Was the Civil War Inevitable?

I. Differences Between North and South   Urban; Industrialized Factories Railroads, canals, high immigrant population strongly opposition to slavery Agricultural; rural society- plantations and small farms Focused on cash crops for export- cotton, rice

Long-Term Causes of the Civil War Sectionalism: loyalty Americans felt toward their own geographic region rather than to the country as a whole. Slavery; Frederick Douglass, escaped slave, spoke out against horrors of slavery; Pro-slavery southerners argues slaves were better off than Northern factory workers Extension of Slavery Northerners didn’t want slavery in new territories Southerners feared being outnumbered by free states States’ rights Southerners felt states had right to leave the Union

II. New Western Territories Wilmot Proviso: proposed California, Utah, New Mexico free states Southern congressmen feared a shift in balance of power Felt it was unconstitutional since slaves were their property Issue renewed as more territories were acquired and became states

III. The Senate Debates Compromise of 1850: California free state; Slaves banned in Washington D.C. Popular sovereignty allowed territory to vote for or against slavery Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute resolved Sale of slaves banned in District of Columbia

Fugitives not entitled to a trial by jury or allowed to testify e. Fugitive Slave Act required free states to help capture and return escaped slaves. Fugitives not entitled to a trial by jury or allowed to testify Monetary incentive to return fugitive Northern states passed personal liberty laws, forbidding imprisonment of runaway slaves and guaranteeing jury trials

IV. Resistance Underground Railroad: Secret network to aid fugitive slaves in their escape Harriet Tubman: ‘Conductor’ who helped about 300 slaves escape; who either remained in the North or continue to Canada Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin Bestselling book that brought attention to the slavery issue as a great moral struggle

V. Breakdown of Compromise A. Kansas and Nebraska act Divided the territory into two states and establish popular sovereignty for both territories, repealing Missouri Compromise “Bleeding Kansas”: supporters and opponents try to populate Kansas to vote illegally to influence the vote on slavery (violence not only in Kansas but also in the Senate)

B. Dredd Scott Decision: a. Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scott, an African American, was not a citizen and had no right to sue in court; also ruled that Congress had no right to forbid slavery in the territories C. John Brown’s Raid a. White abolitionist, attacked federal arsenal in Virginia, hoping to stir up slave revolts throughout the South.

VI. Secession Crisis Presidential Election of 1860 Democrats were divided, helping Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln to win the election Secession South Carolina immediately seceded. Six Southern states followed, forming the Confederacy. Four states seceded after war broke out. Fort Sumter Lincoln sent supplies here in Charleston Harbor. Confederate forces fired on the fort, starting the Civil War