Transcript Causes of the Civil War

A Project on the development of the U.S. after the
Constitution
Project Details
Multi Media Power Point
 Groups of 4-5
 Chapters 6-10
 150 total points
 Due Monday November 4 2013

Presentation Details

Power Point:
 Minimum of 10 slides and 5 images covering the
assigned chapter. 50 pts
 Minimum of 2 video clips embedded no longer that 10
minutes each (unless otherwise approved by teacher).
20 pts
 Minimum of 1 primary source document that group will
lead the class through an analysis of via
comprehension reading questioning or close reading
techniques (see me for help). 20 pts
 Presentation follow –up: create a quiz, game or activity
that helps students review important content in the
presentation. 10 pts
AZ State Standard on the Civil War:
Regional conflicts led to the Civil War
and resulted in significant changes to
American social, economic, and
political structures.
 According to the standard, what
“caused” the Civil War?

Analyzing Causes through Primary
Sources
Each group will get an envelope, but DO
NOT open it until I tell you to do so.
 In each envelope there are 10 primary
source documents. Read or examine each
document as a group and then decide how
you can organize them by topic or category
(you come up with the categories). Each of
you should choose 2 documents you can
explain to the class, including the category
and reason)

Road Map to the Civil War
With a group of no more than 4 you are
going to create a road map of America
documenting important events leading
up to the Civil War in 1860.
 Your maps must reflect the correct
geography of the time as well as an
accurate historical portrait of the preCivil War Era known as Antebellum
America.
 Let me explain!

Westward Expansion- Task One



One of the leading factors in the outbreak of the Civil War
was the acquisition of new territories out west and the
debate over whether these territories would be slave states
or free states.
Re-create the map of these Westward territories as seen on
Atlas pages A28-29. Outline it in marker then fill in with
colored pencil.
Research the following territorial acquisitions and write a 1-2
paragraph summary about how the US came to own each
territory.
 Louisiana Territory
 Texas Annexation
 Mexican Cession
 Gadsden Purchase
 Oregon Territory
Road Map Requirements Part 2



Draw in the states as they existed in 1860 prior to the Civil War. Label
then states.
Map a minimum of 10 important “stops” along your road map to mark
major events/people or places that are essential for understanding the
causes of the American Civil War.
Each “stop” should have a 1-2 paragraph summary to explain the
significance of the event and how it is a cause of the Civil War, as well
as a primary source document as an “artifact” of the era
 The summary will be glued or taped to the map in the state/area in
which it occurred or is most closely related and in a manner that
allows someone to still read it and view the map. (Suggestion – use
pockets)
 Summaries can be hand written or typed as long as it is legible,
accurate and informative.
 The primary source document must also be explained as to how it
is relevant to this “stop”. Primary sources can include letters, laws,
photos, cartoons, newspaper articles or editorials…
Events/People/Places: Everyone must
start at the Constitution (which counts as one “stop”). Below is
a list to choose the other 9 “stops” on your road map.






Missouri
Compromise
Compromise of 1850
Fugitive Slave Law
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Kansas Nebraska Act
“Bleeding Kansas”







Political ActivismNew Parties
Brooks vs. Sumner in
the Senate
Dred Scott Decision
Lincoln-Douglas
debates
John Brown’s Raid
Election of Lincoln
Secession of South
Carolina
Grading 400 points!!!!!!!






You will be graded on your overall product
including historical accuracy, neatness,
organization, creativity and purpose, as
well as participation and planning.
Historical Accuracy = 10 points per territory
and each “stop”
Primary Source = 10 points per source with
explanation
Neatness/Organization = 50 points
Creativity/Purpose = 50 points
Participation and Planning = 50 points
North
Highly
industrialized
Vast networks of railroads
for trade
North
network –
telegraph lines were strung
along the railroads
 Immigrant workers settled in the
North and worked in the
factories.
 Against slavery because they
felt it would compete with paid
labor
 Communication
South
rural – plantations and
small farms
Use rivers to transport goods
Southern economy relied on
staple crops like cotton – “King
Cotton”
Mainly
South
immigrants settled here –
there was not a need for labor b/c
of slavery
 Few
The Debate Over Slavery
Compromise – a series
of agreements passed by
Congress to maintain the balance
of power between slave and free
states.
 Established the Missouri
Compromise Line 36 degree 30’
north latitude – north of that line
was free – south of it was slave
 Missouri
Wilmot Proviso
 “neither
slavery or involuntary
servitude shall ever exist” in any
territory the United States might
acquire as a result of the war with
Mexico.
Wilmot Proviso
 Divided
Congress along regional
lines – Northerners supported it
and Southerners opposed it
 It was approved by the House of
Representatives but the Senate
rejected it.
Statehood for California
– California applied to
join the Union
 California’s constitution
forbade slavery
 1849
Statehood for California
surprised the south –
they assumed it would enter
as a slave state because most
of it lay south of the Missouri
Compromise Line.
 South saw this as an attack
on their Southern way of life.
 This
The Senate Debates
The
issue of slavery was
hotly debated in the Senate
in 1849.
The South threatened
secession – the formal
withdrawal of a state from
the Union.
And Now a Little Intermission…
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 Clay’s
Compromise: Henry Clay
worked day and night to find a
common ground – this became
known as The Compromise of 1850
 California admitted as a free state
 Popular sovereignty in Utah and
New Mexico
 Fugitive Slave Act – required people
in the free states to help capture
and return escaped slaves.
Resistance Against Slavery
Some Northerners refused to follow the
fugitive slave law
 Underground Railroad – secret network
of people who would aid fugitive slaves
in their escape.

 Harriet Tubman – most famous “conductor”
– former slave – she returned to the South
19 times and escorted nearly 300 people to
freedom in the North.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe novel made slavery not only a political
struggle but a moral struggle.
Tension in Kansas - Nebraska
Bill introduced in Congress by Sen.
Stephen Douglas to divide the area into
two territories: Nebraska in the north
and Kansas in the South.
 This would repeal the Missouri
Compromise and establish popular
sovereignty for both territories.
 After months of bitter debate the
Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed

“Bleeding Kansas”
 “Come
on then, gentlemen of
the slave states…We will
engage in competition for the
virgin soil of Kansas and God
give the victory to the side
that is stronger in numbers as
it is in right.” Sen. William
Seward
“Bleeding Kansas”
 “border
ruffians” – from
Missouri voted illegally – won
the election and set up a
government
“Bleeding Kansas”
 Abolitionists
were furious and
organized a rival government
“Bleeding Kansas”
 Violence erupts
 Homes looted, buildings burned,
printing presses destroyed
 John Brown (Abolitionist)– believed
false accounts that five men were
killed by a proslavery mob.
○ He pulled five men from their beds
and hacked off their hands and
stabbed them.
Violence Spreads



Violence over the issue of slavery spreads to the
Senate
Senator Charles Sumner delivered an
impassioned speech attacking his colleagues for
their support of slavery
An angered nephew of South Carolina’s Sen.
Butler entered the chamber and accused Sumner
of libel and hit him with his cane repeatedly –
Sumner suffered brain damage and didn’t return
for three years
Anti-Slavery Parties
 Free-Soilers:
opposed the
extension of slavery into the
territories. Supported workers
– pro-labor.
 Republican – opposed
expansion of slavery into
territories
Democratic Party
Supported
states’ rights
 Split on the issue of slavery
 Limited government
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott - a slave from Missouri
whose owner had taken him north to the
free state of Illinois
 Dred sued for his freedom

Dred Scott Decision
 Supreme Court ruled:
 slaves did not have the rights of
citizens (ie… confirmed they were
property and fundamentally not
human)
 Missouri Compromise was
unconstitutional as it interfered with
the rights of property owners to
control/manipulate/move their
property
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
 Illinois
senate race between Abraham
Lincoln and two-time senator Stephen
Douglas
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Democrat
Republican
(Moderate)

Douglas – believed in

popular sovereignty to
determine slave or free
 Slavery was not to be 
legislated on moral
grounds – it was a

backward labor system
that would eventually
go away with popular
sovereignty
Lincoln – slavery is immoral –
a labor system based on
greed
Need legislation in the
territories to stop the spread
of slavery
Lincoln lost the election but
these debates put him in the
national spotlight and people
considered him as a
candidate for the presidency.
Harper’s Ferry

John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s
Ferry:
 ardent abolitionist – led a slave uprising of




black and white men in Harper’s Ferry
His goal – seize the federal arsenal,
capture arms and start a slave uprising
60 of the town’s citizens were captured in
hopes that their slaves would join the
uprising, but not a single slave did.
Local troops killed eight of Brown’s men
Brown was captured and tried for treason
and later hanged
Harper’s Ferry
Election of 1860

Three major candidates:
 Northern Democrats – Stephen Douglas
 Southern Democrats – Vice President Breckinridge
 Republicans – Abraham Lincoln
 Constitutional Union Party –
John Bell
Lincoln Becomes President
Lincoln wins with less than half of the
popular vote and no electoral votes from
the South
 States in the South respond by
secession – South Carolina was first

The Confederacy is Born
 Delegates
from the seven
secessionist states met in
Montgomery, Alabama to form the
Confederate States of America
 Delegates wrote a Confederate
Constitution (similar to the US Constitution
except that it upholds the legality of slavery
specifically whereas the US Constitution
avoided the issue).
 It also guaranteed state’s rights
 Jefferson Davis is elected president
○ Considered “model” Southern gentleman
and plantation owner.
The Big Question…
Would
the North allow
the South to leave the
Union without a fight?
The War Begins at Fort Sumter
The new Confederacy ordered that Fort Sumter (in
South Carolina) be turned over to them and all U.S.
troops stationed there removed or face attack.
 Lincoln refused to remove the troops

 If he had, it would have been seen as an informal
recognition of the Confederate States as legitimate).

Jefferson Davis ordered an attack on Fort Sumter
on April 12, 1861 thus starting the Civil War
 Union troops surrendered the Fort to the South.

Virginia seceded:
 prior to this Virginia was not convinced session was
constitutional, but unwilling to fight other southerner states
by May the confederacy consisted of 11 states.