Artur Dickson - Civil War

By manganelligeorgiastudies

  • Missouri Compromise

    The United States had 11 free states and 11 slave states until Missouri applied for statehood as a slave state. The balance of power would have shifted so the Compromise allowed Maine to apply for statehood as a free state. The Compromise also prohibited slavery north of the 36⁰20’ latitude.
  • Period: to

    Causes of the Civil War

  • Nullification

    The federal government placed tariffs on imported goods which helped the North’s factories by reducing competition with Great Britain. It hurt the South because they relied on agriculture, didn’t have many factories, and imported many goods from Great Britain. The South believed tariffs were unconstitutional because they favored the North over the South and wanted to secede from the union.

  • Compromise of 1850

    California (a free territory) wanted to become a state which would cause the balance of power to change. The Compromise stopped the slave trade in the District of Columbia, but DC could keep the ones they already had. It included a law that required free states to return escaped slaves to their owners.

  • Kansas - Nebraska Act

    This act created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and had a clause on popular sovereignty. When the territory asked for statehood, the people of the territory could vote if they wanted slavery or not. This changed the Missouri Compromise and made the North angry causing fighting between free soiler and proslavery groups.

  • Dred Scott Case

    Dred Scott was a slave who was taken to the free states of Illinois and Wisconsin by his owner. Scott filed a lawsuit in the US Supreme Court to get his freedom because he lived in free states for a time. The court ruled he could not sue because he was a slave and not a citizen, and that Congress had no right to stop slavery in territories.

  • Election of 1860

    The election of 1860 caused the executive branch to be unbalanced with more Republicans than Democrats. The Democrats in the south wanted slavery, but the Republicans in the north didn’t. When Abraham Lincoln became president, he wanted to abolish slavery, which the South opposed, so they seceded.