Civil War

Sectional Crisis40 year of misunderstanding over expansion of slavery & powers of federal governmentMissouri CompromiseNullification Crisis of 1832After Mexican-American WarWilmot ProvisoCompromise of 1850Kansas-Nebraska Acts of 1854

Compromise of 1850

Apparent Causes of the WarRadical AbolitionismLiberty, Free Soil & Republican Parties“Bleeding Kansas” Dred Scott DecisionAscent of Lincoln

Dred Scott Decision

Purported Cause of the War“This is a white man’s war.” ~ Popular ShibbolethPoliticians assert war was fought over different interpretations of the Constitution. Did the Constitution create: An indissoluble union in which state identity was subsumed by national identity?A confederation of convenience in which the federal government had power over matters of foreign policy & trade alone, but not over the internal politics of states?

Lincoln’s Tight-Wire ActLincoln maintained this was a war to preserve the Union & not to end slavery.Promised to protect the rights of slave-holders within the South.Wanted to check the expansion of slavery in the Western territories.Balked at enlisting black troops:Feared alienating slave-holding Union statesPreferred colonizationCould not see whites & blacks living as equals in America

A War to End SlaveryAbolitionists & African-American activists saw this as a war to end slavery. Frederick Douglass: “Any attempt now to separate the freedom of the slave from the victory of the government—any attempt to secure peace to the whites while leaving the blacks in chains—will be labor lost.”As such, blacks quickly moved to form volunteer militia companies & to volunteer to serve in battle. Lincoln ignored their requests.

EmancipationCame in stages as an exigency of war:Contraband Confiscation ActsProvisional & Final Emancipation Proclamations(Did no grant universal emancipation.)WLNL led a massive petition drive to secure 13th Amendment

Emancipation Proclamation

Black Military ServiceBlack Volunteer Companies (1861)Militia Act of 1862Final Emancipation Proclamation (1863)USCT Bureau in War DepartmentBlacks Served Proportionally to WhitesIssues of Rank & PayConfederacy denies rights to black POWs

Remember Fort Pillow

“Then on the charge!”