Slavery, Secession, and Civil War

Unit 5

Tensions Over Slavery

Slavery is a system in which African Americans were bought, sold, and owned like property.

Planters in the South depended on slaves to provide labor for their huge plantations.

The South wanted to expand slavery into new territories, while the North wanted the expansion of slavery halted- if not ended.

This struggle led to constant battles for power in the national government.

State’s Rights

Southerners demanded states’ rights, believing that the federal government should restrict itself to powers specifically stated in the Constitution.

This was in large part to the distrust of northern politicians whom they believed were out to end slavery.

South Carolina Nullification Crisis

The conflict between states’ rights and federal authority reached a boiling point in the early 1830s during Andrew Jackson’s presidency.

South Carolina protest high tariffs on British goods. John C. Calhoun argued in favor of the Doctrine of

Nullification, which says that a state could refuse to enforce a law it saw as unconstitutional.

South Carolina threatened to secede if the tariffs were not repealed.

A solution was proposed by Henry Clay, but the event increased sectionalism between North & South.

Slaves and Free Blacks

Most African Americans in the antebellum South were slaves during the 1800s.

If they were fortunate, slaves had masters who valued them at least as expensive property if not as human beings.

They were forced to work long hours, whipped if master thought it necessary, and lived in shacks providing only the bare necessities.

Slave marriages were not legally recognized.

Slaves and Free Blacks

The Atlantic Slave trade ended in 1808, but slaves were still bought and sold within the United States.

This business became so profitable that it became known as the Second Middle Passage – breaking up family units

Slave owners justified slavery by appealing to paternalism – the idea that they were actually caring for and nurturing their slaves.

Slaves and Free Blacks

Some free blacks lived in the upper South. These African Americans were free because the had

purchased their own freedom, their masters had freed them for some reason, or because they were born to free parents.

Most worked as artisans, farmers, or simple laborers, but a few owned businesses and some even owned black slaves themselves.

Free blacks often wore badges so whites would recognize that they were not slaves.

Many were mulattos – people of color who had both black and white ancestry.

The Abolitionist Movement

Abolitionist advocated the complete end to slavery.

Key white figures in the movement were William Lloyd Garrison and the Grimke Sisters.

Garrison founded the anti-slavery newspaper called the Liberator and established the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Sarah and Angelina Grimke were members of a prominent slave-owning family who won national acclaim for their passionate anti-slavery speeches

The Abolitionist Movement

Frederick Douglas was an important African American Abolitionist.

After escaping slavery in Maryland, Douglas educated himself and became the most prominent African American speaker

He even helped John Brown plan the Harper’s Ferry Raid

Nat Turner’s Rebellion

Nat Turner was a slave and believed that he had a divine mission to deliver his people from slavery (he was also a preacher)

160 people, both black and white, were killed

Southern abolitionists societies came to and end and slave codes were made tighter and strictly enforced.

Turner and 19 others were hanged for their role and slaves were no longer allowed to be preachers.

Slavery and New Territories

As the US acquired new territories in the West, the debate over slavery grew more intense.

Whether or not these territories should allow slavery was the object of much heated debate.

No political issue caused more division in the US as it expanded west than the institution of slavery.

The Missouri Compromise

Slave states and free states were equally represented in the Senate when Missouri applied for statehood.

Missouri would be admitted as a slave state and Maine as a free state; the southern boundary of Missouri - 36°30’ N – would be a dividing line for any new states admitted to the Union.

North of this line would be free, south would be slave.

The Missouri Compromise

Wilmot Proviso

The US went to war with Mexico in 1846 and the issue of slavery was a major problem in the territory gained from them

David Wilmot proposed banning slavery from any land gained from Mexico; Northerners embraced it; Southerners denounced it.

The debate exposed the serious sectional divisions over slavery that existed in the country.

Compromise of 1850

Compromise admitted California as a free state and declared the unorganized western territories free as well.

Utah and New Mexico were allowed to decide the issue by popular sovereignty (will of the people)

Fugitive Slave Law required northern states to forcibly return escaped slaves to their owners in the South

Kansas-Nebraska Act

This act allowed the previously free and unorganized territories of Kansas and Nebraska to choose whether or not to permit slavery by popular sovereignty.

Pro-slavery and abolitionist rushed into Kansas to set up rival governments

The territory became known as Bleeding Kansas as both sides fought armed clashes

Kansas Nebraska Act

Red = Free

Grey = Slave

Green = Unorganized Territory

Caning of Charles Sumner

Charles Sumner was a Senator who delivered a two day speech against the Kansas Nebraska Act.

A Congressman from South Carolina, Preston Brooks, approached Sumner on the Senate floor and beats Sumner with a cane, almost killing him; causing him to be absent from the Senate for three years to recover.

Sumner-Brooks incident was a brutal example of how inflamed passions had become over slavery.

Caning of Charles Sumner

Dred Scott Decision

Dred Scott, a slave, had been taken by his owner to a free territory for four years and then returned to Missouri.

Scott sued (with abolitionist help) for his freedom. Supreme Court ruled that he had no right to sue

because he was not a citizen, but a slave. Declared the Missouri Compromise to be

unconstitutional because it deprived slave owners of due process – violating the 5th Amendment

It suggested that slaveholders could keep their slaves in any state.

John Brown’s Raid

1859, John Brown and a group of radical abolitionist attacked the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry.

They hoped to seize weapons to start an armed uprising of slaves.

Plan failed; US troops under Colonel Robert E. Lee surrounded the arsenal and forced Brown to surrender.

Brown was charged with treason and hanged.

This showed Southerners they would have to shed blood to protect their way of life.

Lincoln and the Election of 1860

1854, a coalition of northern Democrats, Whigs and Free Soilers (party that opposed slavery in the new territories) came together and formed the Republican Party.

It did not call for the immediate end to slavery, but opposed its expansion into new territories.

Abraham Lincoln emerged as its most formidable figures

Lincoln and the Election of 1860

The Presidential election of 1860 brought the country to the boiling point regarding slavery.

The Democratic party split along sectional lines – Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas, Southern Democrats nominated John Breckinridge.

The Republicans nominated Lincoln. Southerners felt Lincoln would prohibit

slavery in the west and dismantle it in the South.

Lincoln and the Election of 1860

When Lincoln won the election, South Carolina responded by seceding from the Union on Dec. 20, 1860

Within two months, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Texas had all followed.

February 1861, Confederate States of America was formed with Jefferson Davis as president.; Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia as Vice-President.

Fort Sumter

Lincoln knew he did not have enough support to launch a military action against the South.

Union soldiers at Fort Sumter, SC were running low on supplies and Lincoln informed the S.C. Governor that he was sending supplies (food not weapons)

S.C. fired on Fort Sumter April 12, 1861 – This gave Lincoln the support he needed and he issued a call for 75,000 soldiers.

The Civil War had begun.

Abraham Lincoln

President of the United States during the Civil War

First Republican President in History

Ulysses S. Grant

Initially, General in charge of the Western battles

Became Commander of entire Union Army in 1864

He defeated the South and accepted Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse.

Became the 18th President of the U.S.

William T. Sherman

Took command of Western forces after Grant

Captured Atlanta in 1864 and helped Lincoln to get re-elected

Most remembered for his “march to the Sea” in which he burned and destroyed southern cities and railways in an effort to disrupt the Confederate war effort.

Jefferson Davis

First and only president of the Confederate States of America

Robert E. Lee

Commander of the Confederate’s Army of Northern Virginia

Despite winning several impressive victories during the course of the war, he did not have enough resources or men to sustain the war effort

He surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865

Stonewall Jackson

Confederate General and right-hand-man to R.E. Lee

Brilliant military commander; noted for his use of geography.

Battle of Chancellorsville, he marched his troops 12 miles undetected to attack Union forces.

Shot by his own men at Battle of Chancellorsville; died of pneumonia several days later.

First Battle of Bull Run

Also known as Manasses; it was the first confrontation between two armies and a humiliating defeat for the Union forces

Confederates could have invaded the Capital of Washington D.C. if they had been more organized.

This battle made it evident that the war would be longer that expected

This led Lincoln to adopt the Anaconda Plan

Anaconda Plan

Proposed by General Winfield Scott Involved surrounding the Confederacy and

cutting off all supplies. It restricted Southern trade and

communications by seizing control of the Mississippi River cutting the Confederacy in half.

Instituted a coastal blockade (Southerners used blockade runners to get through)

Lincoln’s Political Struggles

Concerned that Maryland would join the Confederacy, he declared martial law to prevent D.C. from being surrounded by the Confederacy.

He suspended Habeas corpus (the right that a person cannot be imprisoned without being brought before a judge) and jailed supporters of the Confederacy.

Lincoln instituted the military draft and people became angry because wealthy people could pay $300 to get out of it.

Lincoln’s Political Struggles

Lincoln’s most notable opponents were called the Copperheads – after the snake.

They were Union democrats that criticized Lincoln and the war.

They believed that freed slaves would migrate north and take jobs away from whites.

Radical copperheads encouraged Union soldiers to desert (abandon) the army and called on citizens to resist the draft

Emancipation Proclamation

January, 1863 after a much needed Union victory at Antietam, Maryland, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

This freed slaves in Confederate states, while maintaining slavery in the border states.

This gave the war a moral focus beyond saving the Union.

It also encouraged African Americans to enlist in the Union Military.

Election of 1864 and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address Lincoln was in danger of losing the 1864

election because of Northern discontent with the war.

The Capture of Atlanta was evidence that the end of the war was near, so Lincoln won re-election

In his second inaugural address, Lincoln expressed his sorrow that so many had died on both sides and he communicated his vision for rebuilding the South rather than punishing it.

Key Battles of the Civil War

Eastern Theater

The Eastern Theater

On land, the war was fought on two primary fronts or theaters: eastern and western.

1862, Robert E. Lee assumed command of the Northern Army of Virginia.

One of his first major victories was the Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)

This battle ended hopes of the Union of capturing Richmond (Confederate Capital) and emboldened Lee to attempt to invade the north.

Antietam (September 17, 1862)

Lee and his Generals tried to maintain secrecy as they planned the invasion of the North.

A copy of Lee’s orders were found wrapped around some cigars at an abandoned Confederate camp.

General McClellan prepared the union forces at Antietam Creek, Maryland

This was the bloodiest day of the war, halting the Confederate advance.

McClellan allowed Lee’s Army to escape.

Chancellorsville (May 1-5, 1863)

This battle is known as “Lee’s Perfect Battle” because of the great planning and good fortune.

Thanks to the efforts of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Lee’s army defeated more than 70,000 Union troops with only 40,000 Confederate troops.

Jackson was accidently shot by his own troops; his left arm had to be amputated, but he contracted pneumonia and died.

Lee said, “ Jackson has lost his left arm but I have lost my right”

Lee would be without his most talented general at Gettysburg.

Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863)

Fought outside Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, this battle was a key turning point in the war.

Without Jackson, Lee’s forces proved to be less aggressive and failed to win the high ground early in the battle.

General George Meade defeated Lee’s army and ended any hope of the South invading the North.

With 51,000 soldiers dead, Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle of the entire Civil War.

Four months later, Lincoln gives his “Gettysburg Address” at a ceremony dedicated a cemetery on the sight.

Key Battles of the Civil War

Western Theater

Vicksburg (May 15-July 4, 1863)

Vicksburg, Mississippi was the last obstacle to total union control of the Mississippi River.

General Ulysses S. Grant laid siege to the city.

Siege – army surrounds the enemy, cuts off their supplies, and starves them into surrendering.)

By the time they surrendered two months later, residents were eating horses, mules, dogs, and even rats.

Atlanta Campaign (May 1864)

Grant puts William T. Sherman in charge of the western forces.

Sherman begins an invasion of Georgia and he wanted to reach Atlanta because of its importance as a railroad hub.

Confederate General Johnston attacked in several small encounters with a stand at Kennesaw Mountain.

Sherman flanked (moved around) Johnston and crossed the Chattahoochee River and took Atlanta the next day.

This victory convinced the North victory was at hand and they re-elected Lincoln to a second term.

March to the Sea (May-December 1864) After taking Atlanta, Sherman ordered the city

burned and began his March to the Sea. On his way, the army burned buildings,

destroyed rail lines, set fire to factories and demolished bridges in an attempt to cripple the South’s ability to keep fighting.

Savannah surrendered without a fight and Sherman gave the city to Lincoln as a Christmas gift.

Union Victory

Grant began a series of head-to-head confrontations with Lee designed to crush the Confederate army.

In two months, the Union army lost 65,000 men, but because of the overwhelming numbers meant the Confederates were on the retreat.

April 9, 1865, Lee’s surrendered his army to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse ending the war.

General Johnston surrendered his army to Sherman at a North Carolina farmhouse known as Bennett Place.

Reasons for the Union Victory

North had a much larger population and had more men and the Union had more labor to produce war supplies and keep the economy running.

The North had more railroads to move supplies efficiently and quicker

North had more industry to produce weapons, ammunition, clothes, blankets, and other supplies

The South’s passion to defend their homeland was not enough to overcome these advantages to win.