Pre-Civil War: Decade of Crisis

1
Pre-Civil War Decade of Crisis

• 1850-1860

2
Institution of Slavery

• Eli Whitney - Cotton Gin
• Nat Turners Revolt 1831
• Missouri Compromise 1820
• 36 degrees 30 minutes

3
Compromise of 1850

• California (49ers) apply to become a FREE state
• Popular Sovereignty
• South Rejects
• Compromise proposed by Henry Clay, Daniel
  Webster, Stephen Douglas

4
They Propose

• Allow California in as free state (Northern
  Victory)
• Create New Mexico and Utah territories without
  restrictions about slavery
• Stricter fugitive slave law (Southern
  Victory...hurt Underground RR)

5
Results of Compromise of 1850

• 4 Southern States threaten to secede
• North upset about fugitive slave law

6
Uncle Tom's Cabin

• Dramatic account of a slave fighting for freedom

• Harriet Beecher Stowe -
• 1852

Result...more people wanting to abolish slavery
7
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

• Background (RR, etc)
• Stephen Douglas, Senator (ILL) He Proposes
• Create Kansas and Nebraska Territories
• Scrap the Missouri Compromise (36 degrees 30
  minutes). Instead, allow Popular Sovereignty

8
Results of the K-N Act

• Stephen Douglas -very ambitious
• Birth of the new Republican Party
• Helped unify the North
• Bleeding Kansas

9
"Bleeding Kansas"-miniature Civil War 1855-57

• Election
• War
• Free Soil Group...John Brown

10
Dred Scott Decision...1857

• Background
• Supreme Court (Chief Justice Roger Taney)
  decides
• Slaves 3/5ths of a person, so NO RIGHT to sue
• SlaveProperty
• Congress cannot restrict property within
  TERRITORIES.

11
Results of Dred Scott Ruling

• Wipes out
• Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Idea of Popular Sovereignty
• Huge Southern Victory
• Outrages Unifies Republicans

12
Other Important Events of the Late 1850s

• Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• John Browns Raid...attack US Arsenal at
  Harpers Ferry, Virginia

13
Election of 1860

• 4 Political Parties!

14
Republicans

• Northern Party
• RESTRICT slavery, not abolish it
• Abraham Lincoln from ILL

15
Northern Democrats

• Demos split
• Northern Democrats supported Stephen Douglas and
  popular sovereignty

16
Southern Democrats

• More radical, want slavery legal everywhere
• Selected John Breckinridge (Tenn), current VP
  under Buchanan

17
Constitutional Union Party

• Wanted a compromise over slavery
• Selected John Bell (Tenn)

18
Popular Vote Totals
Lincoln wins with only 40 of Popular Vote
19
What should the Southern States do?
What options do they have?
20
Secession

• President James Buchanan- Lame Duck
• December 1860 - South Carolina Secedes
• What should Buchanan do???
• Is secession irrational???

21
Confederate Statesof America

• By Feb, 1861, most of the South is gone
• Elect Jefferson Davis (Mississippi) as
  President
• Select Richmond (Virginia) as Capitol
• Flag (11 states, yet 13 stars)

22
Strengths and Weaknesses

• North
• (Union, Blue, Yankees)
• South
• (Confederacy, Gray, Rebels)

Border States
23
The Battles Begin

• Fort Sumter (Charleston, S. C.)
• 1st Bull Run
• Stonewall Jackson
• Naval Warfare
• Union has Navy
• Ironclad Warship (forerunner to battleships)
  Monitor v Merrimack (Virginia) March 1862

24
War in the West

• Shiloh (Tenn) April 1862
• New Orleans and the Mississippi River
• Battle and Seige of Vicksburg (Miss)
• Heavily fortified city with RR
• 47 day seige of city
• Major turing point of war
• Union splits south gets River
• Grant v. Pemberton

25
War in the East

• Robert E. Lee, Confederate General
• Battle of Antietam (Maryland)
• Sept 1862 - George McClellan

26
Lincoln changes War - Emancipation Proclamation
27
War in the East (continued)

• Union Commanders--"Revolving Door"
• Fredricksburg (VA) Dec, 1862 -Ambrose Burnside
• Chancellorsville (VA) Spring 1863 - Joe Hooker
• Gettysburg (Penn) July 1863 - George Meade

28
Gettysburg

• Lee invades North
• July 3 - "Pickett's Charge" (Gen.George
  Pickett, confederate)
• Great Union Victory Major turning point of War
• Meade fails to chase Lee
• Gettysburg Address (Lincoln)

29
51,000 Dead in 3-Day Battle
30
East (continued)

• Revolving Door - (cont) U.S. Grant in charge
  (1864-)
• William Tecumseh Sherman's "March to the Sea" ...
  (Total War) - Atlanta to Savannah

31
The Ending

• Appomattox Courthouse (April 9, 1865) Lee
  surrenders

32
Factors of War

• First American Draft
• Wars Deadly Cost

33
Lincoln's Assassination

• April 14, 1865...Fords Theatre
• "American Cousin" play
• John Wilkes Booth
• Democrat Andrew Johnson will lead Reconstruction
  efforts