Era of Sectional Conflict

1
Era of Sectional Conflict

• 1848-1877

2
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

3
Slavery as an Economic System

• Slavery, a labor system
• 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

4
Slavery, a labor system (cont.)

• Slavery on Great Plantations
• 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

5
Slavery, a profitable labor system

• 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
• 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

6
Slavery as an economic drag

• Neo-colonial character of Southern antebellum
  economy
• Producing agricultural commodities for processing
  elsewhere
• South lacked manufacturing facilities
• South not urbanizing like North
• 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

7
Slavery as a social system

• White and black American/slave cultures existed
  side-by-side
• Slavery necessary as a means of social control.
• 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

8
Slavery as a social system-social control

• Property Law Could not own property
• Family and Personal Law
• 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

9
Slavery as a social system-World the Slaves
Made

• Families important to slaves
• Slaves sought to form functional families
• Barriers to forming functional families
• Marriage families extralegal
• Sexual exploitation of female slaves by white
  males
• Slave trade threatened integrity of families
• Importance of real and fictional extended
  families

10
Slavery as a social system-World the Slaves Made

• 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

11
Slavery as a social system-World the Slaves Made

• Slave Resistance
• Open Resistance
• Rebellion 1831 Nat Turners Rebellion in
  Virginia
• Escaping Underground Railroad
• Passive Resistance
• Docile Slaves
• Malingering slave

12
White Southern Defense of Slavery

• Concept of slavery as a necessary evil giving way
  to notion as a positive good because
• The Bible sanctioned slavery
• Free societies were always built on slavery
• Southern slavery superior to wage slavery of
  the North

13
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

14
End of National Unity

• 1848-1861

15
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 Provisos 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

16
Compromise of 1850

• California Controversy
• California gold rush draws avalanche of settlers
• Political organization of California an immediate
  necessity
• Californias 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

17
Compromise of 1850-Continued

• Henry Clays proposed compromise
• Admitting California as a free state and
  providing for New Mexicos 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

18
Compromise of 1850-Continued

• Rejection of Clays compromise shows depth of
  divisions, but Senator Stephen Douglas
  resurrected it
• Southern emotions cooling
• President Zachary Taylor died
• Congress enacted compromise with Douglas
  providing skilled leadership

19
Compromise of 1850-Continued

• Weaknesses of this compromise
• Fugitive Slave Act reinforces northern belief in
  a slave power conspiracy

20
Kansas-Nebraska Crisis1854

• Redefinition of the eastern Great Plains
• 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

21
Bleeding Kansas

• How popular sovereignty worked in Kansas.
  Pro-slavery legislature governing an anti-slavery
  population
• Sack of Lawrence John Browns raid on
  pro-slavery settlers
• Dress rehearsal for Civil War

22
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

23
Dred Scott Case Kansas Again

• Dred Scott Case
• 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 peoples 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

24
Harpers Ferry Affair (late 1859)

• Raid on Harpers Ferry October 16, 1859
• John Browns Trial Ended November 2, with Brown
  sentenced to hang
• I believe that to interfered as I have done
  in behalf of Gods 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.
• 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.
• 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

25
United States in 1860 Presidential Election

• Presidential race a strange one two separate
  elections
• North Stephen Douglas vs. Abraham Lincoln
• South John Breckinridge vs. John Bell
• Lincolns victory is sectional. He unified the
  non-slave states.
• Lincolns 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

26
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.
  Lincolns call for 75,000 troops
• Effect in North Rally the country. Effect in
  South Four more secessions

27
Civil War

• 1861-1865

28
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 Unions to win or
  lose?

29
At the Start of the War--Continued

• Unions 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

30
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

31
Course of the War in the WestCont.

• 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 Shiloh6-7 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?

32
Course of the War in the WestCont.

• 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

33
Course of the War in the WestCont.

• Fall of Chattanooga, TNLate 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.

34
Course of the war in the East

• 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
• 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 Lees army
  fighting a defensive war that it would eventually
  lose
• War in the East and the role of U.S. Grant
• Surrender of Lees Army at Appomattox Court
  House 9 April 1865

35
Meaning of the Outcome

• The United States transformed from a loosely
  organized country into a more centralized nation
• The United States ceased being a slave-holding
  country

36
Reconstruction
37
Issues in Reconstruction

• 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

38
Presidential Reconstruction

• Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the new
  President, Andrew Johnson
• Johnsons five point Reconstruction program
• All 11 ex-Confederate states met Presidential
  standards

39
Congressional Reconstruction

• Congress rejected presidential ReconstructionDec.
  1865
• Joint Congressional Committee on Reconstruction
• Testimony in public hearings outraged northern
  public opinion
• Recommended more stringent measures against the
  South
• Continuing the Freedmens Bureau Yankee
  meddling
• Civil Rights Act to secure legal rights of
  citizenship for ex-slaves
• Fourteenth Amendment proposed
• 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

40
Congressional ReconstructionCont.

• Several Reconstruction Acts laid down
  Congressional Reconstruction program. Congress
  overrode Johnsons vetoes
• Elements
• 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
• 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