Causes of the Civil War

The war with Mexico allowed the U.S. to expand even farther west. With new territories, came the repeated question of whether slavery should be allowed to spread.

Wilmot Proviso – proposal by David Wilmot that said, “ neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist” in the western territories.

Wilmot Proviso passed in the House of Representatives, but never came to a vote in the Senate.

John C. Calhoun of S. Carolina argued that property can be taken into new territories – including slaves.

Popular sovereignty – each new territory would vote on whether to allow slavery.

Free Soil Party – opponents of slavery and abolitionist members of the Liberty Party joined together. They believed that the spread of slavery should not be allowed on the “free soil of the western territories.” Some wanted to stop the spread of slavery. Many wanted lands left open to white farmers.

1849 – gold is discovered in California. There were 15 free states and 15 slave states. If California enters as a free state, it would create a majority in the Senate. Fearful southerners begin to consider secession.

A series of compromises were used to try to hold the union together.

Henry Clay (Ky) – “The Great Compromiser”

1820 – Missouri Compromise – Maine would enter as a free state and Missouri would be slave. Territories north of Missouri would remain free.

Compromise of 1850 – California would be free. There would be no restrictions on slavery in the Mexican Cession. The slave trade in the District of Columbia would be outlawed. Southerners were allowed greater power in recovering escaped slaves.

Fugitive Slave Act – slave owners could point out escaped slaves and have them returned. No proof of escape was needed. Federal marshals were required to help catch the slaves and they could require ordinary citizens to help.

Frederick Douglass – an escaped slave who made speeches against the new law, published a newspaper called The Liberator.

Harriet Tubman – helped slaves escape on the Underground Railroad.

Levi Coffin – hid over 3,000 slaves in Indiana and Ohio who had escaped across the Ohio River.

Harriet Beecher Stowe – wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin to depict the true face of slavery – about the slave, Tom and his cruel master, Simon Legree.

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) – There was debate about whether to have a northern or southern starting point for the Transcontinental Railroad. This led to debate over slavery in the territories. This act proposed that the new territory would be divided – Nebraska would be free, Kansas slave.

Part of the Missouri Compromise had to be repealed to allow for this.

Bleeding Kansas – northerners rushed to Kansas to create an anti-slavery majority. People living along the Missouri border rushed over to vote illegally for a pro-slavery legislature.

March, 1856 – Kansas had 2 governments, one anti-slavery, one pro-slavery. Violence erupted, 200 people were killed and $2 million in property damage.