Causes of the Civil War

1
Causes of the Civil War

• Slavery

2
History of Slavery in North America

• 1619the Dutch sell the first slaves to colonists
  in Jamestown
• 1770--¼ of the colonial population are slaves
  and slavery is permitted in all colonies
• 1774Second Continental Congress calls for a
  voluntary end of slavery
• 1775first anti-slavery society is formed in
  Philadelphia

3
Slavery in the New Nation

• 17873/5 Compromise
• slavery outlawed in Northwest Territory
• 17901/5 of the population are African-Americans
• 1800Gabe Prosser leads a slave march in Virginia
  to capture the governor
• 1808the Constitution calls for the importation
  of slaves to cease
• 1817American Colonization Society

4

• 1820Missouri Compromises establishes 36 degrees
  30 minutes north as the dividing line between
  slave and free territories in the Louisiana
  Purchase
• 1822Denmark Vessey organizes an unsuccessful
  slave rebellion in S.C.
• 1831Nat Turner organizes a slave revolt in
  Virginia that kills 57 whites and lasted 48 hours
• 1831--William Lloyd Garrison organizes the New
  England Anti-Slavery Society and begins to
  publish The Liberator

5

• 1832The Virginia Legislature considers the
  adoption of gradual emancipation
• 1838Frederick Bailey escapes from his master,
  flees to the North, and becomes Frederick Douglas
• 1840Abolitionists organize the Liberty Party and
  nominate James G. Birney.
• End slavery in D.C.
• Abolish the interstate slave trade
• Ban the admission of slave states
• Becomes the Free Soil Party by 1848

6
Abolitionist Philosophies

• Slavery should end immediately
• Colonization was a racist movement
• All races were equal
• Slavery was a moral sin

7

• Abolition made Southerners feel under attack.
  Slavery had been an issue since George
  Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and
  Henry Clay who were all against the system but
  were all large plantation owners themselves. The
  only founding father who actually emancipated his
  slaves was George Washington. (In his will, he
  freed his slaves upon the death of his wife,
  Martha.)

8
Southern Defense of Slavery

• Approved and discussed in the Bible
• Classical Greece and Rome depended upon slavery
• John Locke included provisions for slavery in the
  Carolina colonial constitution
• Black men were emotionally and intellectually
  inferior and needed someone to care for them
• Slaves lived better lives than northern factory
  workers
• Slaves never had to fear unemployment and were
  cared for even after they became too old or too
  sick to work

9

• It was only in the 1840s, when westward expansion
  and territories were in the forefront, that the
  slavery issue began to loom ominously. The issue
  became,
• could the political balance of power be
  maintained?
• could growth be obtained without creating
  sectional differences?
• could peace be maintained at the same time?

10

• 1850Compromise of 1850
• Popular sovereignty in Mexican Cession
• Ends slave trade in D.C.
• Strongest fugitive slave laws
• 1852Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Toms
  Cabin
• 1854Bleeding Kansas
• 1857Dred Scott Decision
• 1859John Brown seizes the federal arsenal at
  Harpers Ferry to obtain guns and ammunition for
  a nation-wide slave rebellion which does not
  happen

11
Election of 1860

• Democrats use platform of popular sovereignty and
  select John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky
• Republicans select a moderate platform that does
  not mention slavery but focuses on a
  transcontinental railroad and select Abraham
  Lincoln
• Constitutional Union Party in the South selects
  John Bell of Tennessee

12
Abraham Lincoln Elected

• 40 of the popular votes
• 180 electors
• First time a president is elected on a completely
  sectional basis
• First time a president has been completely
  committed to stop slavery
• Elected on support from free states alone
• South sees this as a promise of an attack on
  slavery, the basis of their society, and their
  economy.

13
Secession

• Seemed the only alternative
• Protect southern equality and liberty
• Dec. 20, 1860South Carolina
• Feb. 7, 1861all states S.C. to Texas had formed
  the Confederate States of America and elected
  Jefferson Davis as their President

14
Emancipation

• 1861Lincoln promises the Southern states in his
  Inaugural Address that nothing will be done to
  abolish slavery if they will stop the rebellion
  and work to preserve the Union
• 1863Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation
  freeing all slaves in the rebellious states. (Of
  special note is that the Emancipation
  Proclamation did not free the slaves of states
  who had remained loyal to the Union.)