US history survey

May 8, 20121850s crises – steps toward

Civil War, 1861 - 1865

announcements

• paper # 2 due Tuesday 22 May.• 1 – 2 pages, typed, double spaced. No emails. • write an autobiography describing how the Civil

War affects your life. • do internet research, & write an original essay. • choose– race, gender, age, class, enslaved or free. – state(s) in which you live.

1850s crises

• compromises of 1850 did not resolve the issue of extension of slavery into territories.

• political parties no longer national, but increasingly sectional.

• Republican party founded, all Northerners.• N & S attitudes hardening, compromises less

possible.• violence – Kansas & elsewhere.

Preston Brooks attacks Charles Sumner in Senate, 1856

Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857

Scott, lifelong slave, taken by owner tofree territory, 1830s. Married a slave, Harriet, & daughter born in free territory. Returned to slave state.• sued for freedom for 3 based on residence in free state. • S-dominated Supreme Court, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. Sectional decision.

Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1857

• Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. • federal govt. had no right to interfere w/

movement of property = states’ rights position of Calhoun.

• “beings of an inferior order.”• “altogether unfit to associate with the white

race.”• “no rights which the white man was bound to

respect”

ongoing political crises

• Dred Scott decision swept away free soil foundation of Republican party.

• crisis over admitting Kansas, 1858, w/ slavery constitution. Opposed by S. Douglas. Congress Refused admission. (Later admitted as free state, 1861.)

• 1858, 30 Congressmen in a free-for-all fight.

Lincoln-Douglas debates

• 1858 debate, Lincoln (R) & Douglas (D). Could a territory exclude slavery?

• Douglas: yes, popular sovereignty.• Douglas loses support of Democratic South.

raid on Harper’s Ferry federal arsenal

• 1859• Virginia border w/ Maryland

• Black & white men attempted to seize weapons to start slave uprising.

• raid failed.

John Brown

• had killed unarmed pro-slavery men in Kansas, 1856.• H. F. raid financed by abolitionists. • captured, tried, executed, a martyr.• public mourning in North.

1860

• presidential election, 11/1860. Democrats split. Republicans nominated Lincoln. 2nd highest turnout in election ever.

• Southern governors called state conventions.• South Carolina seceded, 12/1860, followed by

6 other deep south states. • Lincoln would not compromise on extension

of slavery. Moderate in response to secession.

1861

• 7 states form Confederacy in Montgomery, AL.• copied US Constitution, except– strong support for states’ rights.– abolition of slavery virtually impossible.

• elected Jefferson Davis, a moderate, president.• built on decentralization.• military defense of South would require strong central government.

• 1861 inaugurations – Lincoln & Davis both pray for peace.

• Lincoln would not give up federal power over military forts & customs posts in South.

• Lincoln sent food to Fort Sumter, Charleston, SC. Davis demanded: surrender the fort or Confederacy would attack.

attack on Fort Sumter

• 1861• 4 more states secede:

VA, NC, Tenn, Ark.• Confederate capital

moved to Richmond, VA.

• Border slavery states do not secede: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri.

• W Virginia breaks into separate state, 1863.

armies created

• before Ft. Sumter, Confederacy calls for 100,000 volunteers.

• after Ft. Sumter, Lincoln calls for 75,000 state militiamen to serve in federal army; no Blacks.

• few expected a long or serious war. • North: larger, richer, more industrialized. • South: fighting in self-defense, more experienced

military, able to continue economy w/ slave labor.• Robert E. Lee offered command of both sides.

war expands power of government

• N borrowed $2.6 billion, initiated sales tax & 1st federal income tax.

• created national currency for 1st time. • Morrill Tariff Act – higher tariffs.• chartered 2 corporations to build a transcontinental

RR.• Homestead Act – 160 acres free for living on it 5 years

& improving it. • Morrill Land Grant Act – lands for states to create

practical colleges – agriculture, engineering, etc.

Europe?

• North tried to ensure Britain & France didn’t recognize Confederacy.

• Confederacy believed cotton was king.• Europe stayed out & found other sources for

cotton.

• N naval blockade eventually successful in keeping supplies from reaching South.

people

draft = compulsory labor

• Confederate draft began April 1862 – 1st draft law in America, white men 18 – 35.

• unpopular because denied rights of individual man.

• owners of more than 20 slaves exempt.• rich could hire a replacement instead of

serving in military. • “a rich man’s war, but a poor man’s fight.”

Union draft, March, 1863

• well-to-do Northern white men could buy their way out of being drafted by paying $300.

• working-class white men had to serve. • working class anger.• 3 days of rioting NYC, 1863, resulted in at least

120 civilian deaths, 11 lynchings of African Americans, & substantial property damage. Focused on African Americans.

draft riots, NYC, 1863

women

• procurement & supply – both sides.• soldiers in disguise – both sides.• nurses (previously not respectable). • organizers – more in Union, more experienced

in organizations. • US Sanitary Commission – N women, supplied

funds, food, clothes, medicine, quilts.

population in 1860

enslaved Black pop. 3,951,000free people of color 477,000white 26,691,000

how did people gain freedom pre-CW?

free people of color

enlisted in Union Army

Emancipation Proclamation, 1863

what happened to enslaved people during Civil War?

• some men forced to serve in Confederate Army, usually as domestic workers. No guns!

• numerous enslaved men escaped to & joined Union forces when they came nearby.

• slaves waged a general strike: stopped working, produced only for their own needs.

• general strike undermined Confederate Army, leading to Union victory.

W.E.B. DuBois (1868 – 1963)• challenged racist

histories of Black people.

• saw Black people as historical actors.

• discussed alliances of freedpeople & poor whites post-CW: free public education & social services.

announcements

• paper # 2 due Tuesday 22 May.• 1 – 2 pages, typed, double spaced. No emails. • write an autobiography describing how the Civil

War affects your life. • do internet research, & write an original essay. • choose– race, gender, age, class, enslaved or free. – state(s) in which you live.

Dokuz Eylul Conference

• Being a Woman: Awareness & Liberalization.• Wed, May 9 – Fri May 11, Dokuz Eylul

Rectorate in Alsancak.• free for students.• I’m speaking at a plenary session, Fri, 9:30.

“From Awareness to Action, from Liberalization to Liberation.”

reading assignment for May 15

• Out of Many– Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, 207 – 208.– African American soldier, 212.– Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, 214 – 215.