Transcript Antebellum America: North vs. South

Antebellum
America: North vs.
South
SBMS U.S.History
Mr. Durfee, Mr. Lindemann , Mrs.
Hillyard
Setting the Scene
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Mid-1800’s
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Differences between the North and the South
grew so strong that compromise no longer
seemed possible
Tragically, Americans turned to civil war to
settle their disagreements.
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The long and bloody war resulted in defeat for
the South and victory for the Union
America Divided
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Economic changes
created divisions in the
United States
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Three areas of conflict:
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North – economy based
in manufacturing and
trade
South – relied on slaves
to raise crops for
economy
West – settlers wanted
cheap land and good
transportation
The North: Farming
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Mostly small farms
Labor provided by
family members
Subsistence
agriculture: food
crops and livestock
Slavery not profitable
in this system
The North: Industry
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Factories first began in New
England
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92% of the nation’s industries
were in the North
Produced fabric and shoes
This is called the Industrial
Revolution
Goods made in factories rather
than in homes
75% of Nation’s Wealth in
North
The North: Labor
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Factories required
workers
First factory workers
were young women,
called “Mill Girls”
Paid an hourly wage
“Free Labor” – no
slaves
The North: Labor
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Wages were low
Working hours long
Working conditions
often dangerous
Child labor
The North: Labor
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By 1850, most “Mill
Girls” replaced by
immigrants in the
factories
Immigrants willing to
work for lower wages
Created a “working
class”
The North: Cities
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Factories and workers
in cities
Several large cities:
Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, St.
Louis, Chicago
Crowded conditions
and urban slums
22 Million Americans
The North: Transportation
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Factory goods needed to
be moved to market
Canals were built
Erie Canal linked the
Hudson River with Lake
Erie
Also steamboats and
railroads improved
transportation
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75% of America’s
Railroads were in the
North
The North: Social Classes
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The wealthy: businessmen,
factory owners and
professionals
Working class
Servants and urban poor
Free blacks
The South: Farming
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Plantation economy
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Cash crops like tobacco,
sugar, cotton and rice
Large “farms”
Purpose was to make a
profit
Also small farms on
poor land and in the
mountains
The South: King Cotton
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In 1790, Eli Whitney
invented the Cotton
Gin, which cleaned
cotton by machine.
More cotton grown &
more slaves needed.
By 1820s, cotton was
1/2 of our total exports
– big business!
The South: Labor
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Source of labor on cotton
plantations was slaves
4 million by 1860
Slaves were 1/3 of total
population of South
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Slavery was allowed by the
3/5’s Compromise
In some places, slaves
outnumbered whites
The South: Chattel Slavery
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A system of slavery in
which one human
being owned another
as property
Life-long condition
Slavery inherited –
children of slaves
were also slaves
Often cruel and brutal
The South: Social Classes
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Wealthy white plantation owners
Lived on rich flat land near rivers
10,000 wealthy families in 1860
Owned more than 50 slaves
A minority, but political & economic
power
Slave Cost
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Slave trade banned in 1808
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Slave demand rises as does the cost of slaves
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1790 - $300
1860 – $1500
Slave traders began to smuggle Slaves into the
United States
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1790 – 500,000 Slaves
1850 – 4 Million Slaves
The South: Social Classes
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Yeoman farmers (a free
man owning his own
farm)
 9 Million Southerners
Some owned a few
slaves
2/3 of all whites owned
no slaves at all
Subsistence agriculture –
lived on poor land
The South: Social Classes
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Slaves the lowest
social class
No rights, could be
sold at any time,
families were split up,
most did hard labor in
the fields.
The South: Industry, Cities and
Transportation
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Economy entirely
focused on agriculture
(farming)
Very little industry
Few cities
Not a lot of canals or
railroads
Rural society
Popular Sovereignty Allow
the people in a territory to
vote on whether they want
slavery to exist or not in
their state.
Map Comp of 1850
Election of 1848
Both the Whigs and the Democrats remained silent on the issue of slavery
even though Southern “fire-eaters” threatening secession.
Compromise of 1850
Most intense debate in U.S. History
•John C. Calhoun
•North should honor the Constitution and
enforce the Fugitive Slave Law
•South wanted California
•Threatened to secede from U.S. (dead
horse)
•U.S. should have two Presidents---one from
the North and one for the South
•Henry Clay
•The Great Compromiser, with John C.
Calhoun, Daniel Webster and Stephen Douglas,
propose this compromise.
•Daniel Webster
•Secession is impractical & impossible
•How would we split the land?
•The military?
•Compromise at all cost
•Preserve the Union
•U.S. Senator from the state of Illinois
•Solve the slavery issue was through Popular
Sovereignty
•let the people in each territory decide through
the process of voting whether they want slavery
or not.
•Along with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and John
C. Calhoun they proposed the Compromise of 1850
•Calif. A free state
•Enforce a stricter Fugitive Slave Law
•Popular Sovereignty
•stop slave trade in Washington, D.C.
ABOLITIONISTS
RESPOND
Denounced by
Abolitionists
Harriet Beecher
Stowe’s, Uncle Tom’s
Cabin is published
Abolitionists refuse to
enforce the law
Underground
Railroad becomes
more active
SOUTHERNERS
RESPOND
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Southerners threatened
secession and war
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Believed it should be
enforced because the
Constitution protects
property and Federal
law is over State law
(oh, look who’s changed
their tune!).
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5th Amendment
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Supremacy Clause
Election of 1852
1852
Election
Results
The “Know-Nothings” Form The
American Party]
ß Nativists.
ß AntiCatholics.
ß Antiimmigrants.
• Douglas really wanted to
build a transcontinental
railroad connecting
California to the East Coast
either in the South or North,
but had to convince the
South to let him do this in
the North
• Proposed a plan that
Kansas and Nebraska
territories be opened up to
slavery w/popular
sovereignty in return for
building the railroad in the
North.
The Little Giant in Action
Map Bleeding Kan
• Kansas/Nebraska Act
led to several acts of
violence between proslavery settlers and
anti-slavery settlers
(totally overblown by
media – border ruffians
from South).
(Led by John Brown)
Attacks by free-states
Attacks by pro-slavery states
•First violent outbreaks
between north/south.
•First battles of the Civil
War begin in Kansas in
1856.
After the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, the Kansas territory
became a battleground. Pro-slavery and antislavery supporters rushed to
settle in Kansas. The territory was torn by battles and “massacres.” The
issue also bitterly divided the nation and led to the formation of the
Republican Party.
Bleeding Kan
Effects of K-N
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Whigs were destroyed as northern ones
helped form Republicans, joined FreeSoilers, or supported Nativists, and
southern ones did nothing
The Dems shattered in two w/northerners
furious at expansion of slavery
Compromise of 1850 nullified, along
w/Missouri Compromise
Kansas itself went pro-slavery with a
corrupt Lecompton Constitution (pushed
by Buchanan) even though slavery-free
constitution passed in Topeka
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Broke the Little Giant’s heart and made
him split w/Democrats due to pop. sov.
Failing
“The Crime Against Kansas”
Sen. Charles
Sumner
(R-MA)
Congr. Preston Brooks
(D-SC) (Bully Brooks, who
received many canes to
replace his broken one)
Free Soil Party
formed in the 40s
(led by Van Buren)
against the
expansion of
slavery
Democrats
opposed the
expansion of
slavery (split
in 1850s due
to K-N Act)
Formed to stop
the expansion of
slavery
Parts and Formation of the
REPUBLICAN PARTY
National Republican
which become the Whigs
A Few
Abolitionists
Know Nothing Party
(against immigration)
The Election of 1856
Fremont lost by a bare margin, and proved that the Republicans could take the entire election w/o the
South, if they all voted together (South begins to get angry and suspicious about American politics)
•Slave from Missouri traveled with his
owner to Illinois & Minnesota both free
states.
•His master died and Scott wanted to
move back to Missouri---Missouri still
recognized him as a slave.
•He sued his master’s widow for his
freedom since he had lived in a free
state for a period of time.
•Court case went to the Supreme
Court for a decision-----National issue
•Can a slave sue for his freedom?
•Is a slave property?
•Is slavery legal?
•Supreme Court hands
down the Dred Scott
decision
•North refused to enforce
Fugitive Slave Law
•Free states pass
personal liberty laws.
•Republicans claim the
decision is not binding
•Southerners call on the
North to accept the
decision if the South is to
remain in the Union.
•Slaves cannot sue the U.S. for
their freedom because they are
property.
•They are not citizens and have
no legal right under the
Constitution.
•Supreme Court legalized slavery
by saying that :
•Congress could not stop a
slaveowner from moving his
slaves to a new territory
•Missouri Compromise and all
other compromises were
unconstitutional
Chief Justice Roger B.Taney
(1777 to 1864) in the case of
Dred Scott referred to the
status of slaves when the
Constitution was adopted.
“They had (slaves) for more than a century
before been regarded as beings of an inferior
order; and altogether unfit to associate with
the white race, either in social or political
relations; and so far inferior that they had no
rights which the white man was bound to
respect. This opinion was at that time fixed
and universal in the civilized portion of the
white race.”
Reading/Scott decision
• Violent abolitionist
•Involved in the Bleeding
Kansas as a northern
fighter
•Murdered 5 pro-slavery
men in Kansas
• Wanted to lead a slave
revolt throughout the
South by raising an army
of freed slaves and
destroying the South.
• Attacked a
U.S.
Ammunition
depot in
Harper’s Ferry,
Virginia in Oct.
of 1859 to
capture
weapons and
begin his
slave revolt.
Harper’s Ferry, WV
•Unsuccessful and captured by USMC under the leadership of Robert E.
Lee at this Firehouse
•Put on trial for treason
•He was found guilty of treason
and sentenced to death.
•His last words were to this
effect: “I believe that the issue of
slavery will never be solved
unless through the shedding of
blood.”
•Northerners thought of John
Brown as a martyr to the
abolitionist cause.
•Southerners were terrified that if
John Brown almost got away with
this, and that there must be
others like him in the North who
are willing to die to end slavery.
Picture/J.Brown Hanging
•South’s outcome: To leave the
U.S. and start their own country.
W.E. Dubois Comments on John Brown in 1909
Harper’s Ferry,WV
Main Street Harper’s Ferry Today
Record of John Brown’s Capture
Harper’s Ferry As In 1859
Confluence of Potomac and
Shenandoah Rivers at Harper’s Ferry
•Lincoln and Douglas both running for the U.S. Senate
in Illinois in 1858.
•The debates were followed by the country because
both candidates were interested in running for the
Presidency in 1860.
•Slavery was the issue
•Lincoln stated: A House Divided against itself cannot
stand. Either we become one or the other. The
Constitution had ultimately put slavery on the path to
extinction.
•Was against the EXPANSION of slavery
•Douglas believed that slavery should be decided by
the people.
•Popular sovereignty
The Freeport Doctrine: “Honest Abe” tricked Douglas into admitting
that Popular Sovereignty could work against the expansion of
slavery (what to do if S.C. says slavery cannot be touched?)…..
Southerners would not support Douglas for the presidency in 1860
Country is polarized
over the issue of
slavery.
Once Lincoln is
elected as president,
South Carolina will
secede from the U.S.
along with several
other Southern States
to form the
Confederate States of
America---CSA
•303 total
electoral votes
and 152 to win.
Election of 1860
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The Election of 1860
The divided Democrats nominated Douglas –
perhaps not the most popular candidate since he
had alienated Southerners
The republicans nominated Lincoln
Southern Democrats offered their own candidate,
John C. Breckinridge from Kentucky
A fourth group appeared - the Constitutional
Union party led by John Bell of Tennessee. Their
platform was to save the Union
The Republicans ran on a platform of free-soil,
protective tariffs, and internal improvements
The Election of 1860
Popular Vote
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Southern secessionists threatened to leave the
Union if Lincoln won the election
Lincoln was not an abolitionist. He wanted to
compensate the slave owners, but he was afraid to
make any statement that would alienate anyone
60% of the voters did not vote for Lincoln, but he
won the election. In 10 southern states he wasn’t
even on the ballot
South Carolinians rejoiced since now they had a
reason to secede
Even all the other votes combined would not have
stopped Lincoln winning
Secession
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Four days after the election, South Carolina voted
unanimously to leave the Union
Within weeks six other states in the lower South
also left
Four more joined later, bringing the total to eleven
In 1861 seven of the states met in Montgomery,
Alabama to form the Confederate States of
America and chose Jefferson Davis as president
The lame duck Buchanan believed the
Constitution did not give him the power to act, so
he literally did NOTHING
Crittenden Compromise:
A Last Ditch Appeal to Sanity
Senator John J.
Crittenden
(Know-NothingKY)
Crittenden Compromise
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The attempt at compromise came from
Senator James Crittenden of Kentucky
His proposal was to appease the South:
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A) slavery would be prohibited north of 36º 30´
B) would be protected South of the line in present
and future states
C) future state it would be based on popular
sovereignty
Lincoln rejected the compromise because his
election platform opposed slavery
Secession