Paper 3: Cause, Course, and Results of the Civil War

• Causes of the Civil War- an issue of Spice
  • S- Slavery
  • P- Political
    • Disappearance of the Whigs and the appearance of the Republicans
    • The Democrats- Northern and Southern Branches and also the Constitutional Union Party for the border states
  • I- Idealogical Issues
    • Southern nationalism and religion
  • C- Cultural Issues
    • The south develops an agrarian state, which is semi-feudal.
    • The south is based on culture and tradition
    • Immigration makes it so that Few Africans in the North
  • E- Economic
    • Chattel slavery and agriculture versus the Industrial revolution
• Slavery, the "peculiar institution"
  • From 1776-1865, slavery is legal. In 1776, all thirteen colonies had legal slavery. In 1865- the 13th amendment makes slavery illegal. After the Revolution the states begin to abolish slavery.
  • North and South are divided at the Mason-Dixon Line, which is between Maryland and Pennsylvania.
  • Constitutionally supported
    • the 3/5 compromise meant that southern slaves could count towards political representation in the House.
    • Article IV allows the importation of slaves for 20 more years
    • Slave status is maintained with movement inside the country. The status of slavery was mainly the prerogative of the individual states- States Rights
  • The Gradual abolition of slavery advances until Civil War
    • New Hampshire and New Jersey had slaves in 1865.
    • There are 15 Slave States:
      • The Deep South or the First Seven:
        • South Carolina
        • Georgia
        • Alabama
        • Mississippi
        • Louisiana
        • Florida
        • Texas
      • Upper South (4)
        • Arkansas
        • Virginia
        • North Carolina
        • Tennessee
      • Border States (4)
        • Maryland
        • Kentucky
        • Missouri
        • Delaware
        • DC, but it technically it doesn't count
  • Until about 1810, slavery was in decline in the US. Classical tobacco and wheat growing regions had abandoned slavery due to soil exhaustion of the coastal plain.
  • Moral guilt led to a wave of manumission. By 1810, 10% of blacks in the South were freed by masters at death. In 1810 1,000,000 Africans are in the US.
  • In 1860, there were 4,000,000 Africans and manumissions have all but ended. Eli Whitney and the cotton gin changed chattel slavery in two ways.
    • Cotton was 50x easier to clean and sell because it had no seeds. Cotton fiber feeds the textile mills of the Midlands and Industrial Revolution.
    • Indentured servitude's population in the 18th century ends due to the Industrial Revolution. King Cotton revitalizes southern Agricultural economy and spurs Westward development.
    • The expansion of the US is entangled with an extension of slavery.
    • The NW ordinance of 1787 banned slavery north of the Dhir River: in Indiana and Ohio, Anti-Slavery culture develops.
    • Slave trade ended in 1808, but slaves increased naturally.
    • African americans were displaced from tribal allegiances by slavery. Cotton began a second forced migration of africans (2nd Middle passage)
    • Slaves are sold South to satisfy labor demands in newly acquired Deep South cotton Regions: forests cleared and chain swamps
    • Male labor was at a premium (second mass destruction of Black families)
    • Nature of slavery also changes- 25% of families own slaves, and the average # was 5 slaves
• Religion
  • Southern whites split with Northern brethren over the slavery issue. An example is the Southern Baptists vs. Northern Baptists.
  • Slaved were forced into Christianity. It was their refuge.
  • Blacks embraced Sundays for rest and religion. Spiritual music and unique form of Christianity develop.
  • Southern Whites used Christianity to justify slavery:
    • Christianity was mutually beneficial to the Master and Slave.
    • Biblical justification for slavery
    • Some whites thought that black skin was the Mark of Cain (the mark God placed on Cain for killing his brother Abel)
    • Noah's son Ham, was the father of the Canonites, who were Jews and Muslims.
• Abolitionism
  • James Mcpherson called for the "immediate, unconditional, and total end to slavery" in the pre-Civil war era.
  • The absolute form of liberation of slaves was not universal. Some abolitionists wanted only partial liberation, or wanted it soon, or after a war.
  • William Lloyd Garrison was the editor of the newspaper, "The Liberator," and Frederick Douglass edited, "The North Star."
  • Wendell Phillips was the head of the AAS (Americans for Abolition of Slavery).
  • There was a split between Garrison (who condemned slavery on Constitutional grounds) and Douglass who viewed slavery as a violation of Natural Law.
  • Gradualism: was an anti-slavery process that was handled by the States themselves. This was the Republican Party's policy and Lincoln's policy.
  • Anti-expansionist: was the view to stop the expansion of slavery. JQA opposed making slaves out of the the boat of Africans that landed in South Carolina in the Amistad case.
  • Ultra-Abolitionists: was mostly made up of women. Head party members include Abby Kelley Foster/ Susan B. Anthony. They wanted immediate and full civil rights.
  • Abolitionism is entwined with other Utilitarian and Liberal movements of the 19th century: Abolition, suffrage, temperance, public education (Blacks were prohibited), prison and asylum reforms. There is a strong feminist component in the Abolitionist movement.
  • In the 1830s the Grimke Sisters were famous for their speaking tours. They were born in the South. The speaking tours were closely associated with institutionalized higher learning.
  • Quaker Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Seneca Falls Conference) established Oberlin College in Ohio.
  • Former slaves and the underground railroad- Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth,
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, which sensationalized one form of slavery. There is a really large polarization of attitudes, which is a major cause for the Civil War.
• Timeline of the Abolition movement
  • Historically, Abolitionism begins in Britain begins in Britain in opposition to the slave trade, and the Quakers were foremost.
  • In the 18th century James Oglethorpe intended to found Georgia as a slave-free penal colony.
  • The Brits end the slave trade, but not actual slavery until the 1830s.
  • In 1783 Ben Franklin of Pennsylvania created the Manumission (release the slave when the master dies) Society. Ben owned slaves himself and was a gradualist.
  • In 1787 the North West Ordinance opened up the Ohio Vally for settlement but prohibited slavery in Illinois, Indianan, Ohio, and Michigan.
  • In 1799 the New York Manumission Society was founded by John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr. There was a Gradualist ban in NY.
  • In 1808 the International Slave Trade was banned in the US by Thomas Jefferson. Sally Hemings and Jefferson manumitted his children.
  • in 1810 the Upper south had voluntary manumission trend before the advent of King Cotton. By 1860 90% of blacks were free in Delaware. 50% were free in Maryland, and 15% were free in Virginia.
    • Charles and John Langston had a white dad and black mom were central figures
    • Charles went to the college of Oberlin. Charles's grandson is Langston Hughes.
  • In 1820 the Missouri Compromise means that Missouri comes into the Union as a free state, and Maine is free. Slavery was confined to south-of the life 35'30." This temporary compromise lasts until the Compromise of 1850.
• The Tariff Issue
  • Abominations, Nullifications, Black tariffs, Tariff of 1846, Morrill 1861
  • The Tariff of Abominations 1828-1832:
    • The New US industries, especially in New England, needed a high protective tariff against cheaper, established European production.
    • The Tariff was with the British, whom the South sell their cotton and tobacco almost exclusively with.
    • The South also wanted to purchase higher quality European goods. The result was the Nullification crisis: South Carolina threatens secession.
  • In 1832 the Tariff was reduced, which pacifies the South Carolina
    • The Tariffs are the primary source of Federal Revenue. It is a political issue, the party in power just adjusts tariffs to their constituency.
    • The tariff of 1846 reduces tariffs and relaxes tariff war with the Brits. The Corn Laws benefit Midwestern farmers who sell grain to Brits. Culminates in 1861 with the Morill Tariff, which is the highest tariff in history.
• Political Issues
  • California
    • The Mexican War ended in 1845-48 in the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo, negotiated by Nicholas Trist. Mexican Cession extends the options for 36'30."
    • The South really pushed the Mexican War and the idea of a transcontinental Railroad.
    • Part of Mexican Cession becomes really important when in 1849 at Sutter's Mill, California, people start finding gold. The California Gold Rush!
    • The Compromise of 1850 there is a rush to make California a State so no one can take the gold. California comes in as a free state. In recompense, the South gets a newer and stronger Fugitive Slave Law with stronger enforcement ($1,000 fines).
    • Absolute abolitionist and the underground railway wanted to ban slavery in all new territories. After the Fugitive Slavery Law the Wilmot Proviso in 1850 wanted to ban slavery in all new territories, but it failed. The South and North continued to grow angry and suspicious of each other.
  • Kansas
    • The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854: opened up to settlement, but North of 36'30."The North wants free soil. and the South wants slavery. The compromise position from Illinois was from the Little Giant, Stephan Douglas: Popular Sovereignty. (basically self-determination)
    • Kansas becomes bleeding Kansas. The Missouri pro-slavery forces called the Border Ruffians and the Iowa and Midwesterners free soilers called the Jayhawkers.
    • Violence ensues. The foremost event of violence was the Pottawattomie Massacres where 10 pro-slavery people were hacked to death with swords by John Brown.
  • The Lincoln Douglass Debates underscore the debate nationally and popularize Lincoln. The Kansas-Nebraska Act also destroys the Whig Party and gives birth to the Republican Party (1856, John C. Frémont, the Pathfinder, was the first Republican candidate)
  • In 1856 Preston Brooks canes Massachusetts Charles Sumner on the Senate Floor. In 1957 Dred Scott Decision justifies slavery on the grounds that slaves were citizens, changed by the 14th amendment.