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Slavery and the Civil War

National Park ServiceU.S. Department of the Interior

www.nps.gov

The role of slavery in bringing on the Civil War has been hotly debated for decades. Oneimportant way of approaching the issue is to look at what contemporary observers had to say. InMarch 1861, Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederate States of America, gave his

view:

The new [Confederate] constitution has put at rest,forever, all the agitating questions relatingto our peculiar institution African slavery as it exists amongst us the proper status of thenegro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and presentrevolution . . . The prevailing ideas entertained by . . . most of the leading statesmen at thetime of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African wasviolation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong inprinciple, socially, morally, and politica. . . Those idthe equality of races. This was an error . . .

inlly

eas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of

ur new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its

Alexander H. Stephens, March 21, 1861, reported in the Savannah Republican, emphasis in the original.

ay, most professional historians agree with Stephens thatf

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risis overavery that gripped the nation

ap

itish

could not be ignored. Although slaves could not vote, whitee

role

he Constitution left many questions about slaverytatus in

. Alluth

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Alexander H. Stephens, vicepresident of the ConfederateStates of America.

Ocornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; thatslavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.

Todslavery and the status of African Americans were at the heart othe crisis that plunged the U.S. into a civil war from 1861 to1865. That is not to say that the average Confederate soldierfought to preserve slavery or that the North went to war to e

slavery. Soldiers fight for man

reasons notably to stay aliveand support their comrades inarms and the Norths goalthe beginning was preservatiof the Union, not emancipa-tion. For the 200,000 AfricanAmericans who ultimatelyserved the U.S. in the war,emancipation was the primaraim.

The roots of the csl

in 18601861 go back to thenations founding. Europeansettlers brought a system ofslavery with them to thewestern hemisphere in the1500s. Unable to find chelabor from other sources,

white settlers increasingly turned to slaves imported fromAfrica. By the early 1700s in British North America, slaverymeant African slavery. Southern plantations using slave laborproduced the great export crops tobacco, rice, forestproducts, and indigo that made the American colonies

profitable. Many Northern merchants made their fortuneseither in the slave trade or by exporting the products of slavelabor. African slavery was central to the development of BrNorth America.

Although slavery existed in all 13 colonies at the start of theAmerican Revolution in 1775, a number of Americans(especially those of African descent) sensed the contradictionbetween the Declaration of Independences ringing claim ofhuman equality and the existence of slavery. Reacting to thatcontradiction, the Northern states decided to phase out slaveryfollowing the Revolution. The future of slavery in the Southwas debated, and some held out the hope that it would

eventually disappear there as well.

When the U.S. Constitution was written in 1787, however, theinterests of slaveholders and those who profited from slavery

Southerners argued that slave labor contributed greatly to thnations wealth. The Constitution therefore gave representa-tion in the Congress and the electoral college for 3/5ths ofevery slave (the 3/5ths clause). The clause gave the South ain the national government far greater than representation

based on its free population alone would have given it. TheConstitution also provided for a fugitive slave law and made1807 the earliest year that Congress could act to end theimportation of slaves from Africa.

Tunanswered, in particular, the question of slaverys sany new territory acquired by the U.S. The failure to dealforthrightly and comprehensively with slavery in theConstitution guaranteed future conflict over the issuerealistic hope that slavery might eventually die out in the Soended when world demand for cotton exploded in the early1800s. By 1840, cotton produced in the American South earne

An AfricanAmerican sergeant,Furney Bryant, of the United StatesColored Troops.

The Souths cotton economy ran on slave labor.

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more money than all other U.S. exports combined. WhiteSoutherners came to believe that cotton could be grown onwith slave labor. Over time, many took for granted that theirprosperity, even their way of life, was inseparable from Africaslavery.

ly

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the decades preceding 1860, Northerners increasinglyuits

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e 1820e was

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mitted

s36 30

Compromise quieted agitation over slavery fornly a while. In the 1830s, concerns over the issue resurfaced

ite

broughte nation vast new acreage in the West. Once again, the status

of thee;

f

ult of tensions over slavery, a new party, thethe North in the 1850s. The Republicans

e.

m one

en in theU.S.

ratic Party finally splintered over

orcan

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ina, Mississippi,lorida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas left the

Ft.the

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n

:

institution of slavery Utter subjugation awaits us inin it.

from

Insupported the right of farmers and workers to enjoy the frof their labor and try to better themselves. Slavery did not fit

with this view. Many

Northerners opposed itspresence in the territories,which were viewed abirthright of ambitious,free white men. Theproposed admission ofMissouri as a slave state in1820 provoked a nationaldebate over slavery. Aftermuch discussion, thMissouri Compromisworked out. Under i

terms, Maine was adas a free state at the sametime that Missouri came in as a slave state, maintaining thebalance between slave and free states. Additionally, Congresprohibited slavery in all western territories lying abovelatitude (the southern boundary of Missouri).

The Missouriofor several reasons. One was the appearance in the North of atiny number of very persistent agitators calling for theimmediate abolition of slavery (the abolitionists). Another wasthe bloody 1831 Nat Turner slave rebellion in Virginia. Wh

Southerners believed Northern abolitionists encouraged slaverevolts, while Southern efforts to silence the abolitionistsaroused Northern fears about freedom of speech.

Later, U.S. victory in the Mexican War of 18461848thof slavery in the territories became a hot issue. A newagreement, the Compromise of 1850, was required when theCalifornia Territory sought to join the Union. Aspectscompromise included 1) admission of California as a free stat2) a stronger fugitive slave law; 3) assurance that Congresswould not interfere with the interstate traffic in slaves in the

South; and 4) prohibition of the slave trade in the District oColumbia. The compromise left open the status of slavery inthe other areas won from Mexico. Then, in 1854, the KansasNebraska Act effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise,causing more violent disputes over slavery. Pro and antislavery factions turned the Kansas Territory into a bloodybattleground.

Mostly as a resRepublicans, arose inmade prohibition of slavery in the territories their chief issu

The party was the first inthe nations history to

draw its support frosection only. Inevitably,the party aroused deepanger in the South.Attitudes in the twosections of the nationcontinued to hardlate 1850s. In 1857, theSupreme Court in the DredScottdecision ruled thatAmericans of Africandescent were not U.S.citizens. A failed effort tostart a slave uprising in

Virginia by abolitionist John Brown in 1859 spread fear anddistress across the South.

The presidential election of 1860 was fought entirely alongsectional lines. The Democslavery, with the party fielding two candidates. TheRepublicans nominated Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. Hisplatform included government support of road and harbprojects and higher tariffs (import taxes) to protect Ameriindustry, in addition to keeping slavery out of the territoriesLincoln won the election by sweeping the Northern states,while failing to gain a single electoral vote in the Deep South.Spurred by South Carolina, the states of the Deep South

decided that limitation of slavery in the territories was the firsstep toward a total abolition of slavery.

One by one, seven states South CarolFUnion. Lincoln hoped desperately to maintain the Unionwithout war. When he decided to resupply the U.S. army atSumter in Charleston Harbor, Confederate forces fired onfort. Lincoln then asked for 75,000 volunteers to put down therebellion. This prompted Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee,and Arkansas to join the Confederacy. Civil war had come.

There were many sectional differences in 19thcentury America.Differences over slavery were the only ones that could not bsettled by peaceful means. Much evidence from that timeshows that the secession of seven Deep South states wascaused mostly by concerns over the future of slavery. WheMississippi seceded, she published a Declaration of theImmediate Causes which Include and Justify the Secession ofthe State of Mississippi from the Federal Union. It stated

Our position is thoroughly identified with the

the Union, if we should consent longer to remainIt is not a matter of choice, but of necessity. We musteither submit to degradation, and to the loss ofproperty worth four billions of money [the estimatedtotal market value of slaves], or we must secedethe Union framed by our fathers, to secure this as wellas every other species of property.

Republican Party slogan from the 1860

election.

A secession meeting in Charleston, South Carolina.

Dred Scott, subject of a notoriousSu reme Court decision.

The Civil War begins as Confederate forces fire upon Fort Sumter.

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