Transcript The Union in Crisis and the American Civil War- Chapters 10-11

US History Unit #8
Closure Question #1: How did the northern and southern views of
slavery differ?
 Slavery ended early in the North, but slowly. By 1800, there were
about 50,000 enslaved people in the North, compared to nearly one
million in the South. In 1860, there were still 18 slaves in New Jersey,
but none in the other northern states. Most white northerners
limited the rights of free African Americans and discouraged or
prevented the migration of more. As a result, many white
northerners had little personal experience with African Americans,
slave or free, and only a few held strong opinions about slavery.
 Slavery was an integral part of southern life. Many southerners
believed that God intended that black people should provide the
labor for white “civilized” society. In a speech before Congress in 1837,
planter John Calhoun of South Carolina firmly defended and even
praised the virtues of slavery. “I hold it (slavery) to be a good…,” he
said,”….and (it) will continue to prove so if not disturbed by the…
spirit of abolition.” Calhoun’s words expressed the feelings of many
white southerners.

American Political Party established in 1848 with the main goal of
keeping slavery out of the western territories of the United States.
Closure Question #2: What role did the issue of slavery play in the
election of 1848?
 For decades, the major parties – the Whigs and Democrats – had avoided the
slavery issue, thus managing to win support in both the North and the South. In
1848, they hoped once again to attract voters from all sides of the slavery debate.
But with the Free-Soilers calling for limits to slavery in the territories, the major
parties were forced to take a stand.
 Both Democrats and Whigs addressed the problem by embracing the idea of
popular sovereignty, a policy stating that voters in a territory – not Congress –
should decide whether or not to allow slavery there. This idea had wide appeal,
since it seemed in keeping with the traditions of American democracy.
Furthermore, it allowed Whigs and Democrats once again to focus on the
personal exploits and triumphs of their candidates rather than on the issue.
 The Whigs nominated Zachary Taylor, a general and a hero of the Mexican War.
The Democrats put forward Governor Lewis Cass of Michigan. The Free-Soil
Party nominated New Yorker Martin Van Buren as their candidate for President.
When the votes were counted, Taylor won the election, with slim majorities in
both northern and southern states. Van Buren did not carry any state, but he did
draw sufficient votes to cause Cass to lose. The Free-Soil Party, which had won
10% of the vote with its antislavery platform, had clearly captured Americans’
attention.
 Legislation created by Henry Clay to appease southerners and
northerners following the Mexican-American War.
1) Admitted California as a free state
2) Gave the people of New Mexico and Utah the right to decide the slavery
question for themselves (popular sovereignty)
3) Ended the slave trade in Washington D.C.
4) Established the Fugitive Slave Law
 Fugitive Slave Act – Part of the Compromise of 1850,
required private citizens to assist with apprehending
runaway slaves and punishment (fines or jail time) for
anyone who assisted escaping slaves.
 Personal Liberty Laws – Laws passed by a few Northern
states which nullified the Fugitive Slave Act and allowed
the states to arrest slave catchers for kidnapping.
Closure Assignment #1
Answer the following questions based on
what you have learned from Chapter 10,
Section 1:
1. How did the northern and southern views of
slavery differ?
2. What role did the issue of slavery play in the
election of 1848?
3. Why did California’s application for
statehood cause a crisis?

Closure Question #1: What were the consequences of the Fugitive
Slave Act for slaveholders, white northerners, free African
Americans, or fugitive slaves?
 The Compromise of 1850 was meant to calm the fears of Americans. But one
provision, the new Fugitive Slave Act, had the opposite effect. The law, which
required citizens to catch and return runaway slaves, enraged many northerners.
The anger was not restricted to abolitionists; it extended to other northerners
who felt forced to support the slave system.
 Northerners also resented what they saw as increasing federal intervention in
the affairs of the independent states. A few northern states struck back, passing
personal liberty laws. These statutes nullified the Fugitive Slave Act and allowed
the state to arrest slave catchers for kidnapping. Many northerners agreed with
abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison when he demanded “nothing less than… a
Revolution in the Government of the country.”
 Black Americans, of course, despised the law. Some of the captured “fugitive
slaves” were really free people who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery.
Although the imprisoned African Americans could appeal to a judge for their
release, the law awarded $10 to judges who ruled in favor of slave owners but only
$5 to those who ruled the captive should be set free. Slaves, fugitives, and free
black people plotted and carried out resistance. Through the succeeding
decades, tempers flared and violence erupted as far north as Canada, as far west
as Kansas, and as far south as Virginia.
 Underground Railroad – A secret network of abolitionists and
free blacks which helped slaves escape from the South to
destinations in the North, Canada, and England.
 Harriet Tubman – One of the most successful “conductors” of the
Underground Railroad, Tubman made almost two dozen trips to
the South guiding hundreds of slaves to safety.
 Harriet Beecher Stowe – Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852, a
popular novel in the Northern United States and Europe which
argued powerfully against slavery.
 Kansas-Nebraska Act - Law proposed by Stephen Douglas
which divided the territory of Nebraska into two distinct
territories, Nebraska and Kansas, and gave the people in the
territories the right to decide whether slavery would be
permitted.
 Missouri Compromise (1820) – Slavery was prohibited in the
Louisiana Territory north of Arkansas and Oklahoma, except
in Missouri. Sponsored by Henry Clay, the compromise
preserved the balance of free and slave states in the Senate.
However, it marked the beginning of the sectional conflict
that would lead to civil war.
 John Brown – New York Abolitionist who dedicated his life to ending
slavery even if it meant using violence; Brown led anti-slavery forces in
Kansas in 1856 and attempted to organize a slave rebellion in 1859 at
Harpers Ferry Virginia.
 “Bleeding Kansas” – Term used to describe violence between pro-slavery
and anti-slavery Americans in the Kansas territory which began in 1856
and continued throughout the Civil War.
Closure Question #3: How did “Bleeding Kansas” embody the slavery
controversy?
 Most of the people who came to the newly opened territory of Kansas were
farmers looking for land. But Kansas also attracted settlers – northern and
southern – with political motives. Each group wanted to outnumber the other, so
that when it came time to vote, they could control the government. Their
competition to settle the territory would have deadly consequences.
 On May 21st, 1856, Border Ruffians raided the antislavery town of Lawrence,
Kansas. They pillaged homes, burned down the Free State Hotel, and destroyed
the presses of The Kansas Free State newspaper. Swift retaliation came from John
Brown, a New York abolitionists who had moved his family several times in
pursuit of opportunities to confront slavery head-on and who now made his
home near Lawrence. With his sons and a few friends, Brown carried out a
midnight execution of five proslavery settlers near Pottawatomie Creek, about 20
miles south of Lawrence.
 Over the next several years, the question of how to admit Kansas to the Union
baffled local residents, political parties, the U.S. Congress, and the Supreme
Court. Although the Border Ruffians had determined the outcome of the
election, President Franklin Pierce urged Congress to admit Kansas as a slave
state in 1858. However, Congress, refused and Kansas submitted four
constitutions before it finally entered as a free state in 1861, after the Civil War
had already begun.
Closure Assignment #2
Answer the following questions based on Chapter 10,
Section 2:
1. What were the consequences of the Fugitive Slave
Act for slaveholders, white northerners, free African
Americans, and fugitive slaves?
2. How did the Kansas-Nebraska Act undo the Missouri
Compromise?
3. How did “Bleeding Kansas” embody the slavery
controversy?

 Social and Political movement established in the mid-1800’s
made of native-born, white Protestants which opposed
immigration to the United States by non-whites and nonProtestants.
 Established in 1854; the first political party in the United
States created with the key goal of ending the practice of
slavery.
 Dred Scott – Missouri slave who sued his master for his freedom in 1857,
basing his case on the fact that his master had taken him to Illinois,
which was a free state.
 Roger B. Taney – Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who ruled against
Dred Scott, stating that slaves and their descendants were property, not
citizens, and therefore were not entitled to sue in courts.
 Illinois Republican and President from 1861 to 1865; signed the
Emancipation Proclamation which led to the end of slavery in
the United States; the first President to be assassinated.
 Illinois Democrat who supported Popular Sovereignty and the
Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and defeated Lincoln in an 1858 for a
position in the US Senate but lost to Lincoln in the Presidential
election of 1860.
 Town in Northern Virginia where, in 1859, John Brown made a failed
attempt to start a slave uprising that would destroy slavery in the South.
Brown was captured and executed, but in his death he was viewed as a
courageous martyr by many northerners.
Closure Assignment #3
 Answer the following questions based
on what you have learned from Chapter
10, Section 3:
1. Why did the Republican Party form?
2. How did the Dred Scott decision
increase tensions between North and
South?
3. How successful was John Brown’s raid
on Harpers Ferry?
Closure Question #1: How did the election of 1860
increase sectional tensions?
 John Brown’s raid and execution were still fresh in the minds of Americans as the 1860
presidential election approached. Uncertainty about Kansas – would it be a slave state or
a free state? – added to the anxiety. In the North, loss of confidence in the Supreme
Court resulting from the Dred Scott decision and rage about the Fugitive Slave Act’s
intrusion into the states’ independence further aggravated the situation.
 The issue of states’ rights was on southern minds as well. Would northern radicals
conspire to eliminate slavery not only in the territories but also in the original southern
states? In the spring of 1860, Mississippi senator Jefferson Davis convinced Congress to
adopt resolutions restricting federal control over slavery in the territories. The
resolutions also asserted that the Constitution prohibited Congress or any state from
interfering with slavery in the states where it already existed. Even southerners who did
not own slaves felt that their way of life and their honor were under attack.
 Benefiting from the fracturing among the other political parties. Lincoln won the
election handily with 40% of the popular vote and almost 60% of the electoral
vote. In fact, he was not even on the ballot in most southern states. The election
of 1860 demonstrated that Americans’ worst fears had come to pass. There were
no longer any national political parties. Bell and Breckinridge competed for
southern votes, while Douglas and Lincoln competed in the North and West. The
North and South were now effectively two political entities, and there seemed no
way to bridge the gap.
 Mississippi Democrat and Senator, supporter of slavery and
states rights; Davis was the first and only president of the
Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865.
 Established in 1861 and comprised of 11 southern states which had
seceded from the USA; supported the practice of slavery and asserted
that individual states should have greater power than the national
government.
 Final attempt to keep the country united prior to the Civil War;
proposed constitutional amendment allowing slavery in western
territories south of the Missouri Compromise line.
Closure Question #3: How could President Buchanan
have prevented war?
(Hint: This is an opinion question)
 Outgoing President James Buchanan condemned South
Carolina’s secession from the Union but was unwilling to use
force to stop it. Many northerners criticized his weak
response to the crisis. In an address to Congress, he seemed
almost baffled that the situation had deteriorated so far:
 “How easy it would be for the American people to settle the
slaver question forever and to restore peace and harmony to
this distracted country!... All that is necessary to accomplish
the object, and all for which the slaves States have ever
contended, is to be let alone and permitted to manage their
domestic institutions in their own way. As sovereign States,
they, and they alone, are responsible to God and the world
for the slavery existing among them.”
– President James Buchanan, December 3rd, 1860
 Island fort held by the Union in the harbor near Charleston,
South Carolina; the first shots of the American Civil War were
fired by Confederate canons at Fort Sumter on April 12th, 1861.
Closure Assignment #4
 Answer the following questions based
on what you have learned from Chapter
10, Section 4:
1. How did the election of 1860 increase
sectional tensions?
2. Why did the southern states secede?
3. How could President Buchanan have
prevented war?
Closure Question #1: Which side do you think had the best longterm chances for victory at the start of the Civil War? Why?
 Advantages of the Union
•
22 million people lived in the Union.
By contrast, the Confederacy had a
population of only 9 million, of
whom 3.5 million were slaves.
•
Most of the nation’s coal and iron
came from Union mines, and the vast
West was a source of gold, silver, and
other resources.
•
With mechanized factories and a
steady flow of European immigrants
seeking work, the Union could
produce more ammunition, arms,
uniforms, medical supplies and
railroad cars than the Confederacy
could.
 Advantages of the Confederacy
•
Although there were pockets of proUnion feeling in places such as
western Virginia, most southern
whites believed passionately in the
Confederate cause.
•
The South had a strong military
tradition and fine leaders like
Virginia’s Robert E. Lee.
•
The Confederacy did not need to
conquer the North; it simply had to
avoid defeat, expecting that in time
the North would give up the effort.
Southern forces would be fighting a
defensive war on familiar, friendly
ground while northern forces had to
fight an offensive war in enemy
territory.
 Tactic used by the Union Navy in which Union ships
prevented merchant vessels from entering or leaving
the South’s ports, crippling southern trade.
 Labeled as the finest soldiers in the United States by General
Winfield Scott prior to the Civil War, Lee accepted command of
the Confederate Army out of duty to his native-state, Virginia,
even though he opposed secession and did not own slaves.
 2-part Union plan of attack devised by General Winfield Scott; 1st,
the Union would blockade southern ports, starving the South of
income and supplies. 2nd, the Union army would drive south
along the Mississippi River, splitting the Confederacy in two.
 The first large-scale battle of the Civil War; an invading Union force of
30,000 was stopped at Bull Run Creek near Manassas, Virginia and
retreated back to Washington D.C.
 The Battle of Bull Run proved to both North and South that the war
would not be a short engagement; reports of the carnage of the battle
shocked both sides as well.
 Thomas J. Jackson; Confederate general, second-in-command to
Robert E. Lee. A Virginia-Native, West Point graduate, and
devoutly religious, Jackson is the only General on either side who
was never defeated. He was killed by friendly-fire following the
Confederate victory at Chancelorsville in 1863.
 Irvin McDowell – Commander of Union forces in the Battle of Bull Run;
following defeat McDowell was relieved of duty and sent to Arizona to
fight against the Apaches.
 George B. McClellan – Second Commander of the Army of the Potomac
(Union Army of the East); McClellan trained the inexperienced army and
turned it into a skilled fight force, but his reluctance to lead the army
into battle forced Lincoln to remove him as Commander in 1862.
 Leader of the Union Army of the West during the Battle of Shiloh;
following the Union victory at Vicksburg, Grant became the last
General to command the Army of the Potomac, leading the Union to
victory over the Confederacy in 1865. He went on to become President
of the United States from 1869 to 1877.
 The deadliest battle in American History up to that time, in the battle of
Shiloh, in southwest Tennessee, 25,000 Union and Confederate soldiers
were killed or wounded.
 Confederate victory in northern Virginia which re-energized Lee
and the South following the Battle of Shiloh.
Closure Assignment #5
Answer the following questions based on
what you have learned from Chapter 11,
Section 1:
1. Which side do you think had the best longterm chances for victory at the start of the
Civil War? Why?
2. Choose two battles discussed in this section
and describe one effect of each.
3. Based on what you have read, how did Grant
and McClellan differ as military leaders?

 “Captured War Supplies”; Union soldiers during the Civil War
freed and protected slaves in the south, claiming that African
slaves were contraband. This logic led to the freeing of thousands
of slaves before Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
 The bloodiest day of the American Civil War; 23,000 soldiers were
killed or wounded in this battle in Maryland. Though the Union
lost more men than the Confederacy, Lee’s Confederate army was
forced to retreat.
 This Union victory enabled Lincoln to issue the Emancipation
Proclamation.
 Emancipation Proclamation – Formally announced on 9/22/1862,
President Abraham Lincoln issued the military order proclaiming
that all enslaves people in the Confederate states would be
considered free by the United States on 1/1/1863.
 54th Massachusetts Regiment – The first all African American unit in
United States military history; by the war’s end more than 180,000
African American volunteers had served in the Union military.
 Income Tax – A tax based on an individual’s annual earnings; the first
Income Tax in the United States was introduced by Abraham Lincoln
during the Civil War to pay for military expenses.
 Homestead Act (1862) – Laws passed by congress which made western
lands available for settlement at a very low cost to those who would farm
it.
 Conscription – The practice of requiring specific citizens to join the
military; also known as the draft, conscription in the United States
was first introduced during the Civil War.
 Copperheads – Political organization in the Union during the Civil
War which opposed Lincoln’s conduct of the war and demanded an
end to the fighting.
 Constitutional right which protects a person from being held in
jail without being charged for a specific crime; During the Civil
War, President Lincoln suspended this right, empowering the
military to arrest people suspected of being disloyal to the
Union.
 One of the first professional female nurses; provided medical care to
solders during the Civil War. Following the war, Barton founded the
American Red Cross.
Closure Assignment #6
Answer the following questions based on what you
have learned from Chapter 11, Sections 2 and 3:
1. Do you think Lincoln was right to wait so long before
declaring emancipation? Why or why not?
2. How did wartime needs lead to limitations on
individual freedom in the North? Do you think such
actions were justified?
3. Why do you think nursing came to be a profession
dominated by women? Is this still true today?

 Fredericksburg (December 13th, 1862) – Confederate victory in which
Lee’s Confederates defeated new Union General Ambrose Burnside, even
though they were outnumbered 120,000 to 80,000. Union casualties in
the battle were more than double those of the Confederacy.
 Chancellorsville (April 30th – May 6th, 1863)– Confederate victory in the
which drove the Union army, led by General Joseph Hooker, from
Virginia. However, shortly after the battle General Stonewall Jackson
was killed by friendly fire, leaving Lee alone to command the
Confederate army.
 Vicksburg (May 18th to July 4th , 1863) – Site of a successful Union
siege led by General Ulysses S. Grant at the last Confederate fort
on the Mississippi River. Union victory split the Confederacy in
two, separating Texas and western territories from the east.
 Siege – A military tactic in which an army surrounds, bombs, and
cuts off all supplies to an enemy position in order to force it to
surrender.
 The key turning point of the American Civil War; Union victory
against Lee’s Confederate Army near this small town in
Pennsylvania crippled the Confederate Army, forcing Lee to
retreat back to Virginia, signaling the last invasion of the
Confederates on to Union soil.
 Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain – Leader of a Union unit from Maine
which successful defended the southern edge of the Union lines at the
Battle of Gettysburg. For his bravery, Chamberlain was given the honor of
receiving the official Confederate Surrender at Appomattox Court House
in 1865.
 George Pickett – Leader of the final Confederate charge at the Battle of
Gettysburg on July 3rd, 1863; thousands of Confederates were killed by
Union rifle and canon fire, ending the battle as a Union victory.
 William Tecumseh Sherman – Second-in-command to General Grant, following
Grant’s call to serve as commander of the Army of the Potomac Sherman acted as
commander of the Union Army of the West, leading 60,000 troops on a 250 mile
march through the hear of the Confederacy in 1864 from Tennessee to Savannah,
Georgia.
 Total War – The practice of attacking civilians as well as soldiers in order to
weaken the enemies economy and the will of the people that support the army.
Closure Assignment #7
 Answer the following questions based on what you have
learned from Chapter 11, Section 4:
1. Using examples from this section, write a general
definition of the term turning point.
2. In the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln stated that the
purpose of the war was to ensure “that this nation…
shall have a new birth of freedom – and that
government of the people, by the people, for the
people, shall not perish from the earth.” What do you
think he meant?
3. Why do you think General Sherman felt justified in
destroying civilian property during his march through
Georgia.
Closure Question #1: What alternatives did the South face in
February 1865? Do you think they made the right choice?
 In the summer of 1864, Grant continued his bloody drive toward Richmond. But
at Petersburg, about 20 miles south of Richmond, the Confederacy made a
desperate stand. Petersburg was a vital railroad center. If Grant captured it, he
could cut all supply lines to Richmond. As he had at Vicksburg, Grant turned to
siege tactics. Throughout the summer and fall and into the winter, his forces
tightened their grip around Petersburg. Both sides dug trenches and threw up
fortifications to guard against attack. By March 1865, the two opposing lines of
defense stretched for more than 30 miles around Petersburg.
 Fighting was fierce. Union troops suffered more than 40,000 casualties. The
Confederates lost 28,000 men. However, unlike Grant, Lee had no replacement
troops in reserve. As the siege of Petersburg wore on, Union strength grew in
comparison to the Confederate defenders. With the Confederate position truly
desperate, southerners began to talk of peace. In February 1865, a party led by
Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens met with Lincoln to discuss a
feasible end to the war. However, these discussions produced no results. The
Confederate delegation was unwilling to accept a future without slavery.
 Petersburg – Last major battle of the American Civil War; located 20
miles south of Richmond, General Grant laid siege to General Lee’s
army from the Summer of 1864 to April 2nd, 1865, ending with the
retreat of General Lee’s army and the Union capturing the capital of
the Confederate States of America.
 Appomattox Court House – Site of the surrender of General Robert
E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant’s
Army of the Potomac on April 9th, 1865. Though some Confederate
armies would not surrender until June 1865, Lee’s surrender marked
the end of the American Civil War for all real purposes.
Closure Question #2: What was Lincoln’s attitude toward the
defeated South? How do you think his death might have
affected plans for reuniting the country?
 Despite the failure of the February 1865 meeting, Lincoln was
confident of an eventual victory. He now began to turn his
attention to the process of bringing the Confederate states
back into the Union. This would be no easy task. Many
northerners had a strong desire to punish the South harshly.
 Lincoln had a different goal. While committed to the defeat
of the Confederacy and an end to slavery, he believed that
the Union should strike a more generous stance with the
rebellious states. At the beginning of March, in his Second
Inaugural Address, Lincoln declared his vision of a united
and peaceful nation. “With malice toward none,” Lincoln
said, Americans should “do all which may achieve and
cherish a just and lasting peace.”
 Assassin who shot and killed President Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s
Theater in Washington, D.C. on April 14th, 1865; just 5 days after Lee’s
surrender at Appomattox Court House.
Closure Question #3: Why do you think a larger percentage of
American troops died in the Civil War than in any other
American war?
 The United States had never experienced a war like the Civil War. Some
individual battles produced casualties greater than the United States had
previously sustained in entire wars. When the war was over, more than 600,000
Americans were dead. Hundreds of thousands more were maimed. The Civil
War ushered in the harsh reality of modern warfare. For the first time, ordinary
citizens could see the carnage of the battlefield through the photographs of
journalists such as Matthew Brady. His exhibition, “The Dead at Antietam”,
provided graphic evidence of the terrible realities of war.
 As a result of the war, the southern landscape was in shambles. Many
Confederate soldiers returned to find their homes and farms destroyed.
Millions of dislocated white southerners drifted aimlessly about the South in
late 1865. Defeat had shaken them to the very core of their beliefs. Some felt
that they were suffering a divine punishment, with one southerner mourning,
“Oh, our God! What sins we must have been guilty of what we should be so
humiliated by Thee now!” Others, however, came to view the Civil War as a lost,
but noble cause. These white southerners kept the memory of the struggle alive
and believed that, eventually, the South would be redeemed.
Closure Assignment #8
Answer the following questions based on Chapter 11,
Section 5:
1. What alternatives did the South face in February
1865? Do you think they made the right choice?
2. What was Lincoln’s attitude toward the defeated
South? How do you think his death might have
affected plans for reuniting the country?
3. Why do you think a larger percentage of American
troops died in the Civil War than in any other
American war?
