CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR

THE REASONS THE

BLUE FOUGHT THE GRAY

• The Civil War didn’t happen because of just one reason. There were many reasons over hundreds of years.

• The pressure kept building and building until it finally came to be too much and just exploded.

The Declaration of Independence

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787

The Missouri Compromise

TARIFFS

THE COMPROMISE OF 1850

UNCLE TOM’S CABIN

KANSAS – NEBRASKA ACT

DRED SCOTT CASETHE REPUBLICAN PARTY

SECESSION CRISIS

STATES RIGHTS

EARLY AMERICA• The first slave ship landed in North America in

1619. From that time the question of slavery had always been an issue that divided the country.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

• “he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere” – Thomas Jefferson, 1776

• This statement was deleted during the debate on the Declaration, prior to adoption.

• Southerners refused to join the union if the phrase was included in the Declaration of Independence.

• This could have led to an end to slavery in 1776, and the rest might not have been necessary.

THE NORTHWEST ORDINANCE OF 1787

• The land north of the Ohio River was developed with NO possibility of allowing slavery.

• This started the divide between North & South.

THE US CONSTITUTION• In writing the Constitution the founding

fathers gave slavery legitimacy with the 3/5 Compromise.

• A country founded on liberty and freedom has written into its founding document slavery as a matter of representation and taxation.

THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE (1820)• With each section not willing to give up power

in Washington DC, adding states became difficult. The balance of power needed to be maintained.

• The Missouri Compromise allowed Maine to enter the union as a Free State and Missouri as a Slave State.

• A line was drawn across the Louisiana Purchase at 36°30’ North. Above this line no slavery except in Missouri. Below the line slavery is allowed.

THE SECESSION CRISIS• South Carolina was bothered by a new tariff

imposed by the Federal government.• They don’t like the national government

favoring the northern states at their expense.

• The tariff issue was another wedge in a country divided between North and South and National government State governments.

COMPROMISE OF 1850• California wants to be admitted as a free state,

but that will upset the balance of power in the Senate.

• The compromise gave things to both sides. It did not solve the problem. It just put it off for a longer period of time.

UNCLE TOM’S CABIN• Harriett Beecher

Stowe wrote a book about the beating death of a poor old slave by his master, Simon Legree.

• The book, and what comes next, puts a mental image on a subject that the country, particularly the south, would rather not make public.

FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW

• Part of the Compromise of 1850.• Runaway slaves and even some free-blacks

were captured and beaten on the streets.

• Ad placed by Thomas Jefferson for a runaway slave.

KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT• Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois wants to

build a railroad From Chicago to California.

• Southern states will have to agree to be taxed in order to complete it. They are going to want something in return.

• Douglas offers to have two territories organized west of Iowa and Missouri and the people will use “Popular Sovereignty” to decide the slavery issue.

JOHN BROWN• Pro-slavery forces attacked and burned the

town of Lawrence, Kansas.

• In return, a fierce abolitionist, named John Brown and his followers attacked the pro-slavery town of Potawatomie Creek.

• October 16, 1859 – John Brown and his followers execute a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.

• A detachment of Marines led by Colonel Robert E. Lee puts down the rebellion.

• John Brown is arrested, tried for treason, found guilty and hanged.

• On the way to the gallows he handed one of his guards a note saying:

– “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”

• Blood was now shed over the issue of slavery.• Southerners become worried that northerners

will attempt other slave rebellions and begin to arm themselves.

THE DRED SCOTT CASE• Dred Scott, a slave,

was the property of an army surgeon.

• He had been taken from a slave state to a free territory

• He had also been sold several times during his life.

• An abolitionist group decides to sue in Federal Court on Scott’s behalf.

• The case gets before the Supreme Court and Chief Justice Roger Taney rules that Scott is not a human being and cannot sue in Federal Court. He will remain a slave.

• The court also decides that slaves are property and the Constitution protects property. Therefore no one, anywhere, can be denied their right to slaves. Missouri Compromise is unconstitutional.

Election of 1860• The Platform of the Republican Party in 1860

called for an end to the expansion of slavery, not its abolition.

• South Carolina threatens to secede if Lincoln, the Republican candidate, is elected.

• Lincoln wins the election of 1860, and eventually eleven states secede to form the Confederate States of America.