American Civil War

Manifest Destiny

Old belief that god intended America to reach pacific

• Justification for territorial expansion and Serena s proof o superiority of Anglo-Saxons

• President Polk heavily believed in this, fuelled Mexican-American war

Texas Revolt 1835-1836

• Texas (part of Mexico) was being settled by Americans, who also brought slaves with them

• Alarmed that their grip on Texas was weakening, Mexico sent in a general from Santa Ana to centralise authority (Mexico had banned slavery)

• Army sparked Texas revolt

  • Rebels (settlers/texans) formed a provisional government and called for Texan Independence

    • Believed Mexican gov. Was detached from theirs and feared they’d abolish slavery

  • Santa Anna’s army stormed military compound called the Alamo and killed the 200 American Texans inside

    • “Remember the Alamo” rallying cry

  • Texans won their independence in 1836 and formed the republic of Texas

    • Tried to join the Union, but President Van Buren shoved it to avoid free/slave state dilemma

    • President Polk was elected (harsh slaveowner by standards of the day) and annexed Texas

• Polk tries to buy california from Mexico, they refuse so he declares war

Mexican-American war (1846)

• Many supported due to the expansionist fever

• Northerners opposed war because they saw it as the expanding o slave power and a fundamentally immoral war against weaker republic

• Set off a chain of events, starting with the Wilmot Proposal (1846)

  • Proposed that all territory acquired from Mexico be slave-free

  • Passed in the House, failed in the Senate

Free-soil Party (Free-Soilers)

• Against westward expansion of slavery and that settlers should be given free homestead in the West

• Not moral objection to slavery but rather that yeoman farmers should get land in west and not let slaves create unfair economic disadvantage towards small farmers

• Rooted in republican ideals of the independent (yeoman) farmers as the backbone of society

• Supported by those who didn’t want to compete fro wages with blacks and who feared slave power.

• Didn’t want abolish and didn’t want westward expansion of slavery

Irish brigade

Irish sliders who were mistreated for their Catholicism and faced economic hardship, also did not want to fight for the expansion of slavery

Deserted the US army, joined the Mexicans, hanged for treason

Compromise of 1850

• A result of the new land acquired by Mexican-American war

• Proposed by Clay to temporarily resolve sectional tensions following end of war

  • California is admitted to the union as a free state

  • Slave trade is abolished in the nation’s capital

  • Fugitive slave act

    • Allowed federal agents to capture fugitive slaves while ignoring rights to jury trial and punished interference/those helping slaves

    • Could basically kidnap free and former enslaves blacks and bring them to South

    • Resulted in a revival of Underground Railroad

  • Status of remaining Mexican territory would not be up to Missouris compromise, but instead the local white population would decide by popular sovereignty

    • Would lead to bleeding Kansas

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

• Former free by the Missouri compromise, Douglas enforced popular sovereignty in these territories

Bleeding Kansas (1856)

• When Kansas held their elections, pro-slavery residents from Missouri crossed the border and cast ballots that resulted in a pro-slavery legislature

  • People who opposed slavery establish a rival government and began a mini civil war in which around 200 died

  • In Congress, Sumner denounced Bleeding Kansas, gave big anti-slavery speech, insulted Andrew Butler, one of Preston Brooks relatives. Brooks beat him with a cane

Split of Democratic Party

• A result of Northern Democrats refusing to guarantee the expansion of slavery in the West

• Shatter Union of Democratic Party, collapsed the Whig party, the South became Democratic Party, North formed Republican Party

  • Republicans a combination of anti-slavery democrats, freesoilers, whigs, and know-nothings

    • Know-nothings cantered on nativism, believed political office should be reserved fro native born Americans

    • Inspired by influx of Catholic Irish immigrants

Anti-slavery arguments

• Opposed to slave power

• Moral arguments based in Christian ideals and sinful violations of the natural law

• Freesoilers wanted to reserve Western land for settlers, didn’t want to compete with blacks for wages

Pro-slavery arguments

• first seen as a necessary evil

• then argued as a positive good, provides stability and removes class conflict, enslaved were actually better off in their position

• Racialised pseudo-science (naturally inferior)

• Would then label any attack on slavery as an assault on the constitution, rights to property and states’ rights

North still complicit in slavery

• Textile industry relied on cotton

• Shipped slave products to global markets

• Their view was to stop the expansion of slavery rather than ending the institution

  • The south believed slavery must expand to keep the institution alive

  • Most Northerners supported colonisation of Liberia

Dried Scott vs Sanford (1857)

• Ruled that black people could not be citizens, residence in a free state does not free a slave, and that congress could not prohibit slavery in a territory

• Repealed the Missouri compromise and undermined popular sovereignty

• Bad case, shows bias because could have just stopped at not citizen but delivered on all three issues

John Brown (1859)

• Fought in Bleeding Kansas

• Staged an armed assault on Harpers ferry, Virginia a federal armoury, but was killed

• Became a martyr in the North, Villain in the South who became convinced that the North was endorsing racial rebellion

  • Would view election of Lincoln as a threat to their way of life

Election of 1860

• Lincoln wins as Republican nominee

• Republicans regional party and only won because of split in Democratic Party, only national party

  • Douglas ran on unity, only won one state

  • Lincoln didn’t receive a single electoral vote in the south

  • Won around 180 electoral votes and 40% of popular vote

  • Douglas was second in popular vote

• Power shift from South to North

• South Carolina secedes, several states follow, formed Confederacy and elected president Jefferson Davis

• Lincoln hoped that the South would rejoin Union, didn’t provoke them further

• Endorsed an early 13th Amendment which would prevent the federal government at any point from interfering with slavery n the South where it already existed

  • If war started he knew south had to start it

American Civil War (1861-1865)

• Confederate soldiers fire at Fort Sumter(1861) when union tries to restock it, war has begun

• First Battle of Bull Run - destroyed early optimism of short quick war, union forced into a retreat

• Battle of Antietam - deadliest day in US history (4k dead and 18k wounded)

• Battle of Gettysburg- largest battle on US soil (165k soldiers), the Confederate soldiers lost ground (1863)

  • Gettysburg Address - speech by Lincoln, was was meant to uphold liberty and democratic ideals, redefine freedom, look to reconstruction, is was about slavery?

• Draft riots (1863) - riots by Irish immigrants because rich could pay $300 to avoid draft and burned black orphanage because they didn’t want freed slaves to compete for jobs

Viewpoints

• North did not initially want war nor did it consider slavery a motive, as seen in Congress with Crittenden Resolution (1860)

  • Would have been 13th Amendment, let’s South keep slaves forever, extend Missouri compromise to the pacific, to avoid war

• As blacks fled as contraband and formed contraband camps, eventually enlisted in the army by North to fight and used as labourers, emancipation was forced to become a motive

  • Emancipation would destroy southern economy

Lincoln

• Initially wanted to preserve union

  • Maintain loyalty of the border states, respect South’s rights, calm the North

• Contraband camps convinced Lincoln that emancipation was necessary at least on the battlefield/frontline, shifting the focus of war to ending slavery (in the south and eventually everywhere)

• Signed emancipation proclamation in 1863, ending slavery in the Southern states in open rebellion (no Tennessee and border states) heavily increased runaway slaves and black enlistment in union army

  • Favoured gradual emancipation to prevent loss of border states

  • Brought back colonisation possibility

Total war

• Sherman’s march to the Sea (1864)

• Was in the sense that it was a modern war, destroy Southern society as a whole, break their wills to fight but did not go out of their way to kill civilians or demand total surrender

Properties:

• centralised power

  • National banking acts, proper currency, war bonds, tariffs, railroads, income taxes

• total surrender?

  • Lincoln willing to compromise to preserve union and easily reintegrate South

• Blurring of civilian and soldier lines

  • Targeted infrastructure, economy, destruction of property, guerrilla warfare, did not kill too many civilians though

• industrial Warfare

  • Advanced rifles, railways, telegraphs