Era of Sectional Conflict

1848-1877

South and Slavery

Two Souths Upper South: 8 states Lower South: 7 states

North and Its Relationship to the South Upper North. Zone of New England

Influence. Most hostile to Southern manners and morals

Lower North. Zone of Southern influence. People sometimes called “Butternuts”

Slavery as an Economic System

Slavery, a labor system1. Slavery was relatively

widespread Strongest in the Lower South Overall, 25%-33% of all

households owned slaves Large slave holders rare. Fewer

than 2,500 slave owners in 1860 owned more than 100 slaves

Slavery, a labor system (cont.)

2. Slavery on Great Plantations Gang System. Each gang

supervised by slave driver Slaves as skilled workers Domestic slaves Overseer, a white man, oversaw

all the work

3. Slavery on small farms

Slavery, a profitable labor system1. Thesis of slavery in decline2. Time on the Cross: As Civil War

approached, slavery become more profitable

Wealth and wealth per capita growing faster in South than North

Slaves, a valuable investment 1849: $1,000 1859: $1,700

3. Slavery as a glue holding South together. Intranational (not international) slave trade

4. Slave owners have an economic vested interest in perpetuating slavery

Slavery as an economic drag

1. Neo-colonial character of Southern antebellum economy

Producing agricultural commodities for processing elsewhere

South lacked manufacturing facilities

2. South not urbanizing like North More of population lives in rural areas. Few

cities Cities like Atlanta were transporation depots

3. South neglected manufacturing and services like transportation & insurance

Slavery was a magnet attracting capital. Returns were great

Slavery as a social system

White and black American/slave cultures existed side-by-side

Slavery necessary as a means of social control.

1. Law as a tool of social control. Slavery spelled out in state slave codes As a labor force. Slave owners had to

meet certain minimum requirements Physical punishment, even severe

physical punishment allowed, but wanton killing of a slave was murder

Slavery as a social system-social control

2. Property Law: Could not own property

3. Family and Personal Law Slave status & race defined It was a crime to teach slaves to read

and write Slave marriages and families were not

legal but extralegal institutions

4. Slave codes enforced white supremacy. Every white superior to every black American

Slavery as a social system-”World the Slaves Made” 1. Families important to slaves

Slaves sought to form functional families

Barriers to forming functional families1. Marriage & families extralegal

2. Sexual exploitation of female slaves by white males

3. Slave trade threatened integrity of families

Importance of real and fictional extended families

Slavery as a social system-”World the Slaves Made”2. Religion important to slaves

Christianity widespread Attraction of “the story”

Jesus as liberator Exodus a very popular story

Slave songs: Spirituals Baptist and Methodist churches

predominant

Slavery as a social system-”World the Slaves Made”3. Slave Resistance

Open Resistance Rebellion: 1831: Nat Turner’s

Rebellion in Virginia Escaping: Underground Railroad

Passive Resistance “Docile” Slaves Malingering slave

White Southern Defense of Slavery Concept of slavery as a

necessary evil giving way to notion as a positive good because

1. The Bible sanctioned slavery

2. Free societies were always built on slavery

3. Southern slavery superior to “wage slavery” of the North

North growing critical of slavery Southern control of national politics

result of “slave power conspiracy” Slavery contradicted by work ethic.

In North, hard work led to economic & social betterment, but in the South, slaves worked hard, but did not benefit

Emergence of the Free Soil Ideology

End of National Unity

1848-1861

Wilmont Proviso Mexican War pushed slavery into the

political system in a big way. What was to be the legal status of slavery in the West?

Wilmont Proviso’s answer: “…neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist…” there.

Congress did not enact this, but the House of Representatives approved it

Pushed sectional divisions to forefront. Southern fears of encirclement deepen

Compromise of 1850

1. California Controversy California gold rush draws avalanche of

settlers Political organization of California an

immediate necessity California’s Constitution proposed making

the new state a free state. Question of slavery in the West no longer academic

2. United States now confronted a crisis of the first order

Southern politicians seek to defend their section by emphasizing southern rights, including a right of secession

Northern politicians complain about Southern control of the federal government & a slave-power conspiracy

Compromise of 1850-Continued

3. Henry Clay’s proposed compromise Admitting California as a free state and providing for New

Mexico’s territorial organization “without restrictions on slavery (Popular Sovereignty)

Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute settled in a way favorable to New Mexico, but U.S. assumed Texas debt

District of Columbia: Slave Trade ended, but slavery continued

No federal interference in interstate slave trade & a stronger fugitive slave act

Compromise of 1850-Continued

4. Rejection of Clay’s compromise shows depth of divisions, but Senator Stephen Douglas resurrected it Southern emotions cooling President Zachary Taylor died

5. Congress enacted compromise with Douglas providing skilled leadership

Compromise of 1850-Continued

6. Weaknesses of this compromise Fugitive Slave Act reinforces northern belief

in a slave power conspiracy

Kansas-Nebraska Crisis:1854

1. Redefinition of the eastern Great Plains Eastern Nebraska & Kansas opening to settlement Senator Douglas presented a plan to encourage settlement:

organize this area as a territory, but without the Missouri compromise restriction

2. End product: two territories organized according to principles of Popular Sovereignty

Douglas miscalculated. North refused to accept the elimination of the restriction

Enactment of Kansas-Nebraska Act shattered the illusion of sectional peace & broke up the existing party system Election of 1854: Northern wing of Democratic party damaged,

Whig party all but gone in the South, a new party emerged in the North: the Republican party

Bleeding Kansas

How popular sovereignty worked in Kansas. Pro-slavery legislature governing an anti-slavery population

Sack of Lawrence & John Brown’s raid on pro-slavery settlers

Dress rehearsal for Civil War

Election of 1856 Newly emerging party system

Democratic party remains, national in scope, but with special strength in the South

Republican party emerging as major second party, but exclusively a party in the non-slave states. Virtually non-existent in slave states

Two other parties complicate matters: American party as political expression of anti-immigrant

sentiment Remnant of Whig party in the South

Election results Republican nominee Fremont triumphant in the North Democratic nominee Buchanan the winner. He owed

the South big-time American party dying out

Dred Scott Case & Kansas Again

1. Dred Scott Case Details of case extremely complex Supreme Court findings. Most important conclusion

was that the United States constitutionally could NOT exclude slavery from territories.

2. Kansas Again Kansas legislature rammed the Lecompton

Constitution down the people’s throats Congress refused to accept it. Senator Douglas

asserted himself as leader of Northern Democrats as his party began to divide. He defied President Buchanan who asserted a pro-Southern position

Harpers Ferry Affair (late 1859)1. Raid on Harpers Ferry: October 16, 1859

2. John Brown’s Trial: Ended November 2, with Brown sentenced to hang:

“I believe that to interfered as I have done … in behalf of [God’s] despised poor is no wrong, but right. Now, if it becomes necessary that I should mingle my blood further with the blood of … millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I say, let it be done.”

3. Execution of John Brown: December 2, 1859

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

4. Sectional Result North: John Brown, a misguided fanatic, but in his death a martyr

to liberty South: Fear & rage about the North. Loyal unionists --

Secessionists

United States in 1860: Presidential Election

1. Presidential race a strange one: two separate elections North: Stephen Douglas vs. Abraham Lincoln South: John Breckinridge vs. John Bell

2. Lincoln’s victory is sectional. He unified the non-slave states. 3. Lincoln’s victory triggered the secession of the seven slave

states in the Lower South February 1861: Confederate States of America formed in

Montgomery, AL Confederate problem: Eight slave states remained in the

Union. Would the Confederacy collapse without at least some of them joining the Confederacy

Union problem: Preventing additional states from leaving the Union

From Crisis to War: February-April

Focus on Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC harbor Why is it important to the Union? To the Confederacy? James Buchanan finally stood firm Abraham Lincoln, upon becoming President, tried to mix firmness

and flexibility. Trying to avoid Civil War Late March: Crisis becoming acute. Fort must receive supplies or

surrender Early April: Confederacy demanded surrender of fort or it would

use force? Why did Confederate officials want to force the issue? April 12: War began with bombardment of Fort.

Union decision to fight to maintain Union. Lincoln’s call for 75,000 troops Effect in North: Rally the country. Effect in South: Four more

secessions

Civil War

1861-1865

At the Start of the War

Union advantages Superior material resources Advantage in leadership: Lincoln vs.

Davis Established government vs a new

government Central problem for the Confederacy:

What was it about, Southern Nationalism or States’ Rights

Conclusion: Was the war the Union’s to win or lose?

At the Start of the War--Continued

Union’s Biggest Challenges Time is on the side of the Union Hold on to the 4 “loyal” slave

states: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri. If these join the other side all may be lost

Holding on to these 4 states

Course of the War in the West

Union Strategy Emphasize the Union as perpetual

& avoid making it a war for abolition of slavery

Squeeze the Confederacy using the “Anaconda” strategy

Blockade Hold out in the East Crush the Confederacy in the West

Course of the War in the West—Cont.

1862: Union thrust down and up the Mississippi River Under U.S. Grant, Confederacy forced

out of much of Tennessee & into northern Mississippi. Done by April 1862.

Battle of Shiloh:6-7 April 1862. Why important?

U.S. Navy under David Farragut captured New Orleans, 25 April 1862. Union gun boats can range up the Mississippi River

Focus on Vicksburg. Why did the Confederacy have to hold this one place?

Course of the War in the West—Cont.

Battle for Vicksburg: late 1862-4 July 1863 What did this campaign show

about Grant? What did he do AFTER he failed

twice? Union success meant Lincoln now

had the key in the pocket

Course of the War in the West—Cont.

Fall of Chattanooga, TN—Late 1863 What opportunity was now open to the Union military force? Union change in command. Why did Lincoln replace Grant

with Gen. William T. Sherman? Atlanta Campaign

Confederate forces fought desperate campaign to keep the “Yankees” out of Georgia. Joe T. Johnston used delaying tactics, aided by geography, until replaced by John Bell Hood.

Fall of Atlanta, 3 September 1864 Sherman operated against the breadbasket. “March through

Georgia” to Savannah: Confederacy on ropes End of this phase of the war: Johnston, in command,

surrendered to the Union forces under Sherman in late April 1865.

Course of the war in the East1. Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee, fought

the Army of the Potomac. Lee in command, June 18622. Battle of Antietam & Turning the Civil War into a War on Slavery

One day battle, 17 September 1862, cost 7,800 dead and 15,000 + wounded. Bloodiest single day of war

Aftermath: Lincoln issued two emancipation proclamations Preliminary Proclamation: 22 Sept. 1862. Declared slaves in states still

in rebellion “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free”. Lincoln justified proclamation on grounds of military necessity.

Final Proclamation: 1 Jan. 1863. Slaves now free in all areas under control of the Confederacy, but not in areas under Union control or the four “loyal” slave states. Military necessity. In spite of appearances this turned the Civil War into a war on slavery. From now on, wherever Union forces advance, slavery died.

Emancipation Proclamation meant that if the Union won the war, American slavery would be DEAD.

3. Battle of Gettysburg: 1-3 July 1863. Most famous battle of war. Meant that from now on Lee’s army fighting a defensive war that it would eventually lose

4. War in the East and the role of U.S. Grant5. Surrender of Lee’s Army at Appomattox Court House: 9 April 1865

Meaning of the Outcome

1. The United States transformed from a loosely organized country into a more centralized nation

2. The United States ceased being a slave-holding country

Reconstruction

Issues in Reconstruction

1. Status of the former slaves: Issue of citizenship forced by Dred Scott case

2. Question of balance of power in national government: Power struggle between Congress & President

3. Issue of balance of power between national government and states

4. Status of the former Confederate states

Presidential Reconstruction

Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the new President, Andrew Johnson

Johnson’s five point Reconstruction program

All 11 ex-Confederate states met Presidential standards

Congressional Reconstruction

1. Congress rejected presidential Reconstruction:Dec. 1865

2. Joint Congressional Committee on Reconstruction Testimony in public hearings outraged northern public opinion Recommended more stringent measures against the South

Continuing the Freedmen’s Bureau: “Yankee” meddling Civil Rights Act to secure legal rights of citizenship for ex-slaves

3. Fourteenth Amendment proposed Response to both white Southern and Presidential opposition Wrote into Constitution a definition of national citizenship Difficulties with this. Tennessee exceptional

4. 1866 Congressional Elections: A Showdown between Johnson & Congress that Johnson lost badly

Congressional Reconstruction—Cont.

5. Several Reconstruction Acts laid down Congressional Reconstruction program. Congress overrode Johnson’s vetoes

Elements1. Military supervision of civilian governments. 10 states organized

into 5 military districts. Eventually, military could even remove civilian officials

2. Process for removing military supervision. State had to elect a state constitutional convention, employing universal manhood suffrage. The State would have to ratify a new constitution with a provision for black suffrage and ratify the 14th Amendment

Problem: Southern white voters preferred military supervision to black suffrage. Congress tightened the basic law twice. President Johnson tried to interpret law narrowly so:

6. Congress impeached, then acquitted President Johnson: early 1868

7. Result: Broad extension of the authority of the federal government over the affairs of southern states