THE COMING OF THE CIVIL WAR Why it Matters John Browns’ raid intensified tensions between North and South. The Republican Party also grew which put the nation on path to war

THE NATION DIVIDED  Election of 1860 created a sense of crisis  The nation was heading towards a civil war.  What is a Civil War?

ELECTION OF 1860  Republican Party (Limit growth of slavery) chose Abraham Lincoln  Northern Democrats (Popular soveriegnty) chose Stephen Douglas  Southern Democrats (To support slavery) chose John Breckinridge of Kentucky  Constitutional Union (Protect slavery and keep the nation together) chose John Bell of Tennessee

LINCOLN WINS  Lincoln wins every free state  Won without one electoral vote from slave states  Lincoln won 40% of votes

SOUTHERN STATES SECEDE  Many Southerners felt they no longer had voice in their government  Stated in a Virginia Newspaper “A party founded on the single sentiment…..hatred of the African slavery, is now the controlling power. The honor, safety, and independence of the Southern people are to be found only in a Southern Confederacy.”

“the union now subsisting between south Carolina and the other states, under the name of the United States is hereby dissolved.” SOUTH CAROLINA IS FIRST TO SECEDE

CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA  Six more states followed South Carolina:  February 1861, seven seceding states met in Alabama to form a new nation called The Confederate States of America.  The CSA wrote a Constitituion and elected Jefferson Davis from Mississippi as their president.  Lincoln had not even taken office yet. 