Civil War - Causes

Sectionalism: placing of the interest of one’s

region ahead of the nation

Economic Differences

• North– Tariff on British goods

made the sale of Northern goods increase

– North=rich!– Transportation links:

mass canals, RRs = commerce

• South– Tariff on British goods

bad! It reduced exports and the British bought less cotton

– South=mad!– Transportation links:

no canals, few RRs connecting to big cities

Cultural Differences

• North– Fast –paced lifestyle– Work outside the

home

• South– Farming– Old fashioned– Self-sufficient– Land of chivalry

Political Differences

• North– Federal Power

• South– State Power

Virginia

Range of Opinions

• Proslavery– Southern Plantation owners who believed in slavery

and its necessity for daily life

• Popular Sovereignty– Belief that residents of a territory should be able to

choose for themselves

• Free Soil– A political party formed to oppose the extension of

slavery within the US

• Abolition– The ending of legalized slavery

Congressional Efforts at Settling the IssueMissouri Compromise

• Missouri Compromise– A series of laws enacted in 1820 to maintain

the balance of power between slave states and free states

– Maine = free– Missouri = slave

Congressional Efforts at Settling the IssueCompromise of 1850: Fugitive Slave Law

• California = free; Utah and New Mexico use popular sovereignty for slavery

• Slave trade in DC is illegal, but not slavery

• Stricter fugitive slave laws

Congressional Efforts at Settling the IssuePopular Sovereignty

• Intention to allow people to choose for themselves in their own territory

• Effect on Kansas – flooded with pro and anti slavery folks – led to riots

• John Brown – remember him?

Abolitionists

• A person seeking the legal end of slavery!

Abolitionists

Frederick Douglass

• Former slave, lecturer• Active in the

Underground Railroad• Supported Women’s

Suffrage, attended Seneca Falls convention in 1848

Harriet Tubman

• Conductor on the Underground RR – made 19 trips

• Former slave – as a child struck on head by overseer with a lead weight

• Helped 300 slaves escape• Had a bounty on her head

Abolitionists

Angelina and Sarah Grimke

• Daughters of a SC slaveholder

• Angelina published An Appeal to Christian Women of the South

• Raised money petitioned Congress

William Lloyd Garrison

• Editor of the newspaper called The Liberator, published 1831-1865

• Demanded an immediate end to slavery

Harriet Beecher Stowe

• 1852 published Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• Lincoln was quoted as saying: “so this is the little lady who started the war”

Civil War Secession Map

• cwmap.pdf