UNCLE TOM’S CABIN• Novel written by Harriet

Beecher Stowe

• Million copies sold by middle of 1853, very popular abroad

• Personalized slaves, made slavery a moral issue

• Lincoln greeted Stowe in the White House as the “little woman who wrote the book that made this great war.”

THE IMPENDING CRISIS OF THE SOUTH

• Book authored by Hinton Helper

• Used statistics to show slavery harmed non-slaveowning whites

• Banned in the South

• Very popular in the North

THE ELECTION OF 1860 AND THE SOUTH SECEDES

REPUBLICAN CONVENTION

• Senator William Seward, the favorite, lost the nomination because he was too radical

• “Irrepressible conflict” speech

• Lincoln had less enemies, was nominated

• Platform: Higher tariff, non-extension of slavery

• Southerners threaten secession if Lincoln is elected

DEMOCRATS SPLIT• Stephen Douglas was the

favorite

• Delegates from the cotton states walked out of convention

• Refused to support Douglas over the Lecompton Constitution and the Freeport Doctrine

• Northern Democrats nominate Douglas

• Platform: Popular Sovereignty, criticizes obstruction of fugitive slave law

FOUR WAY RACE• Southern Democrats

• Nominate Vice President John Breckinridge • Platform: extension of slavery in territories, annexation of

Cuba• Constitutional Union Party

• Nominate John Bell • Platform: enforcement of the laws and compromise

THE ELECTION• Lincoln was not on the ballot in ten southern states

• Lincoln won the electoral vote 180-123

• Popular Vote

• Lincoln 40%• Douglas 29%• Breckinridge 18%• Bell 13%

SECESSION• South Carolinians rejoice, now have an excuse to secede

• South Carolina secedes December 1860

• Within 6 weeks 6 states joined SC• AL, MS, FL, GA, LA, and TX

• Southerners supported secession because:

• South sees the election as the end of their way of life• Believe North would not wage war to keep them• Could repudiate all debts owed to northern bankers (they did)

SECESSION• President James Buchanan

said secession was illegal but did nothing

• Northern public opinion was against using force

• Small army was needed in the West

• Held hope of reconciliation• February 1861 southern

states formed the Confederacy and elected Jefferson Davis as their president

• Drafted a constitution similar to the U.S. constitution

CRITTENDEN COMPROMISE• Proposed by Senator James Crittenden

• Constitutional amendments • Territories above the 36’30 line would be free, below slave

• When they entered as states, slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty

• Abraham Lincoln rejected the compromise measures:

• Elected on a platform that opposes extension of slavery• Compromise fails

FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW• denial of a jury trial to runaway slaves

• denial of fleeing slaves’ right to testify on their own behalf

• the penalty of imprisonment for northerners who helped slaves to escape

• a higher payment if officials determined blacks to be runaways