The American Civil War

The Causes

Key question: What started the American Civil war?

SIMPLE ANSWER:

SLAVERY!!!!

But of course it’s not that SIMPLE!

Long-term causes:1. The 3/5ths compromise (1787)

Long-term causes:2. The invention of the cotton gin (1793)

• Revolutionized the cotton industry- now 50 times faster to

remove seeds.

Cotton industry expands

More demand for slaves in the Southern States

Long-term causes:3. The Louisiana Purchase, Westward expansion and Manifest Destiny (1803)

• With Louisiana Purchase, The USA doubled in size

• But would these new states be SLAVE states of FREE states?

• The Manifest Destiny idea encouraged Western expansion

• The USA now had control of vast lands to the west of the Mississippi.

Long-term effect:4. The Missouri Compromise (1820)

Short-term effects1. The Compromise of 1850

Short-term effects:2. The Fugitive Slave Law (1850)

• The law made Northerners feel a part of the slave system. Lead to the Underground Railway

• Controversial law: ALL United States citizens (North and South) had to return runaway slaves.

• People who helped free slaves would be put in prison or fined

Short-term effects:3. Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

• Harriet Beecher Stowe’s story about the Uncle Tom, a slave and his cruel master.

• Highlighted the cruelty of slavery• Huge impact in the North• Helped turn slavery into a moral issue

Short-term causes:4. The Kansas- Nebraska ACT (1854)

• Territory of Nebraska divided into 2 states

• The people would decide to be a free state or a slave state

• Southerners supported the act northerners did not

• As a result thousands of pro and anti slavery come to Kansas to vote and fight for slavery. Civil war is

now close

Short-term causes:5. Bloody Kansas (1855)

• The Act causes terrible violence. 200 people die over the issue of slavery.

• The town of Lawrence is destroyed by pro-slavery forces

• No room left for compromise. Both sides a re ready to fight for what they believe in.

Short-term effects:6. The Dred Scott Supreme Court decision

(1857)

• Dred Scott was a slave who said that because his master had taken him to a free state, he should be

free.

• The court ruled that Scott was not a citizen, but property, so could not come to court.

• The court also decided that Congress had no power over slavery so, in effect, slavery was now legal in ALL

territories and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional

• Slavery has now become a MORAL issue in the North and a

CONSTITUTIONAL one in the South. NO ROOM FOR COMPROMISE

Short-term effects:7. Harper’s Ferry and John Brown (1859)

• John Brown and a group of abolitionists attacks a Federal arsenal in Ferry, Virginia.

• Brown hoped slaves would come and start a massive slave revolt.

• Brown unsuccessful, captured and executed for treason and murder.

• In the North Brown became a hero, the South felt the North wanted to destroy slavery and the South

with it. War now inevitable.

Short-term effects: 8. Abraham Lincoln elected President (1860)

• Southerners reaction was strong. Saw that the North had put an abolitionist in the White House.

• Secession was now the only option. The South felt it was their right as stated in the Declaration of Independence: “it is the right of the people to alter or abolish” a government that denies the rights of its citizens. Lincoln, they believed

would deny them the right to own slaves.

The South Secedes.

• In 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union.

• By February 1861, Florida, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi had seceded.

• Lincoln took oath in 1861, stating that no state can lawfully leave the Union. But he said there would be

no war unless South started it• Southern States took control of Federal buildings (post offices/forts). Took control of 3 forts in Florida, and was ready to take Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Confederates asked for Fort’s surrender, when it was refused they bombed the Fort until it surrendered.

• America’s brutal Civil War had begun.

War Begins: Fort Sumter (1861)