The Coming of the Civil War

1. The Coming of the Civil War

2. The Slave South in the 19th Century • Similarities between N. and S. • ancestry, religion, language, • rural, both participate in nat’l econ. and pol. • Old South Social Structure • 75% white households owned no slaves • those who did most 1-4 slaves • planters those with more than 20 slaves (3%) • most slaves on plantations

3. Slave Resistance • Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831) • Historical Interpretations of Slave Rebellions • slavery mild • slavery brutal and dehumanizing • structural issues like b/w ratio, small size of slaveholdings; community and family

4. Rise of Antislavery Movement • American Colonization Society (1817) • address fear of Af-Amer. being free • expensive and few free blacks willing • Free Black Abolitionism • racial assumptions of ACS • attack northern racism also • newspapers and organizations James Forten

5. Abolitionism and American Historians • Northern v. Southern Historians • Northern: abolitionists courageous for attacking immoral system • Southern school blamed abolitionists for war • Fanatics; hypocritical since many didn’t believe in b/w equality • Civil Rights Era • Inc sympathy with abolitionists / racial egalitarians • Yet still stuck in good/bad dichotomy • Last few decades expanded focus on other factors including religion, capitalism and free labor ideology, black abolitionists, and gender

6. Garrison and the Liberator • Earlier arguments against abolition • prop. rts.; threatened nation’s stability • impact of large landless black pop. • Garrison and Immediatism • ignore extraneous issues • impact of free black abolition • 2nd Great Awakening and sin of slavery • moral suasion

7. Abolitionist Movement • American Antislavery Society (1833) • racial, gender, and class ideas • Free Soil Party • moral suasion was anti-political/anti-violence • aimed to keep fed. Territories for free whites • stop expansion of slavery and it will die • Slave Power conspiracy

8. Proslavery Thought • Jefferson and “Necessary Evil” • a troubled slaveowner • Why was it a Necessary Evil? • Concerned about Haiti revol. • Life as a Virginian • liberty and property linked • property rights of slaveowners

9. A Positive Good • Origins • response to abolitionists • Slavery and Religion • condoned by bible • social system and sin • Slaves incapable of freedom • plantation a school • civilized slaves

10. Positive Good on the Attack • Slavery permitted expansion of American culture • All men not created equal • Slavery v. free labor working-class in North • Scientific Racism • polygenesis and Samuel Morton • challenged religion’s authority • Slavery and poor white democracy craniometer

11. Civil War and Historians • Nationalist school reflected growing American nationalism by 1900 • Consequences of end of slavery contributed to growing American power • Slavery basic cause, it was immoral; yet some saw some good things in southern culture • Its destruction set conditions for industrialization • Progressives condemned results of the war in that it installed ruthless, ambitious capitalists and debate over slavery just masked this • Southern school likewise pictured 19th century industrialists as evil and blamed them for war yet celebrated southern culture and society • Revisionists of 30s and 40s tended to argue that war was avoidable but political failure • Civil Rights era encouraged historians to take slavery seriously and war largely unavoidable • Included emphasis on free labor ideas and focus on west as cause • Last decades has enhanced understanding by exploring comparative studies, gender, and important efforts and role of African Americans, free and slave

12. Emerging Sectionalism • Constitution and Slavery • Missouri Compromise (1820) • Missouri petitions to be slave state • battle over Congress’ control over statehood • MO as slave, Maine as free • 36-30 line defines future status of slavery in federal territories

13. Slavery in the Age of Abolitionism • Nullification Crisis (1832) • Tariffs of Abomination • Calhoun’s SC Exposition and Protest (1828) • nation a compact of states • state’s could nullify fed. Laws/ state’s rights • Jackson and Force Bill John C. Calhoun

14. Slavery in the Age of Abolitionism • Gag Rule (1836) • Congress tables all antislavery petitions • another example of Slave Power conspiracy

15. Slavery and Western Expansion • South’s Ideology of Expansion • helps southern econ. • Reduces b/w ratio • safety valve for nonslaveholders • maintains balance of free/slave states

16. Mexican-American War • Wilmot Proviso--ban slavery in new lands • Compromise of 1850 • CA as free state; the rest popular sovereignty • abolish slave trade in DC; Fugitive Slave Act

17. Lincoln and Slavery • From Whig Party to Republican Party • free labor; self-improvement • economic progress; oppose slavery • Lincoln and Slavery • b and w not socially equal • supported colonization • believed gov’t could stop expansion of slavery • cannot be “half slave or half free” Lincoln in 1840s

18. Popular Sovereignty • Pop. Sov.: let people in territory decide • supported by Northern Democrats • seemed democratic • kept N. and S. Democrats together • Bleeding Kansas • reopened slavery debate and ignored MO. Comp. • Pop. Sov. led to bloodbath over future of states Ruins of Lawrence, KS

19. Dred Scott Decision (1857) • Supreme Court case to decide slavery • Did moving to free state make slave free? • Court ruled against Scott • Scott couldn’t sue because a slave • blacks, free or slave, not citizens and no rights • MO. Comp. unconstitutional because violates right to property • Spurred abolitionists

20. Lincoln and 1860 Election • Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858) • shaped by Scott decision • Freeport Doctrine: deny legal framework to protect slaveowners and slavery won’t last

21. Lincoln and 1860 Election • 1860 Election • Democrats split into N. and S. wings • Lincoln wins with 39% of vote • Secession and Fort Sumter (4/12/61)

22. http://balrog.sdsu.edu/~putman/110A/syllS04.htm • http://www.ushistory.com/railr.htm • http://blackhistory.harpweek.com/ • http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/ • http://members.aol.com/jfepperson/causes.html