Transcript US Hist Ch4 - Everglades High School

Section 1
 Differences between North and South: Religious,
Climate, Economics, Geography, and Culture.
 It was the issue of slavery that increased tensions
between the regions and that eventually brought them
into conflict.
 The southerners wanted to increase the number of
slave states because this would mean a larger voting
block of proslavery states in Congress. This would help
protect the institution of slavery.
 The issue of slavery in California and in the western territories led to
heated debates in Congress = The Compromise of 1850 (provided that
California be admitted to the Union as a free state and created a new
and more effective fugitive slave law).
 As passions mounted, threats of Southern secession, the formal
withdrawal of a state from the Union, became more frequent.
 Henry Clay worked to shape a compromise that would appease both
the northern and southern states. To please the north – California
would be admitted to the Union as a free state. To please the south - a
more effective fugitive slave law was put into effect. To please both
sides, a provision allowed popular sovereignty – the right to vote for
or against slavery, for residents of the New Mexico and Utah territories.
 Clay withdrew from the fight when his proposal was rejected.
However, Senator Stephen A. Douglas picked up the compromise
efforts and eventually succeeded in September of 1850.
 The Underground Railroad:
 Free African Americans and white abolitionists developed a
secret network of people who would hide fugitive slaves.
 “Conductors” on the routes hid fugitives in secret tunnels
and false cupboards, provided them with food and clothing,
and escorted them to the next “station”. Once fugitives
reached the north, some decided to stay there, others
journeyed to Canada.
 Harriet Tubman – a famous conductor, born a slave in
Maryland in 1820/1821. She was called “Moses” by those she
helped escape on the Underground Railroad. She made 19
trips and helped over 300 slaves – including her own parents.
 Harriet Beecher Stowe – published her novel Uncle Tom’s
Cabin which stressed that slavery was not just a political
contest, but also a great moral struggle.
 The debate over the Kansas-Nebraska Act was bitter
because if passed, the bill would repeal the Missouri
Compromise and establish popular sovereignty for
both territories.
 “Bleeding Kansas” – both supporters and opponents of
slavery attempted to populate Kansas in order to win
the vote on slavery in the territory. Many “border
ruffians” from the slave state of Missouri crossed into
Kansas, voted illegally, and won for proslavery
candidates. Furious abolitionists organized a rival
government in Topeka and it wasn’t long before bloody
violence surfaced in Kansas.
 The slavery issue had caused a split in the Whig Party
and weakened the Democratic Party.
 An alternative was the American Party – the “KnowNothing Part” because members were instructed to
answer questions about their activities by saying, “I
know nothing”. The Know-Nothings supported
nativism (favoring of native-born people over
immigrants). Like the Whigs, the Know-Nothings split
over the issue of slavery in the territories. Southern
Know-Nothings looked to the Democrats and
northern Know-Nothings began to edge toward the
Republican Party.
 Two antislavery parties had also emerged during the
1840s:
 Liberty Party – formed for pursuing the cause of
abolition by passing new laws.
 Free Soil Party – opposed the extension of slavery into
the territories.
 Abolitionists Vs. Freesoilers:
 Abolitionists wished to abolish slavery because they
thought it was immoral
 Freesoilers objected slavery because it reduced
employment opportunities for free white workers.
Dred Scott Decision:
Dred Scott was a slave whose owner took him from the
slave state of Missouri to free territory in Illinois and
Wisconsin and back to Missouri. Scott appealed to the
Supreme Court for his freedom on the grounds that living
in a free state – Illinois – and a free territory – Wisconsin –
had made him a free man. The Supreme Court ruled
against Dred Scott on the grounds that he did not have any
legal standing to sue because he was not, and never could
be, a citizen. Moreover, the Court ruled that being in free
territory did not make a slave free.
 Stephen Douglas (Democrat) vs. Abraham Lincoln
(Replublican):
 Both were against slavery. However, Lincoln thought the
federal government should keep slavery out of the
territories because it was immoral; while Douglas
thought residents of each territory should decide.
 Lincoln won the election of 1860. The Democratic Party
split over slavery.
 Began in April 1861, when Confederate forces fired on
Fort Sumter, a Union fort in Charleston, South
Carolina.
 Lincoln issued a call for troops to fight to restore the
Union. 4 more Southern states seceded.
 More people
 More factories
 More railroad tracks
 Could grow more food
 Strategy:
 Planned to blockade the South
 Hoped to capture the Mississippi River
 Split the Confederacy in two
 And capture their capital at Richmond, Virginia.
 Demand for cotton
 Excellent generals
 Soldiers eager to defend their way of life
 Strategy:
 Defend themselves from Northern attack
 Attack the North if opportunity arose
 The first bloodshed on the battlefield occurred about
three months after the attack on Fort Sumter, near the
little creek of Bull Run – just 25 miles from
Washington D.C.
 Led by General Thomas J. Jackson, A.K.A,
“Stonewall Jackson”.
 First southern victory
 In response to the demands of the abolitionists, in 1863
Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
 The proclamation did not free any slaves immediately
because it applied to only those areas behind
Confederate lines, outside Union control.
 Nonetheless, for many, it freed the slaves in
Confederate states and gave the war a high moral
purpose. It also ensured that compromise was no
longer possible.
 The war led to social upheaval and political unrest in
both the North and the South.
 Conscription – a draft that forced men to serve in the
army.
 African Americans fought for the Union (10% of the
Northern army). Despite their dedication, they
suffered discrimination. They served in separate
regiments and earned less pay.
 Both northern and southern states endured unhealthy
conditions, limited diets, and inadequate medical
care. Diseases spread and many soldiers died.
 Although women did not fight, thousands contributed
to the war effort. About 3000 women served as Union
army nurses.
 Clara Barton, who went on to found the American
Red Cross after the war, cared for the sick and
wounded, often at the front lines of battle.
 General Robert E. Lee and the Confederates lost a
three-day battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Lee was
forced to retreat, and he never invaded the North
again.
 Lee, by invading the North, was hoping to gain
supplies needed to tip the balance of public opinion in
the Union to pro-slavery politicians.
 Meanwhile, General Ulysses S. Grant captured
Vicksburg, Mississippi River. With this victory, the
North won control of the Mississippi River.
 Began on July 1, 1863 Confederate soldiers led by A.P. Hill
and Union soldiers were led by John Buford.
 Day 1: Buford ordered his men to take defensive positions
on the hills and ridges surrounding the town of Gettysburg.
When Hill’s troops marched down from the west, Buford’s
men were waiting.
 Day 2: Confederates had driven the Union troops from
Gettysburg and had taken control of the town. However,
the North still held positions on Cemetery Ridge.
 Day 3: Lee ordered fire on Cemetery Ridge, and the two
armies exchanged vicious attacks. Believing they had
silenced the Union troops, the Confederates then charged
the lines. Northern artillery renewed its barrage, and the
infantry fired on the rebels….winning the battle.
 November 1863, a ceremony was held to dedicate a
cemetery at Gettysburg. There President Lincoln spoke
for a little more than 2 minutes.
 For some historians, Lincoln’s speech “remade
America”. Before Lincoln’s speech, people said, “The
United States are…” Afterward, they said, “The United
States is…” In other words, the speech helped the
country realize that it was not just a collection of
individual states; it was one unified nation.
 Ulysses S. Grant – Union general fought to take
Vicksburg, one of the Confederate stronghold on the
Mississippi River.
 Why was it important to gain control of Vicksburg?
Control of the Mississippi River allowed the Union to split
the Confederacy in two.
 In 18 days, Union forces were able to take over Jackson, the
state’s capital. Grant had set up a steady barrage of artillery,
shelling the city from both the river and the land for several
hours a day.
 Finally the city fell on July 4 and the Union had achieved its
military objective – the Confederacy was cut in two.
 In April 1865, Lee and the Confederacy surrendered at
Appomattox. The war ended.
 On April 14, 1865, five days after this surrender, Lincoln
and his wife went to Ford’s Theatre in Washington to
se a British comedy, Our American Cousin. During the
third act, a man (John Wilkes Booth) crept up
behind Lincoln and shot the President in the back of
his head.
 Lincoln never regained consciousness and died on
April 15, 1865. This was the first time a president had
been assassinated.
 Tremendous political, economic, technological, and social
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changes took place in the United States.
Approx. 360,000 Union soldiers and 260,000 Confederates died
– nearly as many as in all other American wars combined.
The war gave the federal gov’t increased power and authority –
they passed laws (income tax & conscription laws) and it gave
more power over individual citizens.
Economically, Northern states boomed and Southern states
suffered.
The war not only marked the end of slavery as a labor system but
also wrecked most of the Southern region’s industry and
farmland.
Technological changes –weapons became more lethal
(development of hand grenades and land mines). The
development of the ironclad ship made wooden ones obsolete.
 13th Amendment – “Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment of crime whereof
the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist
within the United States”.
 After the Civil War, the nation embarked on a period
known as Reconstruction, during which attempts were
made to readmit the South to the Union.
 Andrew Jackson succeeded Lincoln as president – had
a similar plan for reconstruction. Some Republicans
thought that the plan was too easy on the South, so
they worked together to shift control of
Reconstruction from the executive branch to the
legislature.
 Civil Rights Act 1866 – guaranteed the civil rights of
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African Americans.
14th Amendment – made African Americans citizens.
In 1867, Congress enacted new Reconstruction
legislation – Congress would readmit a state after the
state approved the 14th Amendment and gave AfricanAmerican men the right to vote.
In 1868, Grant was elected president.
In 1870, the 15th Amendment was ratified –banned
states from denying the right to vote to AfricanAmericans.
 Many whites still resisted the idea that African-
Americans should be treated equally. AfricanAmericans hoped to work their own land. Instead,
plantation owners created a system called
sharecropping that allowed them to control the land
and the labor of African Americans.
 Some whites formed the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) – secret
group that terrorized and killed blacks across the
South. Congress passed laws to end Klux violence;
however, new laws allowed Southern Democrats to
regain political power.
 After the inauguration of Rutherford B. Hayes as
president in 1877, federal troops were removed from
the South.
 White democrats regained power there.
 Reconstruction was over.