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free”. Lincoln
justified proclamation on grounds of military necessity.
Final Proclamation: 1 Jan. 1863. Slaves now free in all areas under
control of the Confederacy, but not in areas under Union control or the
four “loyal” slave states. Military necessity. In spite of appearances this
turned the Civil War into a war on slavery. From now on, wherever
Union forces advance, slavery died.
Emancipation Proclamation meant that if the Union won the war,
American slavery would be DEAD.
Battle of Gettysburg: 1-3 July 1863. Most famous battle of war. Meant
that from now on Lee’s army fighting a defensive war that it would
eventually lose
War in the East and the role of U.S. Grant
Surrender of Lee’s Army at Appomattox Court House: 9 April 1865
Meaning of the Outcome
1.
2.
The United States transformed
from a loosely organized country
into a more centralized nation
The United States ceased being a
slave-holding country
Reconstruction
Issues in Reconstruction
1.
2.
3.
4.
Status of the former slaves: Issue of
citizenship forced by Dred Scott case
Question of balance of power in
national government: Power struggle
between Congress & President
Issue of balance of power between
national government and states
Status of the former Confederate states
Presidential Reconstruction



Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and
the new President, Andrew Johnson
Johnson’s five point Reconstruction
program
All 11 ex-Confederate states met
Presidential standards
Congressional Reconstruction
1.
2.
Congress rejected presidential Reconstruction:Dec. 1865
Joint Congressional Committee on Reconstruction


Testimony in public hearings outraged northern public opinion
Recommended more stringent measures against the South


3.
Fourteenth Amendment proposed



4.
Continuing the Freedmen’s Bureau: “Yankee” meddling
Civil Rights Act to secure legal rights of citizenship for ex-slaves
Response to both white Southern and Presidential opposition
Wrote into Constitution a definition of national citizenship
Difficulties with this. Tennessee exceptional
1866 Congressional Elections: A Showdown between
Johnson & Congress that Johnson lost badly
Congressional Reconstruction—
Cont.
5.
Several Reconstruction Acts laid down Congressional
Reconstruction program. Congress overrode Johnson’s vetoes

Elements
1.
2.
Problem: Southern white voters preferred military supervision to
black suffrage. Congress tightened the basic law twice.
President Johnson tried to interpret law narrowly so:
Congress impeached, then acquitted President Johnson: early 1868
Result: Broad extension of the authority of the federal government
over the affairs of southern states

6.
7.
Military supervision of civilian governments. 10 states organized
into 5 military districts. Eventually, military could even remove
civilian officials
Process for removing military supervision. State had to elect a state
constitutional convention, employing universal manhood suffrage.
The State would have to ratify a new constitution with a provision
for black suffrage and ratify the 14th Amendment