WHAT LED TO THE CIVIL WAR? AS TENSIONS INCREASED BETWEEN THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH, CONFLICT ENSUED AS RESULTS OF TENSIONS ABOUT "SLAVERY, CONSTITUTIONAL DISPUTES, ECONOMIC DIFFERENCES, AND POLITICAL BLUNDERS" AND SECTIONAL CRISIS PREVAILED
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WILMOT PROVISO
During the first year of the Mexican war, Pennsylvania congressman David Wilmot proposed a bill that would exclude slavery from the new western territories acquired from the Mexican war. Although the bill did not pass, having been defeated in the Senate, it intensified sectional feelings, as different sections for the country had conflicting positions on how to deal with the new territories. -
FREE-SOIL MOVEMENT
Formed in 1848, the Free-soil party opposed the extension of slavery in the new western territories, but did not oppose slavery in the South. The party wanted to keep the West a land of opportunity for whites only, and believed that by not allowing blacks, free or enslaved, it would eliminate competition for whites. This movement created tension between the north and the south- with opposing positions over the expansion of slavery. -
COMPROMISE OF 1850
As disagreements about the secession of California and how it would be admitted into the US increase, Henry Clay proposed a compromise that would admit California as a free state, divided the remaining area into New Mexico and Utah, assume Texas’ debt of $10 million dollars,ban the slave trade in DC, and would adopt a new Fugitive Slave Law. -
COMPROMISE OF 1850- CONT.'D
The compromise would give popular sovereignty to the new territories, allowing settlers to decide of the matters of slavery. President Zachary Taylor had opposed the compromise, but died-leaving his successor, VP Millard Fillmore, a strong supporter of the compromise, signed the bills to pass. The decision increased tensions in Congress, as it added to the North’s political power. -
PUBLICATION OF UNCLE TOM'S CABIN
In response to the law the to stricter Fugitive Slave Laws, Harriet Beecher Stowe, an abolitionist, wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel about slave life that had major influence on the way the American and European public viewed slavery. The novel moved people to see slave owners as cruel and inhumane. Increasing abolition sentiments, the novel was also seen as insulting to Southerners, and they condemned the North’s prejudice against their “way of life”. -
KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT-CONT'D
Because the Kansas-Nebraska Act would give southern slave owners the opportunity to expand slavery, the North condemned the bill, which further polarized the political environment. -
KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT
Senator Stephen A. Douglas, a Northern Democrat introduced a plan to promote western settlement by creating a transcontinental railroad. In an effort to get the votes form Southern Democrats, Douglas proposed a bill to divide the Nebraska Territory into two parts, the Kansas territory and Nebraska territory. Popular sovereignty would be given to the settlers who occupied the territories to decide to whether allow slavery or not. -
REPUBLICAN PARTY FORMED
In response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, a coalition of Free-Soilers and anti-slavery Whigs & Democrats formed the Republican party in Wisconsin in 1854. The party opposed the spread of slavery in the new territories, but not slavery itself. As violence continued in Kansas, more people joined the party, becoming the second largest party. The creation of the party further divided the country, as it increased sectionalism because it was a strictly Northern party-only alienating the South. -
"BLEEDING KANSAS" INCIDENTS
Although Stephen Douglas expected the Kansas-Nebraska Act to peacefully settle the issue of allowing slavery in the territories, it provoked a series of violent incidents. While settlers were a majority of the population, slaveholders from neighboring states set up homesteads in Kansas in order to win control and manifest their expansion of slavery desires. Pro-slavery, the legislature in Lawrence, and anti-slavery, the legislature in Lecompton, constitutions competed in Kansas. -
"BLEEDING KANSAS" INCIDENTS- CONT'D
As control for the territory broke out, a series of violent events occurred, including the attack and Lawrence- where proslavery forces attacked the free-soil town of Lawrence destroying homes and businesses- and the attack on Pottawatomie where John Brown, a stern abolitionist, led a retaliation killing five settlers.The dispute further intensified southern and northern democrats and the North and South inevitably -
CANING OF CHARLES SUMMER
IN 1857, Senator Charles Summer made an abolitionist speech, the “The Crime Against Kansas”, that attacked the Democratic administration. HIs personal charges on Senator Andrew Butler enraged his nephew Preston Brooks, so much so that he beat Summer with his cane into a coma. The beating escalated tensions within congress and the North and South. -
DRED SCOTT v. STANFORD DECSION
Dred Scott, a former slave in Missouri had been taken to Wisconsin where he lived as a free man for 2 years. Upon returning to Missouri, Scott sued for his freedom, arguing that his residence on free soil made him a free citizen. Chief Justice Roger Taney decided that Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in federal territories and slaves were considered private property, so Scott could not sue as he was property. -
DRED SCOTT v. STANFORD DECSION- CONT.'D
The ruling was in favor of Southern Democrats, but had enraged Northern Republicans, and they became suspicious that President James Buchanan and the democratic administration had secretly planned the decision. -
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES
Stephen Douglas, hoping to be reelected as Illinois senator, was challenged for the Senate seat by Abraham Lincoln. Although he was not an abolitionist, Lincoln was against the expansion of slavery and attacked Douglas’ indifference to slavery as a moral issue. -
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES- CONT'D
As a part of seven debates around Illinois, the Freeport Doctrine was Douglas’ response to Lincoln's challenge for popular sovereignty to be reconciled with the Dred Scott decision- wherein slavery could not be excluded from territories by local legislation. He argued that The two argued important issues like popular sovereignty, the Lecompton constitution, and the Dred Scott decision. Although Douglas won the debates, Lincoln’s position on then helped him win the presidential election of 1860. -
JOHN BROWN'S RAID ON HARPERS FERRY
John Brown, a radical abolitionist who had led the attack on Pottawatomie, had tried to start a slave uprising in Virginia. In October of 1859, he led an attack on the federal arsenal of Harpers Ferry, and planned to use guns from the arsenal to arm slaves for them to massacre slave owners and free slaves. Brown was captured and executed. Southerners saw the raid as the North’s true intentions- and it caused even further tension between the sections. -
ELECTION OF 1860
Lincoln, the republican candidate, won the presidential election of 1860 because the demcratic party was split over slavery. As a result, the South no linger felt like it had a voice in politics and a number of sates seceded from the Union. Lincoln won all of the free sates of the north, which was the majority of the electoral college.
