How did deepening

sectional discord
ultimately lead to
civil war?

Growing Sectional Conflict

The Compromise of 1850 (Henry Clay/Stephen Douglass)
A. California entered union as a free state
B. TX boundary set at current limit
C. Status of NM and UT would be decided by popular sovereignty
D. Strengthened the Fugitive Slave Law
E. Slave trade banned in DC

Compromise of 1850

Enforcement of the
Fugitive Slave Act
Federal law that made it easier for slave
owners to catch and return fugitive slaves
from northern states by providing
incentives/punishments
Disrupted complacency of the North
Strengthened resolve of activists in
Underground RR and abolition movement

Harriet Beecher Stowes

Uncle Toms Cabin
(1852)
Heightened opposition to Fugitive Slave

Act
Slavery depicted as moral struggle; made
more personal (banned in many places in
the South; hugely popular in N1.5 mil
So this is the lady who started the
copies)
Civil War. - Lincoln

Kansas Nebraska Act, 1854

Proposed by Douglass to expedite organization of that
region for construction of a transcontinental RR
Applied popular
sovereignty to NB and KS,
thereby repealing the MO
Compromise and potentially
opening the region to slavery

"The great principle of self

government is at stake, and
surely the people of this
country are never going to
decide that the principle upon
which our whole republican
system rests (democracy)is
vicious and wrong.
The Little Giant
Stephen Douglass

Differing Conceptions of Liberty Among

White Americans
Freesoilers claimed liberty to seek a new start based on free
labor arguments (the need for free land unimpeded by
slavery)
Slaveholders claimed liberty in their right to property
(slaves) and thus their right to possess and transport slaves
anywhere in the US
Slaves and abolitionists claimed liberty in ACTUAL
freedom for all

The Caning of Charles Sumner

Charles Sumner calls the KS-NB Act The

Crime Against Kansas
Charles Sumner
(R- Massachusetts)
Preston Brooks
(D-South Carolina)

Cartoon criticizing the KS-NB Act

 Proslavery and anti-slavery factions vie to

win Kansas to their side pro-slavery
faction fraudulently tips the vote (if only the
actual settlers of KS voted, it would have
been a free state) and adopts the proslavery
state constitution known as the Lecompton
Constitution
A Congressional committee investigates
and finds the vote fraudulent, but President
Buchanan supports Lecompton
Constitution anyway, further angering antislavery advocates and freesoilers

Border Ruffians from Missouri who

flocked to KS to tip the vote

 Violent attacks between slavery and anti-slavery

forces break out in Kansas
Abolitionist John Brown leads counter-massacre
of 5

Dred Scott v. Sanford Supreme Court decision

THE ISSUES:
Was a black man a citizen and eligible to
sue?
Had residence in a free state made Scott
free?
Did Congress have the power to prohibit
slavery in the territories?

The Decision
CHIEF JUSTICE ROGER B. TANEY

Residing on free soil did not make Dred Scott a free

man
Slaves - and all black Americans - are not considered
citizens and therefore have no right to sue in a court
of law
Due to 5th amendment rights, Congress does not
have the power to rule out slavery in any territory

Taneys decision stated that African-Americans were a

subordinate and inferior class of beings with no rights
which the white man was bound to respect.

Lincoln-Douglass Debates (1858)

Occurred during the Illinois Senate race (Lincoln

challenged Douglass senate seat)
Significant b/c it was the first open debate about slavery
among national politicians
Lincoln challenged Douglass by strongly opposing all
attempts to expand slavery and called him out on his
advocation of popular sovereignty in light of the Dred Scott
decision, which made pop sov impossible
Douglass countered with his Freeport Doctrine which
stated that people in a given state could still oppose slavery
by refusing to pass laws permitting it
The race catapulted Lincoln to national prominence
(though Douglass won)

John Browns Harpers Ferry Raid (1859)

White abolitionist John Brown

conspired to raid federal arsenal in VA
and incite a slave rebellion
The plan ultimately failed and Brown
was found guilty of treason in VA and
hanged
Brown became a symbol of martyrdom
in the North, while he was remembered
as an insane lunatic in the South

LAST WORDS: I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of
this guilty, land: will never be purged away; but with Blood. I had as I now
think: vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed; it might
be done.

Painting of John Brown

on his way to execution

Election of 1860
Democrats Split
Northern Democrats Douglas
(behind popular sovereignty)
Southern Democrats
Breckenridge (behind Dred
Scott)

Republican Party Platform

Non-extension of slavery [for the Free-Soilers)

Protective tariff [for the No. Industrialists]

No abridgment of rights for immigrants [a disappointment for

the Know-Nothings].

Government aid to build a Pacific RR [for the Northwest].

Internal improvements [for the West] at federal expense.

1860 Election
Abraham Lincoln (Republican)
Stephen Douglas (National [Northern] Democrat)
John Bell (Constitutional Unionist)
John Breckenridge (Constitutional [Southern]
Democrat)

Secession of South Carolina

December 1860

SC claimed the federal gvt failed to uphold

its obligations to SC due to the refusal of
some states to uphold the Fugitive Slave
Act and the Constitutional clauses
protecting slavery
They also cited the perceived* motive of
the new president (Lincoln)to abolish
slavery
*Lincoln had not threatened slavery where
it existed, only called to stop its expansion
SC was followed by AL, Miss., GA, LA,
FL, TX then later (after Ft. Sumpter) AK,
TN, NC, VA

South Carolina is too small for a republic and

too large for an insane asylum.
- James L. Petigru, SC politician who opposed both
nullification and secession

The Confederate States of America

Unrecognized secessionist state (made up of 7
lower South states)
Southern nationalism became known as the
Southern Cause or just The Cause, based on
an ideology that supported a way of life
culturally and financially dependent on a slavebased economy
In what became known as his Cornerstone Speech, Vice
President Alexander Stephens declared that the "cornerstone"
of the new government "rest[ed] upon the great truth that the
negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery
subordination to the superior raceis his natural and normal
condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history
of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical,
and moral truth"

President Jefferson Davis inauguration in

Montgomery, AL

Battle of Fort Sumter, April 1861

Last federal fort in SC occupied by the

Union (the North)

First crisis of the Lincoln admin.

When Lincoln attempted to resupply the

fort, the Confederates bombarded the fort
and forced its surrender

This was the first battle of the Civil War

Ultimate Cause of the Civil War?

Slavery
States Rights
Tariffs and Taxes (ie. economic differences
between N and S)
Election of Lincoln