The Decade of Dissent: 1850 - 1860

What were the causes of the U.S. Civil War?

RESTRICTIONS!!!!!!

R- Religious

• abolitionists made slavery a moral issue. Uncle Tom’s Cabin- Harriet Beecher Stowe – 1852 created a strong anti slavery feeling.

E - Economic

• S – economy based on agriculture.• N- economy based on manufacturing

S - slavery

• Becomes a moral issue – no compromise!

T - Technology

• cotton gin made cotton exports number one!

R- Racial

• Slavery based on racial inferiority. They were being uplifted, “the white man’s burden”

I- Immigration

• Most immigrants settled in the Northern cities to work. Northern population grew rapidly.

C - Climate

• Cotton could only be grown in a 200+ day growing season – only Lower South could grow cotton.

T- Tariff

• Protected Northern state’s industries against English competition. South had to buy costlier Northern goods.

I- Industrialization

• Increasing production of manufactured goods in Northern states replacing cotton as the most valuable export.

O- On Harper’s Ferry

• John Brown becomes a martyr for abolition.

N- Nationalism

• Loyalty to entire nation, Congress and the Constitution.

S- Sectionalism

• Loyalty to one’s state or section became more important than loyalty to entire nation.