KEY EVENTS LEADING TO THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT

• Frederick Douglass – a runaway slave was a leading abolitionist in America.• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, published in 1845 shed light on the slavery issue

• Abolitionism – movement in western Europe and the Americas to end the slave trade and emancipate slaves.

• Britain banned importation of slaves in its colonies in 1807 - US did so in 1808

• William Lloyd Garrison founded the American Anti-Slavery Society

• Slavery abolished in Canada, Britain, and Ireland in 1833

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD• Informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th century Black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists who were sympathetic to their cause1) Demonstrated to northerners, white northerners, who were not committed to the end of slavery, how horrendous an institution slavery was.2) The underground railroad demonstrated to northerners their own complicity (participation) in the institution of slavery.3) The Underground Railroad demonstrated to southerners, to slave holders, the extent to which slaves opposed slavery.

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD VIDEO – 9 MINS.

Harriet Tubman - After escaping from slavery, into which she was born, she made thirteen missions to rescue over seventy slaves. Said she "never lost a passenger”

COMPROMISE OF 1820• Joint bill that admitted Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state – giving equal representation in Congress of slave/free states.• Prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30' north except within the boundaries of the proposed state of Missouri.

COMPROMISE OF 1850• The United States had recently acquired a vast territory -- the result of its war with Mexico. Should the territory allow slavery, or should it be declared free? Or maybe the inhabitants should be allowed to choose for themselves?

STATES / TERRITORIES

SLAVERY FREE

New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah

Organized without mention of slavery.

Washington D.C. Slave Trade would be abolished in the District of Columbia, although slavery would still be permitted.

California To pacify slave-state politicians, who would have objected to the imbalance created by adding another free state, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed.

FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW OF 1850• Pro-slavery Americans were angered by the shift in balance towards free states with California becoming a free state.• Fugitive Slave Act was strengthened to prevent further turmoil (1793)• Mandated that all escaped slaves must be returned to their masters, and - more crucially for the impending war - that ordinary citizens were required to aid slave catchers.

Compromise of 1850 & Fugitive Slave Law 1850 Video | 8:30 minutes

• The result of the Fugitive Slave Act was that federal marshal or other official who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave was liable to a fine of $1,000. Law-enforcement officials everywhere in the United States had a duty to arrest anyone suspected of being a fugitive slave on no more evidence than a claimant's sworn testimony of ownership.•The suspected slave could not ask for a jury trial or testify on his or her own behalf. • In addition, any person aiding a runaway slave by providing food or shelter was to be subject to six months' imprisonment and a $1,000 fine

FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT “WARNING

POSTER”April 24, 1851

“THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT”1850

UNCLE TOM’S CABIN• Based on various slave narratives.• Stowe's novel was first serialized in the National Era, an abolitionist newspaper.• Appearing in book form in 1852, it sold more than 10,000 copies in the first few weeks and 300,000 in it first year, a level of success completely unexpected from a previously unknown author. • Eventually translated into at least 23 languages an sold some 7 million copies worldwide.

Radio Interview with Joan Hedrick | 18 mins.

•The book allowed many northerners to understand the brutality of slavery and the lengths slaves go to in order to escape it

Dred Scott Decision of 1857

• Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857 made its way to the Supreme Court

• Dred his wife Harriet were slaves. He followed his master Dr. John Emerson and into Illinois.

• Illinois and Wisconsin Terr. was a free state and Dred Scott was able to make a claim for his freedom - but he didn’t.

• Then he moved to Missouri and later to Louisiana with Dr. Emerson – both states in which slavery was legal.

• Dr. Emerson died in 1843 and his wife sold Dred Scott to an Army captain.

• Dred Scott tried to buy his freedom from Emerson’s wife but was denied.

• Supreme Court ruled 7-2 against Scott.

• Why did the Dred Scott decision discourage future compromises in Congress?

The Supreme Court ruled that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the territories, so members of Congress could no

longer set aside land as free territory as part of a compromise.

Effects of Scott v. SanfordSlaves, because they were not citizens, were denied the right to sue in court.Enslaved people could not win freedom simply be living in a free territory or state.The Missouri Compromise was ruled unconstitutional and all territories were opened to slavery.

Dred Scott Decision of 1857

Dr. Foner Video3 minutes

• ...Buchanan [new president] thinks the decision handed down from the Supreme Court will settle the slavery issue... 

[3:43]...that position, of the southern Democrats, eventually is the rock on which the Democratic party splits apart in 1860 -- the southern demand for a slave code in the territories and the northern democrats refusal to accept that position...ultimately the Dred Scott decision is one of the key things in disrupting the political system and therefore disrupting the whole union...

Dred Scott Decision of 1857

Kansas – Nebraska Act• Senator Stephen Douglas (Illinois) drafted a bill to organize territorial government for the Nebraska Territory• Proposed that it be divided into two territories – Nebraska and Kansas

• The new Republican Party, which was created in opposition to the act, aimed to stop the expansion of slavery, and soon emerged as the dominant force throughout the North.

• To get support for bill, he suggested that the decision about whether to allow slavery in each of these territories be settled by popular sovereignty – a system where residents vote to decide an issue

• Bill passed and got rid of Missouri Compromise of 1820 and angered opponents of slavery.

Kansas – Nebraska Act

An 1854 cartoon depicts a giant free soiler being held down by James Buchanan and Lewis Cass standing on the Democratic platform marked "Kansas", "Cuba" and "Central America". Franklin Pierce also holds down the

giant's beard as Stephen A. Douglas shoves a black man down his throat.

Kansas – Nebraska Act

Bleeding Kansas• A series of violent events, involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements,

• Took place in the Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S. state of Missouri roughly between 1854 and 1858.

• Abolitionists (Kansas) are victorious

Violence in Congress• Late May 1856 Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts delivered an attack to proslavery forces in Kansas.

• Preston Brooks (relative of someone Sumner made fun of in his speech) attacked Charles Sumner – hitting him more than 30 times.

• Bleeding Congress and Bleeding Kansas became rallying cries for antislavery Northerners and slogans for the new political party.

Bleeding Kansas

John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry• Militant-abolitionist and folk-hero. Advocated armed insurrection to end all slavery.• “The Raid” was an attempt by white abolitionist John Brown to start an armed slave revolt by seizing a United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia in 1859. • Brown's raid was defeated by a detachment of U.S. Marines (88) led by Col. Robert E. Lee.

Strength

88 U.S. MarinesVirginia MilitiaMaryland Militia

16 white men3 free blacks1 freed slave1 fugitive slave

Casualties and losses

1 killed1 wounded

10 killed7 captured4 escaped

Brown was executed – at his execution was John Wilkes Booth

Election of 1860

NORTH SOUTH

Abraham Lincolnopposed expansion of slavery into territories.Breckenridge insisted that federal government be required to protect slavery in any new territory.

Douglas and BellDidn’t want new laws on slavery

• Lincoln defeated Breckenridge in the north.• Douglas and Bell won only the states between Deep South and the North• Because North had more people than South, Lincoln won the election

• Turned out to be two different races for presidency.

Election of 1860 | electoral resultsLincoln:180 | Breckenridge:72 | Bell: 39 | Douglas: 12

Southern States Secede• During election southerners warned they would secede if Lincoln won• They argued that states had voluntarily joined the Union and states had the right to leave the Union

• December 20, 1860 South Carolina became first to secede.

• February 1861 Confederate States of America is formedMississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas

• President Buchanan did not feel states had right to withdraw; felt union would become a “rope of sand” if secession was allowed.

• President Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861

• One month later fighting will have started.

Confederate States of America

STRENGTHS OF NORTH AND SOUTH

North In Common South

•More manpower•85% of the nation’s factories•Double railroad mileage•Almost all naval power and shipyards•President Lincoln

•Believed in what they were fighting for•Many eager volunteers•Public support for war

•First-rate generals•Defending the homeland•King Cotton•Gen. Robert E. Lee