CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR BY JERIAH JOHNSON

1. FREE-SOIL PARTY

1.1. 1850

1.2. During the 1848 election, both the Whig party and the Democratic Party hoped to win by not taking a stand on the Slavery issue. 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)

2. ELECTION OF ZACHARY TAYLOR

2.1. 1848

2.2. In the election of 1848, the controversy over the Democrats 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 Martin Van Buren. Senator Cass suggested that the people in each new territory should vote for themselves whether or not to allow slavery. Zachary Taylor, a hero of the Mexican-American war won the election.

3. THE COMPROMISE OF 1850

3.1. 1850

3.2. 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) America and form their own country.

4. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT

4.1. 1850

4.2. The Fugitive Slave Act allowed special government officials to arrest anyone accused of being a runaway slave. Suspects had no right to trial to prove that 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.

5. UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

5.1. 1852

5.2. Uncle Tom's Cabin was written by Warriet Beeaher Stove in 1852 and was about kindly Uncle Tom, an enslaved man who is abused by the cruel Simon Lee. The book became a best seller in the North. It shocked thousands of people who had been unconcerned 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.

6. THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT

6.1. 1854

6.2. Senator Stephen Douglas pushed through the act in 1854 which led the nation closer to Illinois. He wanted to see a railroad built from Illinois through the Nebraska Territory to the Pacific Coast. He suggested that two new territories be made. Those territories were Kansas and Nebraska.

7. "BLEEDING KANSAS"

7.1. 1855

7.2. Both Pro and Anti slavery settlers flooded to Kansas and try to win the majority. Thousands of people from Missouri came to Kansas to vote illegally. Even though Kansas had 3,000 voters, there were 8,000 people that voted. Of the 39 legislators elected all but 3 supported slavery. Antislavery settlers refused to accept the results and held another election. Kansas now had 2 governments. That's when the violence happened. In April, a proslavery sheriff was shot when he tried to arrest some antislavery settlers in the town of Lawrence. He came back a month later with 800 men and attacked the town. Three days later, John Brown, an antislavery settler from Connecticut led seven men to a proslavery settlement near Pottawatomic creek and murdered 5 proslavery men and boys. This started widespread fighting in Kansas.

8. BLOODSHED IN THE SENATE

8.1. 1856

8.2. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was the leading the abolitionistic senator and made fiery speeches denouncing the proslavery legislature of Kansas. In one of his speeches, he singled out Andrew Butler who was an elderly senator form South Carolina who was not present when he gave his speech. A few days later, his nephew, Congressman Preston Brooks, marched up to the Senate Chamber and beat Sumner with a heavy cane until he fell to the floor bloody and unconscious. Sumner never really recovered from his injuries.

9. REPUBLICAN PARTY

9.1. 1854

9.2. The Whig party split in 1854 and many northern Whigs formed a new political party called the Republican Party. Their main goal was to stop the spread of slavery into the western territories. Their antislavery stand attracted many northern Democrats and Free-Soil members. The party quickly became powerful. In the first congressional elections held just a few months after the party was created, 105 of 245 candidates were elected in the House of Representatives. Democrats also lost control of two northern state legislatures. Two years later the party ran its first candidate for president, John C Fremont.

10. THE ELECTION OF 1856

10.1. 1856

10.2. First Republican candidate John C Fremont (army officer who helped win California's independence in the Mexican-American war) waged a strong or hislavery campaign and won 11 of the 16 free states. Democrat James Buchannan won the election.

11. DRED SCOTT V. SANFORD CASE

11.1. 1857

11.2. Dred Scott was an enslaved person who had once been owned by a U.S. Army Doctor. They had 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 had lived where slavery was illegal. The case reached the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court delivered its verdict in the case on March of 1857, three days after President Bucanan took office. Chief Justice Roger B. Torey 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 Americans were not citizens. 2: merely living in free territory does not make an enslaved person free. Slaves were property and property rights were protected by the United States Constitution. The ruling also said that Congress had no right to pronit slavery in any territory. Thus, the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. Southerners were happy because slavery was legal in all territories. Northerners were unhappy because slavery could now spread to the west.

12. THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE

12.1. 1858

12.2. Lincoln was chosen as the Whig candidate for Senate against Senator Douglas in 1858. Lincoln and Douglas were personal and political rivals (because they both previously dated Mary Todd and she married Lincoln). Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of debates. Thousands gathered to hear them speak. Newspapers reported what each man said throughout the nation. Douglas defended Popular Sovereignty and said that each state had the right to decide for or against slavery. He painted Lincoln as a dangerous politician 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 to keep it out of the western territories. Douglas won the elections but Lincoln was now known throughout the nation.

13. JOHN BROWN ATTACKS HARPER'S FERRY

13.1. 1859

13.2. 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 guns that the U.S. Army stored there. He thought that enslaved African 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 trial, he sat quietly as the court found him guilty of murder and treason. He was hanged in Virginia on December 2nd, 1859. Many people in the North considered him a hero. Southerners were shocked that the Northerners thought this about a person who tried to lead a slave revolt against them.

14. POLITICAL PARTIES DIVIDE

14.1. 1860

14.2. The Democratic Party split into two parties during the Election of 1860 because Northern Democrats refused to support slavery in the territories. Some southerners wanted to fix the problems between the North and the South and formed the Constitutional Union Party. They wanted to protect slavery and keep the nation together.

15. THE ELECTION OF 1860

15.1. 1860

15.2. Republicans chose Lincoln to run for president in 1860. Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas as their candidate. Southern Democrats chose Vice-President John Beckinridge of Kentucky. The Consitutional Union nominated John Bell of Tennessee. The election showed just how fragmented the nation had become. Lincoln won every free state and Beckenridge won every slave state except four. Bell won Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Douglas won Missouri. Lincoln received 39.8% of the popular vote but received enough electoral votes to win the election and become president.

16. SOUTHERN STATES SECEDE

16.1. 1860

16.2. Lincoln's election made the South feel that 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 Lincoln's election first reached the state. They called for a special convention. On December 20th,1860 the convention passed a declaration that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and the other states, under the name of the United States of America is hereby dissolved. 6 more states followed South Carolina out of the Union

17. THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA

17.1. 1861

17.2. In February of 1861, the leaders of the seven states that left the Union met in Montgomery, 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.

18. CRITTENDEN PLAN

18.1. 1861

18.2. A plan was developed by John J. Crittenden of Kentucky to compromise with the South one last time. It was presented to Congress in late February, 1861 while the South was forming its new government but it didnt pass

19. THE ECONOMY OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH

19.1. 1800'S

19.2. The North economically relied on professional businesses and factory work as they paid workers. But the South was about agricultural business and had large plantations for slaves and small farms for Caucasian families.

20. THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE

20.1. 1820

20.2. America had to decide whether slavery was allowed in the west or not. There were many states that were going to be a problem. For example, Missouri was going to be a problem. Missouri was going to enter as a slave state. Prior to the addition of Missouri, there were 11 free states and 11 slave states. So the Addition of Missouri as a slave state would affect the balance of free and salve states. So they had to add Maine to the Union as a free state to even out the free and slave states.

21. THE WILMOT PROVISO

21.1. 1848

21.2. Because the Missouri Compromise didn't apply to the large territory received from Mexico in 1848, David Wilmot, a representative from Pennsylvania proposed that Congress should ban slavery in every American territory. The House of Representatives approved of it, but a majority of the Senators vetoed it.