Causes of civil war

1. The economy of the north and south

1.1. 1820

1.2. The economy of the north and south

1.3. The north was industrial with factories and paid labors. The south was agricultural with large plantations and small farms. Slave labor was used in the south.

2. The Missouri Comprise

2.1. 1820

2.2. Missouri Compromise

2.3. As America began moving west the issue of whether or not Missouri should be allowed in new states forming out the west became an issue. The first state in which this became an issue was slavery. It's addition to the untied states threatened to upset the balance between free states and slave states. In 1820, senator Henry clay persuaded congress to approve the Missouri Compromise. The Missouri compromise stated 1: the union was admitted as a free state. 2: Missouri was admitted as a slave state. 3: territory north of Missouri's southern border was free. 4: Southern slave owners gained the right to pursue escaped into free regions.

3. Free-soil party

3.1. 1843

3.2. Free-Soil party

3.3. In the election of 1843, both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party hoped to win by not taking a stand on the issue of slavery. Antislavery Whigs and democrats joined forces to create a new political party. It called for the territory gained in the Mexican-American War to be "free soil", a place where slavery was banned

4. Election Of Zachory Taylor

4.1. 1848

4.2. Election of Zachary Taylor

4.3. In the election of 1848, the controversy over the Wilmot proviso led to the development of the free-soil party. Democrats nominated senator Lewis Cass of Michigan, the whigs nominated Zachary Taylor, and the free-soil party nominated former democratic President Van Burren. Senator Cass suggested that the people in each new territory should decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery. Zachary Taylor, a hero of the Mexican-American War won the election.

5. The compromise of 1850

5.1. 1850

5.2. The compromise of 1850

5.3. Gold was found in California and thousands moved to the area. Soon the territory had enough people to be admitted as a state. Since it was above the Missouri compromise line, people felt it would be a free state. This angered the south and they threatened to secede (leave the union). The compromise was proposed by senator Henry Clay of Kentucky in January, 1850. He hoped this compromise would end the debate over slavery forever. This proposal reduced one of the greatest debates in American history history. President Taylor opposed the compromise but died and the new president Millard Fillmore supported it. Congress passed five series of bills in September,1850 that become known as The Compromise of 1850. 1. North was admitted to the union as a free state 2. Slave trade was banned in the Nations Capital. 3. Congress declared that it could not regulate the slave trade between slave states. 4. Popular sovereignty (the people would vote) would be used to determine the issue of slavery in the rest of the Mexican Cession. 5. The south received a new fugitive slave law.

6. The fugitive slave act

6.1. 1852

6.2. Fugitive Slave Act

6.3. Allowed special government officials to arrest any person accused of being a runaway slave. Suspects had no right to a trial to prove they had been falsely accused. All it took was a slaveholder or any white witness to swear that the suspect was a slave holder's property. The law also required northern citizens to help capture accused runaways if authorities requested assistance.

7. Uncle Tom's Cabin

7.1. 1852

7.2. Uncle Tom's Cabin

7.3. Written by Harriet Beechar Stowe in 1852, it was a novel about kindly Uncle Tom, an enslaved man who is abused by the cruel Simon Legree. The book became a best seller in the North. It shocked thousands of people who had been unconcered with slavery before reading the book. The book caused people to view slavery as a human, moral problem and not just a political issue. White southerners were outraged.

8. The Kansas-Nebraska act

8.1. 1854

8.2. The Kansas and Nebraska Act

8.3. Senator Stephan Douglas pushe through the act in 1854 which led the nation closer to Illonois . He wanted to see a railroad built from Illinois through the Nebraska Territory. Both were above the Missouri Compromise Line and would become free states which upset the Union. To win southern support, he suggested that the issue of slavery e resolved by Popular Sovereignty. This would undo the Missouri Compromise.

9. "Bleeding Kansas"

9.1. 1855

9.2. Bleeding Kansas

9.3. Both proslavery and antislavery settler flooded to kansas to try and win the majority. Thousands of people from missouri entered kansas in march of 1855 to vote illegally in the election of a terrotorial legislature. kansas had 3000 voters but almost 8000 people voted. Of the 39 people (legislators) elected, all but 3 supported slavery. Antislavery settlers refused to accept the results and held another election. Kansas now had two governments. Violence broke out. In April, a proslavery sheriff was shot when he tried to arrest some antislavery settlers in the town of

10. Bloodshed in the senate

10.1. 1859

10.2. Bloodshed in the Senate

10.3. Charles Sumner of Massechusetts was the leading abolitionist senator and made fiery speeches denouncing the proslavery legislature in Kansas. In one of his speeches he singled out andrew butler who was an elderly senator from the south who was not present when he gave his speech. A few days later his nephew, Congressman preston Brooks, marched into the senate Chamber and beat up sumner with a heavy cane until he fell to the floor bloody and unconscious. Sumner never really recovered from his injuries.

11. Republican Party

11.1. 1854

11.2. John C. Fremont

11.3. The whig party split in 1854 and many northern Whigs formed a new political party called the pollitical party. Their main goal was to stop the spread of slavery into the western territories. Their antislavery stand attatched many northern Democrats and free-soil members. The party quickly became very powerful. In the first congressional elections held just a few months after the party was created, 1854 of 245 candidates was elected to the house of Representatives;. Democrats also lost control of two northern states Legislature. Two years later the party ran its first candidate for president, John C. Fremont.

12. Election of 1856

12.1. 1856

12.2. Causes of the civil war election of 1856

12.3. First Republican candidate John C. Fremont (army officer who help win California's independence in the Mexican-American War) waged a strong antislavery campaign and won 11 of the 16 free states. Democrat James Buchandin won the election.

13. Dred Scott vs. sandford Case

13.1. 1857

13.2. Dred scott

13.3. Dred Scott was enslaved person who had once been owned by a U.S Army doctor. They lived in Illinois and Wisconsin for a short time where slavery was illegal. They settled in Missouri. With the help of an antislavery Lawyer, Scott sued for his freedom because he argued that he was free because he lived where slavery was illegal. The case reached supreme Court. The supreme Court delivered its verdict in the case on March of 1857, three days after President Buchanan took office. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote the decision for the court. Scott was not a free man for two reasons: 1. Scott had no rights to sue in federal court because African American were not citizens ; 2. Merely living in free territory does not make an enslaved person free. Slaves were property rights by United States constitution. The ruling also said that Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in any territory. Thus, the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.Southerners were happy because slavery was legal in all territories. Northerners were upset because now slavery could spread to the west.

14. The Lincoln and Douglas debates

14.1. 1858

14.2. Stephan douglas

14.3. Lincoln was chosen as the Whigs candidate for senate against senator Stephan Douglas in 1858. Lincoln and Douglas were political and personal rivals (both had dated Mary Todd and she married Lincoln). Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of public debates. Thousands gathered to hear them speak. Newspapers reported what each man said throughout the nation. Douglas Defended popular sovereignty and said each state had the right to decided for or against slavery. He painted Lincoln as a dangerous abolitionist who wanted equality for African Americans. Lincoln took a stand against the spread of slavery. He predicted that slavery would die out on its own but in the meantime Americans had an obligation of America to keep it out of the western territories. Stephan Douglas won the elections but Lincoln was now known throughout the nation.

15. John Brown attacks Harper's ferry

15.1. 1859

15.2. John Brown attacks Harper's ferry

15.3. John Brown was driven out of Kansas after the Pottawatomie Creek Massacre and returned to New England. He began a plot to free people in the south that were enslaved. In 1859, Brown and a small group of supporters attacked the town of Harper's Ferry, Virginia. His goal was to take control of the seize guns that the U.S Army had stored there. He thought that enslaved Africans Americans would support him. He would give them weapons and led a revolt. He gained control of the guns but troops commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee surrounded Brown's force before they could escape. Ten of Brown's followers were killed. Brown was wounded and captured. At his Virginia on December 2, 1859. Many people in the North considered him a hero. Southerners were shocked that Northerners thought this about a person who tried to led a Slave Revolt against them.

16. Political Parties Divide

16.1. 1860

16.2. Political Parties Divide

16.3. The political party split into two parties during the election of 1860 because the northern Democrats refused to support slavery oin the territories. Some southerners wanted to fix the problems between the North and the South and formed the constitution Union patrty. They wanted to protect slavery and keep the nation together.

17. Election of 1860

17.1. 1860

17.2. Abraham Lincoln

17.3. Republicans chose Abraham Lincoln to run for president in 1860. Northern Democrats nominated Stephan Douglas as their candidate. Southern Democrats chose Vice President John Breckenridge of Kentucky. The constitutional Union nominated John Bell of Tennessee. The election showed just had fragmented the nation had become. Lincoln won every free state and Breckinridge won all slave holding states except four. Bell won Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Douglas won Missouri 40% of the popular vote but received enough electoral votes to win the election and become president.

18. Southern states secede

18.1. 1860

18.2. Southern Staes Sucede

18.3. Lincoln's election made the south feel they no longer had a voice in the National government. They believed that the president and congress were against their interests, especially slavery. South Carolina seceded (left the United States) first when news of linoln's election

19. The confederate states of America

19.1. 1861

19.2. The confederate states of America

19.3. In Febuary of 1861, the leaders of the seven seceding states that left the Union met in Montegomary, Alabama to form a new Nation that they called the Confederate States of America. By the time Lincoln took office in March, they had written a constitution and named former Senator Jefferson Davis as president.

20. The Crittenden plan

20.1. 1861

20.2. The Crittenden plan

20.3. A plan developed by senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky to compromise with the south one last time. It was presented to congress in late Febuary, 1861 while the south was forming its new government but it did not pass.

21. Wilmot Proviso

21.1. 1848

21.2. Wilmot proviso

21.3. Since the Missouri Compromise did not apply to the large territory gained from Mexico in 1848, Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania proposed that congress ban slavery in all territory that might become part of the United States as a result of the Mexican-American War. The proposal passed in the house but failed in the senate.