political, economic and social "balance" between North and South \n
4 views / proposals: \n
use missouri compromise
extend 36'30 line to Pacific
wilmot proviso
david wilmot
pennsylvania democrat
no slavery in the new territories
free-soil party
john c. calhoun - south carolina
congress has no right to prohibit slavery → constitution
5th amendment - protects the rights of slaveholders ("private property"
popular sovereignty - gen. l. cass
stephen douglas - illinois democrat
people in the territory can decide whether to be free or slave (popular = people)
**election of 1848 \n **
candidates
democrat → general lewis cass
"conspiracy of silence" on slavery
needed votes of Southern democrats
whig → zachary taylor
northern bus - wealthy - federal government
free soil party → martin van buren
supported wilmot proviso
zachary taylor wins
dodged the issue of slavery (avoids divisive issue)
1849: "california gold" → blew the lid off of congress \n
1848 - sutter's mill → "forty-niners"
california applies for statehood
blew the lid off; senate: 15-15 balance
discovery of gold → thousands of men move west to get rich → lawless time, california applies for statehood within the year
1850: issues debated - \n
california
sectional balance (15)
texas - claims new lands in mexico
south angry: abolition of slavery in DC
runaway slaves - fugitive slave law
underground railroad - harriet tubman
abolitionists: "moral judgements"
refused to obey laws
dec 9 '49: Congress convenes → california?

1850: the great debate

congress: "old" guard v "young" guard
old - immortal trio
webster, calhoun + clay
young - young northern radicals (antislavery)
no concessions, no compromise
leader: seward → "God's moral law", believes there's a higher law than the Constitution (choose between)
debate: northern union savers v southern fire eaters
1850 "great compromise"
henry clay - 5 provisions
president taylor promises to veto the compromise, dies suddenly
vp millard filmore becomes president + signs compromise; wants to bury the issue of slavery

1850-1854: second era of good feelings

period of peace + prosperity
north - south - west
underlying currents
leading to tension and conflicts
eg.

fugitive slave law
personal liberty laws (defying fugitive slave law)

no, we won't help southerners find runaway slaves, etc. or abide by judges' rulings → they'll help the slaves
During Jackson, when the south defied a federal law, they were threatened with military force. Now, when the north breaks such a law, the federal government does nothing → hypocrisy.

underground railroad

Network of trails with "stations" or safe houses where runaway slaves could stay and receive food and shelter. People who aided the fugitives on their journey north to freedom were referred to as conductors. Conductors came from all occupations including farming, business and the ministry.
highly secretive → stations only know the next house down

harriet tubman → "moses"
frederick douglass "the north star" was his newspaper
harriet beecher stowe

considered one of the causes of the civil war
uncle tom's cabin, 1852
sold 300,000 copies in the first year, 2 million in a decade
strips away positive imagery - shows true horrors and brutality of slavery that southerners were trying to hide

hinton helper

controversial antislavery book; more of a documentary than uncle tom's cabin → ripping into southern economy, strong but debilitating; economy of south is so dependent on slave labor and cotton production that if anything happens (eg. drought), everyone will suffer. argues that south is being economically stifled by slavery, not growing

william lloyd garrison

"the liberator" - office was often broken into, fierce abolitionist

sojourner truth
1. david walker
2. grimke sisters

growing debate → abolitionist fanatics v pro-slavery forces

the south lashes back

defense of slavery and southern economy / way of life

the abolitionist impact in the north

initial reactions + opposition
changing views
northerners conflicted on abolition - it'd hurt northern factories, but more impactful on the south

1852 - presidential election

candidates
democrat - franklin pierce
expansionist, pro-south
whig - general winfield scott
free soil - john parker hale
results: pierce wins
defeat + doom for the whig party
deaths of the "old guard"
compromise was dead

ostend manifesto - cuba

no place for slavery to expand in South - desert, etc.; turn South (Cuba) instead
Cuba, "pearl of the Antilles," was a pearl of great price for the United States
The North would have her at almost any price - up to $130,000,000 - as a hedge against the Anglos-French imperialist threat.
The South wanted Cuba to stabilize the House + senate + to create a “slavocracy” - south to Brazil and west to the Pacific.
But Cuba was to be the dream on which the slavocracy wrecked its hopes in the years leading up to the Civil War. "The Ostend Manifesto" discredited a pro-South administration and helped mobilize public opinion in the 1854 and '56 elections that eventually paved the way for Abraham Lincoln's 1860 victory.
Cuba was to be the South's first lost cause, though not its last.

1854: kansas-nebraska act

stephen douglas' "scheme"
reactions etc.
republican party is formed

1854: birth of the republican party

northern whigs
northern democrats
free soilers
know nothings
misc. opponents
policy: no slavery in the territories
impact on democratic party
shattered
northern v southern democrats
kansas territory
slave or free?
majority won in state legislature or elect own legislators and governor
bleeding kansas - mini civil war
border "ruffians" (pro-slavery missourians)
william clarke quantrill v john brown

1856 presidential election

democrat: james buchanan
whig: millard fillmore
free soil: john c. frémont
neither candidate tarred by bleeding kansas
buchanan → provided little leadership; mediocre + confused, hoped supreme court would decide issue of slavery in territories
result - "victorious defeat" of republican party
southern threat: election of a "black" president would be a declaration of war

1857: the dred scott bombshell

supreme court decision
decision: slaves are private property
protected by constitution
3 major implications:

as private property, slaves could be brought into any territory without being freed
effectively ends missouri compromise
congress has no power to end slavery

panic of 1857

stock panic
gives southerners a false sense of security (they can't actually operate independently just because they don't face the same set of economic issues as their northern counterparts)
effects
north: businesses + banks close, poverty and homelessness rise
south: small blip; cash crop economy, don't have to worry about industry fall

abraham lincoln

illinois: state legislature - whig
republican party candidate: 1858
campaign for senate v stephen douglas

1858: the lincoln-douglas debates

"a house divided against itself cannot stand"
stephen douglas and the "freeport doctrine"

1859: john brown's raid on harpers ferry

"god's angry man"
goal: establish a black free state + rise up in revolution
John Brown - madman, hero or martyr?
realized he could do more for abolition as a martyr than alive

1860 presidential election

lincoln (R)
john bell (constitutional union)
stephen douglas (N. democrat)
john c. breckenridge (S. democrat)

secession

dec 20, 1860
6 states voted to secede from the union
feb 4 1861 - south forms a new nation
confederacy
president: jefferson davis
capital: montgomery, al (richmond, va)

crittenden compromise

last ditch appeal to sanity
senator john c. crittenden
wants supreme court to decide whether it's constitutional to allow states to secede from the union - nothing says they can't / can

causes of the civil war

freedom
independence
way of life
government (1850 laws)
balance of power - house / senate
power over laws, people, trade
supreme court decision - dred scott blows every compromise out of the water (missouri, comp of 1850, popular sovereignty - gone)
land
new western territories
statehood?
slave or free
expansion of slavery westward
radicals
abolitionists
harriet beecher stowe, sojourner truth, etc.
john brown; "god's angry man"
sectionalism
such distinct regions
industrial v cash crop
slavery
primary/absolute cause of the civil war — the South wanted to continue enslaving people, the North rejected this.
states' rights

president abraham lincoln

march 4, 1861 - oath of office
realize that november → march is a long time to have a lame duck president
inaugural address
secession was illegal (impractical)
never recognized Confederacy - "states in rebellion"
this isn't another nation to defeat; other Americans that are rebelling that will be beaten but brought back into the country
goal: preservation of union
settle crisis without war
keep remaining 9 states in the union
"border states"
reasons for secession
Fears of black people and slave rebellion non-slaveholding whites-
“way of life” threatened
Anti-northern/urban/industrial
Something in common with slaveholders
Social connections between the classes of whites
Economic connections: renting slaves, foremen on plantations, debt
Fears of black people and slave rebellion
The vote & political participation
Ideas of white supremacy
States rights

european reactions

european nations delighted

"american experiment" failed
democracy / republic not possible

divide + conquer

play north + south against each other
incite conflicts, esp out west with Indigenous peoples

european colonies safe from "rapacious yankees"

no interference

european "imperialists" could defy the monroe doctrine

seize land in americas

"a new kind of war"

first modern war

new technology + inventions
new war tactic: "total war"
involvement of the home fronts
role of women
numbers of deaths + casualties

fort sumter \n
april 12, 1861
began Civil War
attacked by Brig Gen Beauregard (Anderson's student at West point)
continued until Anderson surrendered on april 14 (outnumbered, outgunned)
no casualties during battle, one Union soldier killed during 100-gun salute
Anderson's actions at Fort Sumter made him an immediate national hero \n
virginia, north carolina, tennessee and arkansas join confederacy \n

border states

Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware & West Virginia
importance
more than half of confederacy's white population
increase half its supply of horses and mules
ohio, cumberland + tennessee rivers
could double southern manufacturing capacity
access to where grain, gunpowder + iron produced
lincoln: "hoped for God on his side, had to have kentucky"
actions
lincoln declares marshall law in maryland
deployed union troops in west virginia + missouri

war strategies

north: anaconda plan

capture richmond
blockade coastline
control mississippi river
split confederacy
split RR + rivers

south: defensive war

defend land + homes
familiar geography
war down north
force surrender
guerrilla warfare - hit + run
disrupt transport + communication lines
steal weapons + supplies
invade north
capture dc

threats of the civil war

east → targets: richmond, dc \n
south: lee, stonewall jackson
north: McDowell-McClellan-Pope-Meade-Hooker
west → targets: river valleys → mississippi + RRs, split confederacy (texas) \n \n South: Jeb Stuart - Bedford Forest \n
North: Ulysses S. Grant – Wm T. Sherman

civil war battles

first battle of bull run
july 21, 1861
gen mcdowell (u) v gen beauregard (c)
assumption: union would win easily
confederates rallied - gen thomas "stonewall" jackson
union army retreated, north stunned → long war

10 deadliest battles of the civil war:

gettysburg (23,053 U, 28,063 C)
the seven days
chickamauga
chancellorsville
the wilderness
antietam
second manassas
shiloh
fredericksburg
spotsylvania

points:

either - baseless conspiracy theories, irish were running around naked and potatoless in their fields, ravaged by bugs and famine - now they get to self-determine and make money, we saved them

stifling your own economy, shooting yourselves in the foot - in your own self-inflicted economic adolescence that we fought so hard to free ourselves from

battles

FORT SUMTER: april 12-14, 1861

Charleston Harbor SC - Robert Anderson: Commander at Fort Sumter
last Union stronghold in South → Lincoln did not want to start this war, only wants supplies to Anderson (no attack) → Southerners see as an act of aggression, attack
surrender on apr 14
virginia, no. carolina, tennessee, arkansas join confederacy

BORDER STATES:

states:
missouri, kentucky, maryland, delaware + west virginia
importance:
more than 1/2 the white population of Confederacy
increase half Confederacy's supply of horses + mules
[access to] ohio, cumberland + tennessee rivers → lead to deep south
could double manufacturing capacity of South
access to where grain, gunpowder + iron are produced
lincoln hoped to have God on his side but had to have Kentucky
actions:
declares marshall law in maryland
deployed union troops in west virginia + missouri

the "blue" and the "gray"

divided nation/friends/family/military
brother's blood + border blood

war strategies

north: anaconda plan

wrap up, squeeze into surrender
capture richmond
blockade coastline
control mississippi
split confederacy
seize rr + rivers
slow ass plan

south: defensive war

defend land + homes
familiar geography
"wear down" the north
force surrender
guerrilla warfare - hit + run
Confederates already know how to shoot guns
disrupt transportation + communication lines
steal weapons + supplies
invade north
capture Washington DC (last resort)

theaters of the civil war

east
targets → richmond + washington DC
south: robert e lee, thomas "stonewall" jackson
north: mcdowell-mcclellan-pope-meade-hooker
replaced because they allowed lee to retreat, never followed
west
targets → river valleys (mississippi - split confederacy)
south: jeb stuart - bedford forrest
north: ulysses s grant - wm. t sherman
blockade: "running the blockade" v "blockade busters"
naval: admiral david farragut (new orleans)

FIRST BATTLE OF BULL RUN - july 21, 1861

equivalent of bunker hill
union army (gen mcdowell) v confederate army (gen beauregard)
many had gone to west point + fought together before
assumption: union would win easily
until reinforcements were brought in; Confederates rallied - stonewall jackson saved the day
Union army retreated - North stunned (long war)