Unit V Part 3

1. Unit VPart 3 The Civil War and Reconstruction

2. The Republican Party • Agreed on economic issues but not on the slavery question • Conservatives: (Lincoln and most others while Lincoln was alive) Wanted a gradual end to slavery with little disruption (American Colonial Society) • Radicals: Wanted to use the war to abolish slavery immediately (Leaders: Thaddeus Stephens (Penn. House), Charles Sumner (Mass. Senate), Benjamin Wade (Ohio (Senate)

3. The Confiscation Acts • The Confiscation Act 1861: Slaves used for purposes of insurrection are considered freed • The Confiscation Act 1862: Freed the slaves of persons who aided and supported insurrection • Why were the above ineffective?

4. A New Justification for the War • Most of the North and Lincoln eventually accepted emancipation as a war aim. • The U.S. needed a better reason to justify the death toll and destruction. • September 22, 1862: Antietam was fought…the bloodiest single day of the war • Led to the Emancipation Proclamation

5. January 1, 1863 The Emancipation Proclamation • Freed all slaves behind enemy lines • Did not apply to border states (why?) • Established the elimination of slavery as justification for the war • Eventually freed thousands of slaves • Provided thousands of Black volunteers for the Union Army

6. The Border States • Abolished slavery on their own before the war’s end

7. Amendment 13The Abolition of Slavery 1865 • The first of three National Supremacy Amendments • Amendment 14: 1868 Granted the rights of citizenship to Black males • Amendment 15: 1870 Granted suffrage to Black males…(but not White or Black women… will cause a rift in the woman’s movement)

8. The Economy in the North • The War caused economic growth • The Republicans enacted Nationalistic legislation (tariffs, RR’s) • Coal Production increased 20% • Railroads improved: Standard gauge (track width)…continued to be built and did not suffer much as a result of the war • Coal miners and RR workers had national unions

9. The Northern Economy • Purchasing power decreased • Prices were up 70% • Wages were up only 40% • Liberal immigration laws caused flooding of the labor market, keeping wages low • Mechanized industries had less need for union labor

10. In the South • States Rights issues were a major source of division • Many resisted all efforts to centralize authority • The war effort was only somewhat centralized • Davis did not have the authority that Lincoln did to impose martial law and suspend habeas Corpus • Some southern states hoarded troops, supplies

11. In the South • By the war’s end the Southern bureaucracy was larger than the North’s • The Economy was devastated • Food Draft • Slaves were impressed to work on military projects • Government seized control of RR’s and industry

12. The South • The military robbed farmers and industry of work force • Sale of cotton overseas was difficult due to the Union blockade • Blockade caused a shortage of everything • BUT they continued to grow cash crops • Southern production fell by 1/3 • RR’s destroyed, Fields were ruined

13. The South • Doctors, craftsmen, skilled workers all conscripted • Worry over slave revolts = stricter black codes and stricter enforcement • Shortages, economic instability, worthless paper money • After the war a gender imbalance…southern women all employed in all capacities

14. Women in the North • Needed $ and employers needed workers • After the War Women took over in the fields of nursing and teaching • Dorthea Dix trained women as nurses in field hospitals (Doctors resisted…belief that women too weak…also inappropriate) • Clara Barton also trained nurses, founded the American Red Cross & was called “Angel of the Battlefield

15. National Women’s Loyal League • Worked for the abolition of slavery AND women’s suffrage (Anthony and Stanton were leaders) • On the Battlefield: • Sanitation a real problem (germ theory not embraced) • Two times as many died from disease and infection as died in combat • Amputations…union = 29,000…7,283 died of infection…worse in the South

16. Heavens to Betsy! • VD was also a problem • 180,000 recorded cases in union army

17. Foreign Affairs • Popular sympathy for the North especially after the Emancipation Proclamation • BUT English and French ruling classes DID admire the aristocratic social order of the South • Cotton Diplomacy did not work out • The Brits continued diplomatic meetings with the South but did not ever intend to enter the war

18. 1861 The Trent Affair • Confederate Diplomats: Mason and Slidell slipped through the Union Blockade, made their way to Havana, Cuba and boarded an English ship (The Trent) and began to sail to England • American ship The San Jacinto commanded by Wilkes, stopped and boarded The Trent, took the Southern diplomats to Boston where they were jailed

19. Wilkes violated international law • Wilkes was not acting under orders • He stopped and occupied The Trent in international waters • Brits were upset but Wilkes was very popular in the North • Embarrassment to Lincoln and Seward who apologized and freed the diplomats

20. The Alabama Claims • The British (who were supposed to be neutral) built 6 war ships for the South • One of the ships was The Alabama • After the war, the Brits will pay damages to the North called the Alabama claims (a neutral country would not build ships for a country at war if they were really neutral)

21. In the West • The West was removed from the war • All were loyal to the U.S. except for Texas • Sam Houston was elected governor of Texas in 1859 • Texas voted to leave the Union but Houston was loyal to the Union • Lincoln offered to send Houston help • Huston declined the offer. He resigned instead. He did not want a civil war in Texas

22. The West • Indians fought on both sides but no formal alliances • Much fighting in Kansas and Missouri • Southerners tried to urge succession • The Quantrill Gang (pro-slavery) • The Jayhawks (anti-slavery gangs)

23. The Civil War • Was not all that important outside of the U.S. EXCEPT that the used of iron clad ships in this war made everyone else’s navies obsolete. • Trivia: Horace Greeley (The NY Tribune) had hired Karl Marx as his European correspondent.