Essential Question: How did the nation try but
fail to deal with growing sectional differences?
 - What political, social, and economic
 factors caused the Civil War?
 - What were the conflicting perspectives
 on slavery?
 - What kind of nation did the founding
 fathers create?
 - What is to be done with the institution
 of slavery?
 - Must sectionalism ultimately lead to
 disunion?
 To understand the series of events and resulting
conditions that led to the American Civil War
 To understand how different experiences, beliefs,
values, traditions, and motives cause individuals and
groups to interpret historic events and issues from
different perspectives
 To participate in a negotiating and compromising role-
playing activity that mirrors the attempts at political
compromise in the 1850s
Manifest Destiny brought new lands
into the US- making the US bigger
This causes problems
 Can there be slavery in the new lands
or not?
 Nationalism (loyalty /pride to your country) is replaced
by the idea of sectionalism
 Sectionalism = loyalty/ pride to a part/region of a
country
 “A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ I believe
this government cannot endure permanently half slave
and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved –
I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will
cease too be divided. It will become all one thing, or all
the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the
further spread of it…or its (supporters) will push it
forward till it shall become…lawful in all the states, old
as well as new, North as well as South.” A. Lincoln
 What point is Lincoln making about the future of
America?
 How does this fit in with the idea of sectionalism vs.
nationalism?
 Due to the new lands from Manifest Destiny and
the idea of sectionalism – the US will need to
make several compromises each time a new state
wants to enter the Union (The United States)
 The following causes will lead the US into the
Civil War !
 The issue of States Rights will be at the center of
the causes of the Civil War
 States Rights = the idea where the states can limit
the power of the federal gov’t and make their own
laws
 The southern states felt they should be allowed to
make their own decisions regarding if their state
has slavery or not. They also felt this right should
apply to new states as well.
 1819: power in Congress was tied(11
slave states and 11 free states)
 Missouri wants to be a state (slave)
which would give the south a
majority (there would be more
slave states then free)
 Made a compromise (agreement) [keep things equal]
 Missouri- admitted as a slave state
 Maine – admitted as a free state
 Imaginary line at 36°30´N which made all the land above
the line free and land below the line slave (BUT this
applied only to Louisiana Purchase lands!)
 New agreement between North and South -
this time over slavery in Manifest Destiny
lands west of L.P.
California = a free state
Slavery allowed in Mexican Cession lands
End slave trade in Wash. D. C.
Much stricter runaway slave law
 1850
 Runaway slaves MUST be
returned to the south
 By law, all Americans were
required to help catch runaway
slaves
If not- Fined $1,000 and jail
time
*** judges are paid
more to return a person
to the south than to say
they can stay in north
($10 for each slave returned)
 Book by Harriet Beecher Stowe= showed how bad slavery
could be /was in the South
 North  Upset about treatment of slaves
 abolitionists
(gained support)
 South
 Outraged !
thought it was an unfair
representation of life on plantations- not
all slave owners were like the master in the
Book
 Got rid of Missouri Compromise (land was above M.
Compromise line and should NOT have allowed
slavery )
 Divided the territory into 2 parts (Kansas and
Nebraska)
 Idea of popular sovereignty= People could vote
(decide) if there will be slavery or not
 Conflicts in Kansas due to popular sovereignty
(Voting whether to have slavery in territory or not)
 Violence and killing between pro slavery people
and anti slavery people for 3 years
Over 200 people died in the fighting
 In 1856, an abolitionist named John Brown
murdered five proslavery men
(we will be hearing about
Brown again)
 Violence moves into the government at this time
too … and there were violent attacks in the Senate!
 Formed in 1854
 Goal = to keep slavery out of the west (stop the spread
of slavery)
 Some hoped to end slavery in the south (no slavery in
US)
 Most famous republican
of the time is Abraham Lincoln
(thought idea of slavery was wrong)
 Facts: Dred Scott was a slave who’s owner moved to
free territory and then back to a slave state where
owner died; anti- slavery lawyers filed a lawsuit that
said because Scott lived in free land he was free
 Case went to the Supreme Court:
 Supreme Court Decisions:
 Slaves are NOT citizens- they do not have
the right to sue. Slaves are considered
property
 Living in a free territory does not make a
slave free (slaves are for life unless set free
by their owner)
 Congress has NO right to outlaw slavery in
any territory (makes idea of Missouri
compromise unconstitutional)
 Results of Dred Scott Case:
 Western lands were now open to slavery based
on popular sovereignty
 In 1859 John Brown and his followers seized a
federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia
 US troops stopped raid; Brown was caught and
sentenced to death by hanging
 North:
saw Brown as a hero; used him as
propaganda to help gather more abolitionists
 South:
Brown was an example of what could
happen to those who try to help slaves
 4 men running for President (split by sectionalism)
 Douglas (Northern Dem.)
 Breckenridge (Southern Dem.)
 Bell (Union)
 Lincoln (Republican)
 South thought that if Lincoln won- they would lose
STATES RIGHTS on issue of slavery
 Ability of states to make their own decisions
(laws)
(in reality Lincoln said he did not want to interfere
with slavery in the south)
 Lincoln wins!
Lincoln becomes president
In response to Lincoln’s win, Southern
States secede or leave the Union in 1861
Form CSA (Confederate States of
America)
 Union fort on CSA land (island off of S.C.)
 Union Army will NOT leave!
 Lincoln sent more supplies to the fort
 April 12, 1861- Confederate Army attacked the
fort!
 1st fight/ shots of the Civil War !
War!