The American Civil War Early Decisions Regarding Slavery

The American Civil War

Early Decisions Regarding Slavery n Northwest Ordinance of 1787 – banned slavery west of Pennsylvania, north of Ohio River. n Constitution – Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Over in 1807 – Fugitive Slave Clause n Missouri Compromise (1820) – Missouri admitted as slave state, Maine admitted as free state, slavery prohibited above 36 degree latitude line.

The Fugitive Slave Clause n Article Four, Section Two, Clause Three n No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.

Slavery in the Territories The Wilmot Proviso n Free Soil or Constitutional Protection? n – Free Soil – prevent the extension of slavery. – Constitutional Protection – Congress did not have right to exclude slavery from territories, in fact had a duty to protect it.

1850 n Four Issues – Rush of 80, 000 gold miners to CA qualified it for statehood, but CA’s entry as free state would upset slave/free state balance in Senate. – Unresolved status of the Mexican cession in the Southwest. The Texas-New Mexico boundary was also disputed, with Texas claiming everything east of Santa Fe. – Existence of slavery and huge slave market in nation’s capital. – Southerners resented the lax federal enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.

The Compromise of 1850 n The Compromise of 1850 – CA entered union as free state – Territorial governments were organized in New Mexico and Utah letting local people to decide whether to permit slavery. (Popular Sovereignty) – Texas-New Mexico border settled. – Slave trade, but not slavery, abolished in Washington, DC. – Fugitive Slave Act.

Polarization and the Road to War Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) – popular sovereignty would decide whether slavery would be allowed in the two territories. n “Bleeding Kansas” – mini Civil War – proslavery v. antislavery forces. n – – – Sack of Lawrence. Massacre at Pottawatomie. Caning of Charles Sumner. n n Dred Scott Case The Illinois Debates n John Brown’s Raid at Harpers Ferry, VA – Lincoln v. Douglas

The Dred Scott Case The Case - Dred and Harriet Scott sued for their freedom because they had been taken out of Missouri into territories where slavery was prohibited. n The Decision n – Dred and Harriet Scott were not citizens and had no right to sue. – The Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional – congress did not have the power to ban slavery anywhere in the nation. – Scotts being taken in and out of free territory did not affect status. n Implications – According to the Supreme Court, slavery was legal everywhere it had previously been prohibited by congress.

Election of 1860 n Election of 1860 – Democratic Party - Stephen Douglas and John C. Breckinridge. – Constitutional Union Party – John Bell. – Republican Party – Abraham Lincoln.

The Divided House Falls After Lincoln’s election South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas seceded from the Union. n The Confederate States of America n – President Jefferson Davis Three Options – (1) Compromise (2) Let seven states “go in peace. ” (3) Secessionist states could be compelled to return. n Fort Sumter – The Civil War Begins n

The Union Severed n Response to Fort Sumter n Balance of Resources n Border States – Lincoln/North – Lee/South – North – population, railroads, industrialization, shipyards, merchant fleet. – South – military leadership, agricultural resources, South fighting a defensive war. – Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas – seceded after Fort Sumter. – Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri – stayed loyal to Union. § Suspension of Habeas Corpus n Lincoln and Davis

Clashing on the Battlefield 18611862 n n n Advances in weaponry Union General Winfield Scott – The Anaconda Plan War in the East n War in the West n Naval Warfare n Stalemate – Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) – Scott replaced by Mc. Clellan – Mc. Clellan Attacked Richmond, Peninsula Campaign – Antietam – Major Consequences: Emancipation Proclamation, European decision to not recognize Confederacy. – Ulysses S. Grant – Shiloh Church – The Merrimac (the Virginia) v. The Monitor

Problems on the Home Front Cotton Diplomacy – Confederacy believed they would get European recognition because French and British would want their cotton. Not successful. n Common Problems n – Monetary Problems – Manpower Shortages – Draft Riots

n “During our forced marches and hard fights, the soldiers have been compelled to throw away their knapsacks and there is scarcely a private in the army who has a change of clothing of any kind. Hundreds of men are perfectly barefooted and there is no telling when they can be supplied with shoes. ” – Confederate Captain

The Tide Turns n Emancipation Proclamation – declared all slaves in states still in rebellion, free. Blacks allowed to join the Union army. n Changing Military Strategy – Lee, “there is nothing to be gained by this army remaining quietly on the defensive. ” – Gettysburg – Meade replaced by Grant – Total War – William Tecumseh Sherman n Surrender at Appomattox, April 9 th, 1865

“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about Slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helped to save this Union. ” Lincoln

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting -place for those who here gave their lives that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God 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. “ President Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863