Causes of the Civil War
1. Slavery
2. Economics
3. Expansion
4. Political (Republican Party)
5. States’ rights
 Slaves considered property- not people.
 Some were whipped and abused while others were treated as valuable
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property.
Some well provided for while others only provided bare necessities.
Better conditions for house slaves.
Slave women were often abused sexually by their owners.
Families were often separated. Marriages not legally recognized.
Atlantic slave trade ended in 1808, but slaves were still traded within
the U.S. (Second Middle Passage). Trading ripped families apart.
 Slaveholders justified slavery with paternalism: the idea
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that they were actually caring for and nurturing their slaves.
Many argued that slaves were better off in the U.S., b/c they
had been “rescued” from the “savage” societies of Africa.
Many white Southerners saw Northerners as arrogant and
self-righteous, and they resented being told how they should
live.
Southerners defended their views on slavery, arguing that
slave owners treated their slaves better than northern
industrialists treated their workers.
Many Southerners objected to Uncle Tom’s Cabin’s portrayal
of slave owners and pointed out that many Revolutionary
War heroes had also owned slaves.
 Nat Turner, a slave, led a failed uprising in Virginia in 1831.
 Turner believed he had a divine mission to deliver his
people from slavery. In the revolt, 160 people were killed.
 As the abolitionist movement gained momentum in the
north, slaves faced even harsher restrictions in the South in
reaction to Nat Turner’s rebellion.
 Many states enacted harsh laws called slave codes: curfew,
illegal to teach slaves to read/write, slaves couldn’t
assemble, weren’t allowed to become ministers.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
 Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin became a
powerful statement about the impact of slavery.
 Uncle Tom’s Cabin presented a vivid picture of slavery which
convinced many Northerners that slavery would ruin United States
society.
 Uncle Tom’s cabin did for the abolition movement did what Common
Sense did for the independence movement.
Harriet
Beecher
Stowe
1811 - 1896
“So this is the lady who
started the Civil War.”
-- Abraham Lincoln
Uncle Tom’s
Cabin
1852
 Sold 300,000 copies in
the first year.
 2 million in a decade!
What was the significance of Uncle Tom’s Cabin?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
It whipped up northern sentiment against slavery.
It pointed out the need for more railroads.
It advocated white southerners’ views.
It showed the economic contrasts between the north and the south.
Which of the following was a southern argument in favor of
slavery?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Slavery violated American and Christian principles.
Southern slaves were treated better than northern free workers.
Slavery was essential to southern industry.
Northern prejudice was damaging to African Americans.
What was the significance of Uncle Tom’s Cabin?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
It whipped up northern sentiment against slavery.
It pointed out the need for more railroads.
It advocated white southerners’ views.
It showed the economic contrasts between the north and the south.
Which of the following was a southern argument in favor of
slavery?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Slavery violated American and Christian principles.
Southern slaves were treated better than northern free workers.
Slavery was essential to southern industry.
Northern prejudice was damaging to African Americans.
North
South
South
 Because the South’s
economy depended on
agriculture and the
plantation system
(which operated on slave
labor), southern
politicians fought to
preserve slavery, and
expand it into new
territories.
North
 The North’s economy did not
depend on slave labor, b/c it
was more industrialized.
 Many northern states had
already emancipated (freed)
slaves by the mid-1800s.
 Some Northern politicians
wanted to see the expansion
of slavery halted, while others
wanted slavery abolished
completely.
 Some leaders opposed slavery for moral reasons.
 Others opposed it for economic and political reasons.
 The struggle over slavery led to constant battles for
power between the 2 regions in the national
government.
 Each side knew that whoever controlled Congress
could pass laws either strengthening and expanding
slavery (S), or dismantling slavery.
 As the US acquired new territories in the West, the debate over
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slavery intensified. No political issue caused more division in the
US as it expanded than the issue of slavery.
An important effect of the Mexican War was its role in bringing
the question of slavery to the forefront of American politics.
Congress faced a decision about whether or not to allow slavery in
the newly acquired territories. Its decision could tip the balance of
political power toward either the North or the South.
The Wilmot Proviso, first attached to an 1846 bill, stated that
slavery would be forbidden in new territories acquired from
Mexico. Although the proviso was not passed, it continued to be
added to bills concerning the new territories.
The Wimot Proviso never became law. However, it revealed the
growing gap between the North and the South over slavery.
 Territories acquired after the Mexican War forced an old question back
into politics about whether or not slavery would be permitted in new
territories.
 Each new state that was admitted to the Union could tip the balance
for or against slavery. Both sides wanted to establish their practices in
the new territories before these territories became states.
 The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had stated that any new states
created north of 36° 30' N latitude had to be free states. Much of the
new territory, however, was south of this line.
 Some members of both parties who opposed slavery in the territories
formed the Free Soil Party. The Free Soil Party did not win any states
in the presidential election of 1848, but it did tip the balance in favor
of Whig candidate Zachary Taylor.
 The Compromise of 1850 revised the Missouri
Compromise. It admitted California to the Union as a free
state and declared the unorganized western territories free
as well.
 The Utah and New Mexico territories were allowed to
decide the issue by popular sovereignty (the will of the
majority).
 People in these territories would vote on whether or not to
allow slavery.
 The Fugitive Slave Act was attached to the Compromise.
It required that northern states return escaped slaves to
their owners in the South.
 In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which
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allowed the previously free territories of Kansas and Nebraska to
choose whether or not to permit slavery by popular sovereignty.
Both supporters of slavery and abolitionists rushed into Kansas
and set up rival governments.
The territory became known as “Bleeding Kansas” when violence
broke out between pro and anti-slavery factions.
The act inspired violence in Washington as well.
Charles Sumner, a Mass. senator who opposed slavery, denounced
the act and the senators who wrote it in a speech that spanned 2
days.
After the speech, Preston Brooks, a SC congressman flogged
Sumner with a cane on the senate floor, almost killing him.
This Sumner-Brooks incident was a brutal example of how heated
the issue of slavery had become.
 The 1857 Dred Scott case through the nation further into
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turmoil.
Dred Scott, a Missouri slave, went with his owner to free
territory. He sued his owner when he refused to free him even
though he was in a free state.
The Supreme Court ruled that Scott had not right to sue b/c, as a
slave, he was not a citizen.
It also declared that a slave owner could not be deprived of his
“property” without due process.
The decision struck down the Missouri Compromise, be/c it
declared that it was unconstitutional to declare slaves free of
their owners- even if the slave entered a free state.
Abolitionists were outraged b/c it meant that slave owners could
keep their slaves in any state.
This along with the Fugitive Slave Act tipped the balance in favor
of slavery proponents.
 In 1859, a group of radical abolitionists led by John
Brown attacked the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry,
VA to seize weapons to arm slaves for a rebellion.
 Their plan failed when troops led by Robert E. Lee
surrounded the arsenal and forced Brown’s surrender.
 Brown was hanged, and martyrized in the North.
 The South saw it as proof that blood would have to
shed to protect its way of life.
 He and his sons
brutally
murdered 5 slave
masters in
Kansas. (1858)
 Who was John Brown, and what impact did his raid on
Harper’s Ferry have?
 The Missouri Compromise, Wilmot Proviso, and
Compromise of 1850 were all designed to
 End slavery in the South
 Emancipate slaves
 Extend slavery to new US territories
 Deal with the issue of slavery in new territories
 In 1854, a coalition of northern Democrats who
opposed slavery, Whigs, and Free Soilers (a party
opposing slavery in new territories) came together
and formed the Republican Party.
 Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln emerged as
one of the party’s most prominent members.
 After losing a bid for the US Senate seat in 1858,
Lincoln bounced back to become the Republican’s
presidential candidate 2 years later.
 By the time of the 1860 election, the country was at
a boiling point over the issue of slavery.
 Voters in the North chose between Northern Democrat Stephen
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Douglas (popular sovereignty) and Republican Abraham Lincoln
Southern Democrats wanted federal protection of slavery in all US
territories and nominated Democrat John Breckinridge..
While votes in the Border States (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky,
and Missouri) were mixed, many in the Lower South (Texas,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South
Carolina) supported Breckinridge.
The South felt threatened by Lincoln b/c he considered slavery a
moral evil, and they feared he would dismantle the South.
Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election of 1860 without
winning a single electoral from a southern state.
 Southerners were outraged that a President had been elected without
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any southern electoral votes. They were also worried that the
Republican Party would ruin the southern way of life.
Secessionists, or those who wanted the South to secede, argued that
since the states had voluntarily joined the Union, they could also
voluntarily leave it.
In response to Lincoln’s election, South Carolina officially seceded on
Dec. 20, 1860. Six other states of the Lower South followed:
Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.
They used the idea of states’ rights to justify seceding. That is, they
believed that the Lincoln’s election violated their states’ rights (he
would end slavery).
In early February 1861, these states proclaimed themselves a new
nation, the Confederate States of America, or Confederacy. Jefferson
Davis, a former senator from Mississippi, became president of the
Confederacy.
1860 Election: A Nation Coming Apart?!
Views on Secession
 Some Americans felt that the South should be allowed to secede
peacefully.
 Others objected, citing the loss of business with the South as well as a
desire to keep the Union together.
 Lincoln knew he couldn’t let the South secede, but he knew
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there were different opinions about going to war.
Some wanted Lincoln to let the South secede and take their
disgusting slavery with them.
Others wanted to negotiate with the South.
Only a few favored force, so Lincoln didn’t have enough
support to launch any military action against the
Confederacy even if he wanted to.
If there was going to be war, the South would have to start
it!
They got their wish.
 In April, 1861, Union troops located at Fort Sumter, SC,
were running low on supplies. Lincoln informed the
governor of SC that he was sending ships with food for
the soldiers, but no weapons.
 SC was not having those darn Yank’s in their territory,
so Confederate forces opened fire.
 The South’s attack forced the Union troops to leave the
fort, but it also gave Lincoln the support he needed to
wage war.
 Many Northerners who opposed war now favored it,
b/c they had been attacked.
 President Lincoln then issued a call for 75,000
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volunteers, mobilizing for war.
With a great deal of controversy and division,
Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland (border states),
remained in the Union.
Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee
seceded with the rest of the South, joining the
Confederacy.
The capital of the Confederacy then moved from
Montgomery, AL to Richmond, VA.
The Civil War had begun.
Fort Sumter: April 12, 1861
After the surrender of
Fort Sumter, more states
joined the Confederacy,
making it one of the
largest republics in the
world.
Which of the following states were part of the Lower South?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Tennessee, Arkansas, and Virginia
Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland
Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Missouri
Why did Lincoln start calling for volunteers to fight the
seceding states?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
He had been elected without their electoral votes.
The Confederates had attacked federal property.
The states of the Upper South had seceded.
The seceding states had elected their own president.
Which of the following states were part of the Lower South?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Tennessee, Arkansas, and Virginia
Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland
Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Missouri
Why did Lincoln start calling for volunteers to fight the
seceding states?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
He had been elected without their electoral votes.
The Confederates had attacked federal property.
The states of the Upper South had seceded.
The seceding states had elected their own president.