Section 1

Chapter 4: The Union in Peril

Differences between North and South: Religious, Climate, Economics, Geography, and Culture.

It was the issue of slavery that increased tensions between the regions and that eventually brought them into conflict.

The southerners wanted to increase the number of slave states because this would mean a larger voting block of proslavery states in Congress. This would help protect the institution of slavery.

The Divisive Politics of Slavery

The issue of slavery in California and in the western territories led to heated debates in Congress = The Compromise of 1850 (provided that California be admitted to the Union as a free state and created a new and more effective fugitive slave law).

As passions mounted, threats of Southern secession, the formal withdrawal of a state from the Union, became more frequent.

Henry Clay worked to shape a compromise that would appease both the northern and southern states. To please the north – California would be admitted to the Union as a free state. To please the south - a more effective fugitive slave law was put into effect. To please both sides, a provision allowed popular sovereignty – the right to vote for or against slavery, for residents of the New Mexico and Utah territories.

Clay withdrew from the fight when his proposal was rejected. However, Senator Stephen A. Douglas picked up the compromise efforts and eventually succeeded in September of 1850.

Compromise of 1850

The Underground Railroad:Free African Americans and white abolitionists

developed a secret network of people who would hide fugitive slaves.

“Conductors” on the routes hid fugitives in secret tunnels and false cupboards, provided them with food and clothing, and escorted them to the next “station”. Once fugitives reached the north, some decided to stay there, others journeyed to Canada.

Harriet Tubman – a famous conductor, born a slave in Maryland in 1820/1821. She was called “Moses” by those she helped escape on the Underground Railroad. She made 19 trips and helped over 300 slaves – including her own parents.

Harriet Beecher Stowe – published her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin which stressed that slavery was not just a political contest, but also a great moral struggle.

Protest, Resistance, and Violence

The debate over the Kansas-Nebraska Act was bitter because if passed, the bill would repeal the Missouri Compromise and establish popular sovereignty for both territories.

“Bleeding Kansas” – both supporters and opponents of slavery attempted to populate Kansas in order to win the vote on slavery in the territory. Many “border ruffians” from the slave state of Missouri crossed into Kansas, voted illegally, and won for proslavery candidates. Furious abolitionists organized a rival government in Topeka and it wasn’t long before bloody violence surfaced in Kansas.

Tension in Kansas and Nebraska

The slavery issue had caused a split in the Whig Party and weakened the Democratic Party.

An alternative was the American Party – the “Know-Nothing Part” because members were instructed to answer questions about their activities by saying, “I know nothing”. The Know-Nothings supported nativism (favoring of native-born people over immigrants). Like the Whigs, the Know-Nothings split over the issue of slavery in the territories. Southern Know-Nothings looked to the Democrats and northern Know-Nothings began to edge toward the Republican Party.

New Political Parties Emerge

Two antislavery parties had also emerged during the 1840s: Liberty Party – formed for pursuing the cause of

abolition by passing new laws.Free Soil Party – opposed the extension of

slavery into the territories.Abolitionists Vs. Freesoilers:

Abolitionists wished to abolish slavery because they thought it was immoral

Freesoilers objected slavery because it reduced employment opportunities for free white workers.

New Political Parties Emerge (Cont’d)

Dred Scott Decision: Dred Scott was a slave whose owner took

him from the slave state of Missouri to free territory in Illinois and Wisconsin and back to Missouri. Scott appealed to the Supreme Court for his freedom on the grounds that living in a free state – Illinois – and a free territory – Wisconsin – had made him a free man. The Supreme Court ruled against Dred Scott on the grounds that he did not have any legal standing to sue because he was not, and never could be, a citizen. Moreover, the Court ruled that being in free territory did not make a slave free.

Conflicts lead to Secession

Stephen Douglas (Democrat) vs. Abraham Lincoln (Replublican):Both were against slavery. However, Lincoln

thought the federal government should keep slavery out of the territories because it was immoral; while Douglas thought residents of each territory should decide.

Lincoln won the election of 1860. The Democratic Party split over slavery.

Lincoln – Douglas Debates

Began in April 1861, when Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, a Union fort in Charleston, South Carolina.

Lincoln issued a call for troops to fight to restore the Union. 4 more Southern states seceded.

Civil War Begins

More peopleMore factoriesMore railroad tracksCould grow more foodStrategy:

Planned to blockade the SouthHoped to capture the Mississippi RiverSplit the Confederacy in twoAnd capture their capital at Richmond, Virginia.

North Advantages:

Demand for cotton Excellent generalsSoldiers eager to defend their way of lifeStrategy:

Defend themselves from Northern attack Attack the North if opportunity arose

Southern Advantage

The first bloodshed on the battlefield occurred about three months after the attack on Fort Sumter, near the little creek of Bull Run – just 25 miles from Washington D.C.

Led by General Thomas J. Jackson, A.K.A, “Stonewall Jackson”.

First southern victory

Bull Run

In response to the demands of the abolitionists, in 1863 Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

The proclamation did not free any slaves immediately because it applied to only those areas behind Confederate lines, outside Union control.

Nonetheless, for many, it freed the slaves in Confederate states and gave the war a high moral purpose. It also ensured that compromise was no longer possible.

Emancipation Proclamation

The war led to social upheaval and political unrest in both the North and the South.

Conscription – a draft that forced men to serve in the army.

African Americans fought for the Union (10% of the Northern army). Despite their dedication, they suffered discrimination. They served in separate regiments and earned less pay.

Both northern and southern states endured unhealthy conditions, limited diets, and inadequate medical care. Diseases spread and many soldiers died.

Life During Wartime

Although women did not fight, thousands contributed to the war effort. About 3000 women served as Union army nurses.

Clara Barton, who went on to found the American Red Cross after the war, cared for the sick and wounded, often at the front lines of battle.

Role of Women During War

General Robert E. Lee and the Confederates lost a three-day battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Lee was forced to retreat, and he never invaded the North again.

Lee, by invading the North, was hoping to gain supplies needed to tip the balance of public opinion in the Union to pro-slavery politicians.

Meanwhile, General Ulysses S. Grant captured Vicksburg, Mississippi River. With this victory, the North won control of the Mississippi River.

The North Takes Charge

Began on July 1, 1863 Confederate soldiers led by A.P. Hill and Union soldiers were led by John Buford.

Day 1: Buford ordered his men to take defensive positions on the hills and ridges surrounding the town of Gettysburg. When Hill’s troops marched down from the west, Buford’s men were waiting.

Day 2: Confederates had driven the Union troops from Gettysburg and had taken control of the town. However, the North still held positions on Cemetery Ridge.

Day 3: Lee ordered fire on Cemetery Ridge, and the two armies exchanged vicious attacks. Believing they had silenced the Union troops, the Confederates then charged the lines. Northern artillery renewed its barrage, and the infantry fired on the rebels….winning the battle.

Battle of Gettysburg

November 1863, a ceremony was held to dedicate a cemetery at Gettysburg. There President Lincoln spoke for a little more than 2 minutes.

For some historians, Lincoln’s speech “remade America”. Before Lincoln’s speech, people said, “The United States are…” Afterward, they said, “The United States is…” In other words, the speech helped the country realize that it was not just a collection of individual states; it was one unified nation.

Gettysburg Address

Ulysses S. Grant – Union general fought to take Vicksburg, one of the Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River.

Why was it important to gain control of Vicksburg? Control of the Mississippi River allowed the Union to split the Confederacy in two.

In 18 days, Union forces were able to take over Jackson, the state’s capital. Grant had set up a steady barrage of artillery, shelling the city from both the river and the land for several hours a day.

Finally the city fell on July 4 and the Union had achieved its military objective – the Confederacy was cut in two.

Vicksburg Campaign

In April 1865, Lee and the Confederacy surrendered at Appomattox. The war ended.

On April 14, 1865, five days after this surrender, Lincoln and his wife went to Ford’s Theatre in Washington to se a British comedy, Our American Cousin. During the third act, a man (John Wilkes Booth) crept up behind Lincoln and shot the President in the back of his head.

Lincoln never regained consciousness and died on April 15, 1865. This was the first time a president had been assassinated.

Lincoln’s Assassination

Tremendous political, economic, technological, and social changes took place in the United States.

Approx. 360,000 Union soldiers and 260,000 Confederates died – nearly as many as in all other American wars combined.

The war gave the federal gov’t increased power and authority – they passed laws (income tax & conscription laws) and it gave more power over individual citizens.

Economically, Northern states boomed and Southern states suffered.

The war not only marked the end of slavery as a labor system but also wrecked most of the Southern region’s industry and farmland.

Technological changes –weapons became more lethal (development of hand grenades and land mines). The development of the ironclad ship made wooden ones obsolete.

The War Changes the Nation

13th Amendment – “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment of crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States”.

The War Changes Lives

After the Civil War, the nation embarked on a period known as Reconstruction, during which attempts were made to readmit the South to the Union.

Andrew Jackson succeeded Lincoln as president – had a similar plan for reconstruction. Some Republicans thought that the plan was too easy on the South, so they worked together to shift control of Reconstruction from the executive branch to the legislature.

Reconstruction & Its Effects

Civil Rights Act 1866 – guaranteed the civil rights of African Americans.

14th Amendment – made African Americans citizens.

In 1867, Congress enacted new Reconstruction legislation – Congress would readmit a state after the state approved the 14th Amendment and gave African- American men the right to vote.

In 1868, Grant was elected president.In 1870, the 15th Amendment was ratified –banned

states from denying the right to vote to African-Americans.

Reconstruction Cont’d.

Many whites still resisted the idea that African-Americans should be treated equally. African-Americans hoped to work their own land. Instead, plantation owners created a system called sharecropping that allowed them to control the land and the labor of African Americans.

Some whites formed the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) – secret group that terrorized and killed blacks across the South. Congress passed laws to end Klux violence; however, new laws allowed Southern Democrats to regain political power.

Reconstruction Cont’d.

After the inauguration of Rutherford B. Hayes as president in 1877, federal troops were removed from the South.

White democrats regained power there.Reconstruction was over.

Reconstruction Cont’d.