Transcript Background to Civil War - New Hampshire Historical Society

Background to
Civil War
Conflict over Slavery
— in New Hampshire
and across the Nation
Ulysses S. Grant
Next to President Lincoln
himself, these two great generals
are probably the men we
most closely associate with
the Civil War.
Robert E. Lee
These prominent New Hampshire natives
contributed greatly to debates on the issues that
eventually led the country to war.
But the Civil War didn’t occur suddenly. The
conflict developed over more than “four score”
years, and involved more than just generals.
These prominent New Hampshire natives
contributed greatly to debates on the issues that
eventually led the country to war.
You will learn more about their contributions
— but first some background information.
The 13 original states all were former British colonies…
…and all the colonies allowed slavery and profited from
slave labor — including New Hampshire.
Slavery rapidly grew to become an integral
part of colonial American life.
1619 – the first African “servants” arrived
in the American colonies
1641 – Massachusetts Bay Colony
legalized slavery
1645 – The first slave is recorded in New
Hampshire
1660 – Virginia legalized slavery
1663 – Maryland recognized “slavery for
life.”
1667 – Virginia recognized “slavery for
life.”
By the time the United States became an independent nation, the
institution of slavery had taken root more deeply
in the South than in the North.
A Contrast: North and South
Between 1790 and 1860, the
disparity between North and
South in the number of slaves
grew even greater.
By 1860, the
worlds were
very different.
An Example…
New Hampshire
South Carolina
New Hampshire
By 1840, New Hampshire had
1 slave…
…the last census year for
which any slave is listed in the
state.
South Carolina
South Carolina, on the
other hand, recorded
327,038 slaves in 1840
— more than half its
population.
By 1860, just before the
Civil War, slaves made
up 57% of the state’s
total population.
For our founders in 1787, the task of creating a single country from
former colonies with widely different social views
and economic needs would prove extremely difficult.
Even before the country agreed to a constitution, Pennsylvania and
Massachusetts had abolished slavery.
Later, New York and New Jersey also formally abolished slavery.
Even without formal abolition, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and
Rhode Island possessed very few slaves.
But in the South, as well as in the border states of Delaware and
Maryland, slave labor was economically important.
Mutual Needs
The numerous textile mills along
New Hampshire’s rivers depended
upon a steady and plentiful supply of
cotton grown in the South in order to
produce cloth.
The South’s need for slave labor was
very much linked to production
demands of the industrial North.
Mutual Needs
In the London Economist (circa 1855),
a writer noted:
Should any dire calamity befall the land of
cotton, … ten thousand mills must stop
their busy looms; two thousand thousand
mouths would starve, for lack of food to
feed them.
The writer was talking about England,
— but he could as easily have been
referring to New England, including
New Hampshire.
Compromise
In order to unite North and South as a country, the
framers of the Constitution…
• Agreed not to attempt to restrict slavery or slave trade in the
states for 20 years, and
• Agreed to count slaves as 3/5 of a human being for purposes
of calculating representation in the House of Representatives
— thus giving southern states more power.
Compromise
Over the next 70 years additional compromises
included…
• Forbidding slavery in the new Northwest territories (1787)
• Forbidding importation of new slaves from Africa (1807);
• Creating a balance of “free” and “slave” states admitted to the
Union (1820);
• Allowing slave owners to recover runaway slaves, even in “free”
states and territories (1793 and 1850); and
• Allowing residents of a territory to decide for themselves
whether they would be “slave” or “free” (1854).
New Hampshire Conflict
Even without slaves inside their own borders…
New Hampshire people became passionately
involved in the national debate about slavery and
abolition.
New Hampshire Conflict
Fervid abolitionists
included the Hutchinsons.
This popular singing
family from Milford
traveled throughout the
nation carrying their
musical call for
immediate emancipation.
New Hampshire Conflict
Another New Hampshire
voice for abolition was that
of Horace Greeley of
Amherst.
As founder of the New York
Tribune, Greeley
editorialized for abolition.
Early in the Civil War,
Greeley chided President
Lincoln for not acting to
emancipate the nation’s
slaves.
New Hampshire Conflict
John Parker Hale of
Rochester, a U.S.
representative, then U.S.
senator, won national
acclaim for his moral
stance against slavery.…
New Hampshire Conflict
Hale’s opposition to the
admission of any more slave
states into the Union helped
divide the state’s Democratic
Party.
This split reflected a
nationwide rift in the party on
the issue of slavery and
abolition.
New Hampshire Conflict
A member of the Whig
Party, Daniel Webster,
originally from Salisbury,
shared with some
Democrats the view that
compromise was essential
to preserve the Union.
New Hampshire Conflict
Franklin Pierce, a Hillsboro
native and leader of New
Hampshire’s Democrats, firmly
opposed abolition.
He feared that the abolition
movement would destroy the
Union.…
New Hampshire Conflict
Pierce consistently supported
Southern positions that
favored allowing additional
slave states into the Union.
But, personally, he thought
of slavery as…
“one of the greatest moral
and social evils… a curse
upon the whole country.…”
New Hampshire Conflict
Pierce’s sympathies made him
the only presidential candidate
capable of winning votes in the
South as well as in his native
North.
In 1853, he became the nation’s
14th president — the only one
from New Hampshire.
It would prove to be a
difficult presidency.
New Hampshire Conflict
Amos Tuck, an Exeter
lawyer, had long opposed
Franklin Pierce’s political
views.
Some credit him with
forming the Republican Party
in 1853 at a meeting in an
Exeter tavern…
— just seven months after
Franklin Pierce had become
president.
New Hampshire Conflict
The new party united a number
of smaller groups opposed to
Pierce and other Democrats
sympathetic with southern views.
This New Hampshire Republican
campaign banner attacks
Democrat James Buchanan and
his vice-presidential candidate as
supporters of slavery and
“popular sovereignty”.…
Despite the banner, the Democratic Party won this
election of 1856.
New Hampshire Conflict
But in 1860, only six
years after the party
was formed,
Republicans would
elect their first
president —
Abraham Lincoln.
Throughout its brief history as a
nation —
from its inception in 1787 with
the drafting of the Constitution to
the election of President Lincoln
in 1860 and the start of the Civil
War —
the country had struggled with the
issue of slavery.
Here is how the nation grew during those
tumultuous years.
1790–1799
Free States: Vermont
Slave States: Kentucky, Tennessee
1800–1809
Free States: Ohio
Slave States: —
1810–1819
Free States: Indiana, Illinois
Slave States: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama
Maine’s entry into the Union was
allowed only with acceptance of
Missouri as a slave state.
As part of the agreement, it was
decided that in the future, slave states
would be confined below a latitude
roughly along Missouri’s southern
border.
The agreement became known as the
Missouri Compromise.
Free States: Maine
Slave States: Missouri
1820–1829
1830–1839
Free States: Michigan
Slave States: Arkansas
1840–1849
Free States: Iowa, Wisconsin
Slave States: Florida, Texas
1850–1859
Free States: California, Minnesota, Oregon
Slave States: —
1854
Earlier disagreements over
admitting Texas and
California flared again
with proposals to admit
Kansas and Nebraska.
1854
Earlier disagreements over
admitting Texas and
California flared again
with proposals to admit
Kansas and Nebraska.
President Pierce’s signature on the Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed
residents of a territory to choose for themselves whether they
wished to be a “free” or a “slave” state.
Abolitionists from the North and slave-holders from the South both
raced into Kansas Territory to influence the vote — often with
incredible violence.
Kansas became known as “Bleeding Kansas.”
1860
South Carolina secedes from the Union.
1861
Ten other slave states secede and declare themselves the Confederate
States of America.
1861
All the free states remain loyal to the Union.
1861
Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri — all slave states —
remain loyal to the Union. Civil War begins!
1861–1865
1861–1865
Three states join the Union during the war: Kansas (1861),
West Virginia (1863)*, and Nebraska (1865)
*West Virginia seceded from Confederate Virginia.
Fought from 1861 to
1865, the Civil War
remains the bloodiest
war in our country’s
history.
While no battles were fought in the
state, New Hampshire supplied 18
infantry regiments to the Union
cause.
New Hampshire soldiers would fight
in all the major theaters of the Civil
War.
A New Hampshire soldier
in South Carolina poses
with slaves left behind
after their owners fled the
plantation.
Soldiers of Company A, 3rd N.H.
Infantry Regiment, pose for Concord
photographer Henry P. Moore.
Five of the seven would be killed or
seriously wounded during the war.
New Hampshire’s Fifth Infantry Regiment would
suffer the greatest number of casualties of any regiment
in the Union Army.
More than 1,000 men would be killed or wounded in
battle.
New Hampshire people would serve in other
ways, too.
Thaddeus Lowe, a
Jefferson native,
pioneered aeronautics
in the war,
commanding the
Balloon Corps.
Here, he prepares to
provide reconnaissance
information at the
battle of Fair Oaks.
New Hampshire people would serve in other
ways, too.
A number of women served as
nurses in the war.
Notable among them was
Harriet P. Dame of Concord,
who tended the 2nd N.H.
Regiment throughout the war.
On two separate occasions she
was captured behind
Confederate lines
— and released.
© 2008 Christopher MacLeod for the
New Hampshire Historical Society