1. Slavery and Abolitionists American Civil War

2. Slavery

3. Slavery Expands  The spread of plantations and the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney led to the expansion of slavery  Cotton production rose greatly, making slavery an important source of labor  The expansion of slavery had a major impact on the South’s economy

4. Slavery Divides the South  Slavery divided Southerners into who owned slaves and who did not  Slaveholders on plantations were wealthy, but rare  Only about 1/3 of white families owned slaves in 1840  Most white Southern farmers owned few or no slaves but still supported slavery, hoping to work hard enough to own some someday

5. African Americans in the South  Enslaved African Americans made up 1/3 of the South’s population in 1840  Some slaves worked as domestic servants, craftsmen, and laborers in cities  Free Blacks faced problems Some states made them leave Could not vote or get an education Might be captured and sold into slavery

6. The Case of Dred Scott  The split in the country was made worse by the case of Dred Scott  Scott had been a slave in Missouri  His owner took him to territories where slavery was illegal, then returned to Missouri  His owner died and Scott sued for his freedom

7. The Case of Dred Scott  His case, Dred Scott v. Sanford, reached the Supreme Court in 1856  In 1857, Chief Justice Roger Taney and the Supreme Court ruled against Dred Scott, saying he, as a slave, was not a U.S. citizen and couldn’t sue in court.  Taney also argued that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories

8. Slave Rebellions  Armed rebellion was an extreme form of resistance to slavery  The most famous rebellion was led by Nat Turner on August 21, 1831, killing 55 white men, women, and children  Turner was caught, tried, and hanged  The rebellion spread fear and led to stricter laws against free blacks  The grip of slavery grew tighter and tension increased between the North and the South

9. Abolitionists

10. Abolitionists Call for Ending Slavery  Abolition (the movement to end slavery), began in the late 1700s  Two moving abolitionist speakers, Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, spoke from their own experience of slavery  People doubted Douglass’s authenticity, so he published an autobiography about his experiences  Sojourner Truth fled her owners and was freed by the Quakers. She then changed her name to Sojourner Truth to reflect her life’s work

11. The Underground Railroad  Some abolitionists helped slaves escape freedom along the Underground Railroad  It was actually an aboveground series of escape routes from the South to the North  Runaways usually traveled by night and hid by day in places called “stations”  One famous conductor was Harriet Tubman  She made 19 dangerous journeys to free enslaved people

12. Antislavery and Racism  The issue of slavery caused tension between the North and the South  In the North, the antislavery movement had been growing since the 1830s  Some Northern workers opposed slavery because it was an economic threat to them, since the slaves worked for free  Despite their opposition to slavery, most Northerners, even abolitionists, were racist by modern standards  Slaveholders defended slavery with several arguments

13. Uncle Tom’s Cabin  Harriet Beecher Stowe was enraged by the Fugitive Slave Act of the Compromise of 1850  It motivated her to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852  Dramatically portrayed the moral issues of slavery

14. John Brown Attacks Harpers Ferry  John Brown added to sectional tensions in 1859  Brown wanted to inspire slaves to fight for their freedom  To do this, he planned to capture the weapons in the U.S. arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia

15. John Brown Attacks Harpers Ferry  On October 16, 1859 Brown and 18 followers-13 whites and 5 blacks-captured the Harpers Ferry arsenal  Four people were killed in the raid  Brown sent out word to rally and arm slaves, but none came  U.S. Marines attacked and captured Brown, who was tried for murder and treason, then hanged