This document provides a summary of key events and developments in the United States leading up to and during the American Civil War from the 1850s to the 1860s. It outlines the political crises over slavery and states' rights that increased sectional tensions between the North and South. It discusses pivotal court cases like Dred Scott v. Sandford and events like the raid on Harper's Ferry that further divided the nation. The document also summarizes the secession of Southern states, the outbreak of the Civil War after the attack on Fort Sumter, and how the war expanded the powers of the federal government and ultimately led to the Emancipation Proclamation freeing millions of enslaved people.

1. US history survey
May 8, 2012
1850s crises – steps toward
Civil War, 1861 - 1865

2. announcements
• paper # 2 due Tuesday 22 May.
• 1 – 2 pages, typed, double spaced. No emails.
• write an autobiography describing how the
Civil War affects your life.
• do internet research, & write an original essay.
• choose
– race, gender, age, class, enslaved or free.
– state(s) in which you live.

3. 1850s crises
• compromises of 1850 did not resolve the issue
of extension of slavery into territories.
• political parties no longer national, but
increasingly sectional.
• Republican party founded, all Northerners.
• N & S attitudes hardening, compromises less
possible.
• violence – Kansas & elsewhere.

6. Preston Brooks attacks Charles Sumner
in Senate, 1856

7. Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857
Scott, lifelong slave, taken by owner to
free territory, 1830s. Married a slave,
Harriet, & daughter born in free territory.
Returned to slave state.
• sued for freedom for 3 based on
residence in free state.
• S-dominated Supreme Court, Chief
Justice Roger B. Taney. Sectional
decision.

8. Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1857
• Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.
• federal govt. had no right to interfere w/
movement of property = states’ rights
position of Calhoun.
• “beings of an inferior order.”
• “altogether unfit to associate with the white
race.”
• “no rights which the white man was bound to
respect”

9. ongoing political crises
• Dred Scott decision swept away free soil
foundation of Republican party.
• crisis over admitting Kansas, 1858, w/ slavery
constitution. Opposed by S. Douglas.
Congress Refused admission. (Later admitted
as free state, 1861.)
• 1858, 30 Congressmen
in a free-for-all fight.

10. Lincoln-Douglas debates
• 1858 debate, Lincoln (R) & Douglas (D). Could
a territory exclude slavery?
• Douglas: yes, popular sovereignty.
• Douglas loses support of Democratic South.

11. raid on Harper’s Ferry federal arsenal
• 1859
• Virginia border w/
Maryland
• Black & white men
attempted to seize
weapons to start slave
uprising.
• raid failed.

12. John Brown
• had killed unarmed pro-slavery men in
Kansas, 1856.
• H. F. raid financed by abolitionists.
• captured, tried, executed, a martyr.
• public mourning in North.

13. 1860
• presidential election, 11/1860. Democrats
split. Republicans nominated Lincoln. 2nd
highest turnout in election ever.
• Southern governors called state conventions.
• South Carolina seceded, 12/1860, followed by
6 other deep south states.
• Lincoln would not compromise on extension
of slavery. Moderate in response to secession.

14. 1861
• 7 states form Confederacy in Montgomery, AL.
• copied US Constitution, except
– strong support for states’ rights.
– abolition of slavery virtually impossible.
• elected Jefferson Davis, a moderate, president.
• built on decentralization.
• military defense of South
would require strong
central government.

15. • 1861 inaugurations – Lincoln & Davis both
pray for peace.
• Lincoln would not give up federal power over
military forts & customs posts in South.
• Lincoln sent food to Fort Sumter, Charleston,
SC. Davis demanded: surrender the fort or
Confederacy would attack.

16. attack on Fort Sumter

17. • Border slavery states do
not secede: Delaware,
Maryland, Kentucky,
Missouri.
• W Virginia breaks into
separate state, 1863.
• 1861
• 4 more states secede:
VA, NC, Tenn, Ark.
• Confederate capital
moved to Richmond,
VA.

18. armies created
• before Ft. Sumter, Confederacy calls for 100,000
volunteers.
• after Ft. Sumter, Lincoln calls for 75,000 state
militiamen to serve in federal army; no Blacks.
• few expected a long or serious war.
• North: larger, richer, more industrialized.
• South: fighting in self-defense, more experienced
military, able to continue economy w/ slave labor.
• Robert E. Lee offered command of both sides.

20. war expands power of government
• N borrowed $2.6 billion, initiated sales tax & 1st
federal income tax.
• created national currency for 1st time.
• Morrill Tariff Act – higher tariffs.
• chartered 2 corporations to build a
transcontinental RR.
• Homestead Act – 160 acres free for living on it 5
years & improving it.
• Morrill Land Grant Act – lands for states to create
practical colleges – agriculture, engineering, etc.

21. Europe?
• North tried to ensure Britain & France didn’t
recognize Confederacy.
• Confederacy believed cotton was king.
• Europe stayed out & found other sources for
cotton.
• N naval blockade eventually successful in
keeping supplies from reaching South.

22. people

24. draft = compulsory labor
• Confederate draft began April 1862 – 1st draft
law in America, white men 18 – 35.
• unpopular because denied rights of individual
man.
• owners of more than 20 slaves exempt.
• rich could hire a replacement instead of
serving in military.
• “a rich man’s war, but a poor man’s fight.”

25. Union draft, March, 1863
• well-to-do Northern white men could buy
their way out of being drafted by paying $300.
• working-class white men had to serve.
• working class anger.
• 3 days of rioting NYC, 1863, resulted in at least
120 civilian deaths, 11 lynchings of African
Americans, & substantial property damage.
Focused on African Americans.

26. draft riots, NYC, 1863

27. women
• procurement & supply – both sides.
• soldiers in disguise – both sides.
• nurses (previously not respectable).
• organizers – more in Union, more experienced
in organizations.
• US Sanitary Commission – N women, supplied
funds, food, clothes, medicine, quilts.

30. population in 1860
enslaved Black pop. 3,951,000
free people of color 477,000
white 26,691,000
how did people gain freedom pre-CW?

31. free people of color
enlisted in Union Army

32. Emancipation Proclamation, 1863

33. what happened to enslaved people
during Civil War?
• some men forced to serve in Confederate
Army, usually as domestic workers. No guns!
• numerous enslaved men escaped to & joined
Union forces when they came nearby.
• slaves waged a general strike: stopped
working, produced only for their own needs.
• general strike undermined Confederate Army,
leading to Union victory.

34. W.E.B. DuBois (1868 – 1963)
• challenged racist
histories of Black
people.
• saw Black people as
historical actors.
• discussed alliances of
freedpeople & poor
whites post-CW: free
public education &
social services.

35. announcements
• paper # 2 due Tuesday 22 May.
• 1 – 2 pages, typed, double spaced. No emails.
• write an autobiography describing how the
Civil War affects your life.
• do internet research, & write an original essay.
• choose
– race, gender, age, class, enslaved or free.
– state(s) in which you live.

36. Dokuz Eylul Conference
• Being a Woman: Awareness & Liberalization.
• Wed, May 9 – Fri May 11, Dokuz Eylul
Rectorate in Alsancak.
• free for students.
• I’m speaking at a plenary session, Fri, 9:30.
“From Awareness to Action, from
Liberalization to Liberation.”

37. reading assignment for May 15
• Out of Many
– Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, 207 – 208.
– African American soldier, 212.
– Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, 214 – 215.