Major Events leading up to the American Civil War

Uncle Tom’s Cabin• Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe

(1852).• Book represented the humanity of

slaves showing them as husbands, wives, parents, children contrasting the image of slaves.

• “So this is the little lady who made this big war.”

-----Abraham Lincoln • 1.5 million copies sold worldwide• Uncle Tom- a noble slave who is

sold to a series of owners, but retains his dignity and hopes to be reunited with his family.

• In America in the 1850s it was common for a family to gather at night in the parlor and read Uncle Tom’s Cabin aloud. Yet in some quarters the book was considered highly controversial.

• In the South, as might be expected, it was bitterly denounced, and in some states it was actually illegal to possess a copy of the book. In southern newspapers Harriet Beecher Stowe was regularly portrayed as a liar and a villain, and feelings about her book no doubt helped to harden feelings against the North.

Dred Scott Case

– Scott was born a slave between 1795 and 1800 in Virginia and taken by his owner to Missouri.

– Owner was Major John Emerson an army surgeon.– Over the next twelve years, Scott was taken to

Illinois and Wisconsin territory both areas prohibited slavery.

• Scott got married and had two children.• Emerson got married to Eliza Sanford and was transferred to

Louisiana where he sent for Scott and his new wife.• In 1838 he returned to Missouri and was again held as a slave.• In 1843, Emerson died leaving all his property( including

Scott) to his wife.• In 1846, he sued for his freedom on the grounds that he had

been liberated by his residence in Illinois and Wisconsin. He won in lower court, but Supreme Court of Missouri ruled against him in 1852.

Dred Scott (cont.)

• Scott appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.• Of the nine justices, five were from the South. • Supreme Court ruled that Scott was not a citizen, but

a slave. Ruled that “Negroes” were “inferior to whites, and may be justly reduced to slavery for their own benefit” and that they “had no rights which a white man was bound to respect, and that they were not and could not become, part of the American people, even when accorded the right to vote. ”

• Chief Justice Taney argued that under the U.S. Constitution slaves were property and the Constitution permitted no distinction between them and property in general.– Ruling said that because slaves were not citizens they

could not sue in court.– The sons of Peter Blow, Scott's first owner, purchased

emancipation for Scott and his family on May 26, 1857. Their gaining freedom was national news and celebrated in northern cities.

– Scott worked in a hotel in St. Louis, where he was considered a local celebrity. He died of tuberculosis only eighteen months later, on November 7, 1858.

John Brown’s Rebellion• John Brown, a white man, planned to march South,

arm the slaves, establish a black republic in the Appalachians to wage war against the South.

• Frederick Douglass thought the target was suicidal. Harriet Tubman supported the idea but got sick.

• October 16, 1859, Brown and three sons and 15 followers attacked the Federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, VA. Occupied the arsenal but no slaves came to join him.

• He was tried for treason against the state of Virginia, the murder of five proslavery Southerners, and inciting a slave insurrection and was subsequently hanged.

Causes of the American Civil War

• Event: The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860.– Impact: South Carolina seceded from the union

four days after the election. – Within a month, Florida, Georgia, Alabama,

Mississippi and Louisiana seceded. – Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas and

Tennessee went in the next few months. (11 states)

Civil War dates and battles• Event: April 12, 1861 Fort Sumter captured--The

attack on Fort Sumter prompted four more states to join the Confederacy. With Virginia's secession, Richmond was named the Confederate capitol.

• Result: April 15 Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers for three months service

• Result: April 19, 1861 Naval blockade ordered by Lincoln—prevents cotton shipments and limits imports of munitions

• Event: July 21—first Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas) Virginia.

• Result: Union realizes that it wasn’t going to be a ninety day war.

• The Southerners’ reaction to the election of President Lincoln was strong. They felt that the country had put an abolitionist in the White House. The South felt that secession was the only option.

• The South felt they had the right to secede. The Declaration of Independence stated that “it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish” a government that denies the rights of its citizens. Lincoln, they believed, would deny them the right to own slaves.

Lincoln’s views on slavery and blacks

• “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it;

• and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union.”

• ------Lincoln letter to Horace Greeley

Lincoln’s views on blacks and slavery

• 1858: "I will say then that I am not, nor have ever been, in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people;

• and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality."

• The eleven states that left the Union formed the Confederated States of America and elected Jefferson Davis President and Alexander Stephens, Vice President– Constitution copied almost verbatim—except it outlawed

the protective tariff and legalized slavery through the country. Added “Almighty God.” President had a six year single term instead of unlimited 4 year terms.

– Border states: Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri and Maryland, did not secede.

• Vice-President of the Confederate States of America, Alexander Stephens, wrote:– “Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests

upon the great truth that the negro is not the equal of the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.”

– “ Do you love your mother, your wife, your sister, your daughter? In 10 years or less our children will be slaves of Negroes.”

Army of the Potomac v. Army of Northern Virginia

• North had 22 million v. 9 million

• North had 23 states v. 11 in the South

• North had 2.3 million enlisted men v. South’s 1.3 million

• North had ¾ of all banking capital

• North had 75% of all manufacturing operations.

• North had 2/3 of all railroad lines

• South had only to fight a defensive war– South had better trained

military leaders• 360,000 Union soldiers

killed• 260,000 Confederate

soldiers killed• 200,000 blacks fought—

38,000 killed

• April 6-7, 1862– Battle of Shiloh (TN) 20,000 Union and

Confederate soldiers killed or wounded in 2 days.• Combined losses are more than the total American

casualties in the American Revolution, War of 1812 and Mexican American War.• April 16, 1862—Jefferson Davis signs Confederate

Conscription Act which is the first military draft in American history.

• July 1862: Congress authorizes acceptance of black recruits

• September 17, 1862: Battle of Antietam– 25,000 killed, single bloodiest day of the war. This

cost the South any hope of European recognition of Confederacy.

– Lincoln believed he needed a Union victory on the battlefield so his decision would appear positive and strong.

Emancipation Proclamation• The Emancipation Proclamation consisted of

two executive orders issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War.

• The first one, issued September 22, 1862, declared the freedom of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America that did not return to Union control by January 1, 1863.

• The second order, issued January 1, 1863, named ten specific states where it would apply.

Emancipation (cont.)• The proclamation did not name the border states of

Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, or Delaware, which had never declared a secession, and so it did not free any slaves there.

• The state of Tennessee had already mostly returned to Union control, so it also was not named and was exempted.

• Virginia was named, but exemptions were specified for the 48 counties that were in the process of forming West Virginia, as well as seven other named counties and two cities.

• Also specifically exempted were New Orleans and thirteen named parishes of Louisiana, all of which were also already mostly under Federal control at the time of the Proclamation.

Emancipation Proclamation

• January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

• The Proclamation announced the acceptance of black men into the Union Army and Navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom.

Reaction to the Emancipation Proclamation

• Drew support from the British workers who were against slavery.

• French not able to support the South because of anti-slavery sentiment.

• 500,000 slaves fled the plantations disrupting food production and compelling rebels in confederate states to divert many of their troops to guard duty.

Final battles

• July 1-3, 1863 Battle of Gettysburg: One of the largest and bloodiest battles of the Civil War.– The confederate troops were in search of shoes.

Confederate losses at battle were 28,000 to the Union’s 23,000.

– Confederate General Robert E. Lee retreats to Virginia.

– This battle was a turning point because the Union realized the Confederacy could be defeated.

The Battle of Chancellorville• Fought between April 30-May 6,

1863 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.• Major Gen. Joseph Hooker (Union) v.

Gen. Robert E. Lee (Confederate)• Chancellorsville is known as Lee's

"perfect battle" because his risky decision to divide his army in the presence of a much larger enemy force resulted in a significant Confederate victory.

• Military historians consider Stonewall Jackson to be one of the most gifted tactical commanders in U.S. history.

• His Valley Campaign and his envelopment of the Union Army right wing at Chancellorsville are studied worldwide even today as examples of innovative and bold leadership.

• General Lee decided to employ a risky tactic to take the initiative and offensive away from Hooker's new southern thrust—he decided to divide his forces.

• Jackson and his entire corps were sent on an aggressive flanking maneuver to the right of the Union lines. This flanking movement would be one of the most successful and dramatic of the war.

The Draft Riots

• On July 11, 1863 the first names for induction into the army were called. The next day, New York erupted into some the most violent riots in American history. • Resentment against the Conscription Act—turns to

deadly rioting. Troops from Gettysburg sent to stop rioting. Blacks are lynched in New York, Boston and Vermont. Over 100 people dead, Blacks fled New York– Whites resented the unfairness of allowing the wealthy to

avoid conscription and the idea of fighting to free the slaves.

Draft Riots (cont.)

• The Civil War was sometimes referred to as the “Rich Man’s War, poor man’s fight”.• Because of huge union troop losses, Lincoln

announces the Conscription Act of 1863 which said that all men 20-45 must serve.

• States worked not to draft soldiers, instead offering volunteers a considerable amount of money to enlist. Volunteers received a bounty of $100 from the federal government, plus state and local bounties. Combined bounties in some locations exceeded $500.

• This gave way to the practice of bounty jumping—men enlisted, took the bounty, deserted, and then enlisted elsewhere to receive another set of bounties.

Final Moments of the Civil War

• April 8, 1865 Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. Terms are generous at Lincoln’s’ request—officers retain their side arms, men keep their horses.

• April 14, 1865 Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford Theater in Washington, D.C.

Music of the Civil War

– The most famous song sung by the Southerners was Wish I was in Dixie.

– Written by Ohio-born Daniel Decatur Emmett – The song tells the story of a freed

black slave pining for the plantation of his birth.– John Brown’s body was often sungby the Union troops.