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Revolution in cotton industry fuels expansion
Eli Whitney’s creation of the cotton gin made the production of cotton much more efficient and and revolutionized the entire industry. With cotton becoming such a profitable industry, cotton plantations became more common in the South, making cotton and the slavery needed to harvest it a vital part of the Southern economy. www.eliwhitney.org -
Massive expansion leads to increased slave demand
The Louisiana Purchase was a sale of over 800,000 acres of French land to the US. This event marked a turning point as the idea of westward expansion was put into practice. With more people going westward and settling came the potential of these new territories becoming states. With slavery becoming increasingly unpopular amongst Northern citizens, while it grew in the South, whether or not slavery would be allowed in these states would soon become to be a major issue in the country. -
Primary Source- Map of Lousiana Purchase from 1804 edition of the Arrowsmith & Lewis New and Elegant General Atlas
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Physical division created between those who supported slavery and those who opposed
The Missouri Compromise was one of the first manifestations of the pro-slavery/anti-slavery conflict. When Missouri applied for statehood, government officials attempted to add a clause in the legislation that banned slavery and/or emancipated slaves once they reached the age of 25. These actions led to conflict within the government that would only be resolved by Henry Clay*, who made many Northern territories free states and many Southern territories slave states. -
Henry Clay
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Physical division created between those who supported slavery and those who opposed (part 2)
The conflict was resolved when Maine, which was also applying for statehood was entered as a free state, while Missouri became a slave state. Along with this compromise came the agreement that any state added to the Union in the future that was north of the 36°30’ latitude would be a free state, while all those south of it would become slave states. This seemed to draw a physical barrier between those who supported slavery and those who opposed it. -
Primary Source/Quote- Jefferson's letter to William Short
"Missouri question aroused and filled me with alarm...I have been among the most sanguine in believing that our Union would be of long duration. I now doubt it much." http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Missouri.html -
Threat to Southern Economy further divides the Nation
The Tariffs of 1828 imposed taxes on imported goods in order to allow the growing American businesses to flourish. The conflict arose from the fact that Southern businesses were forced to pay more of these taxes while Northern industries flourished. If the goods Southerners desired became more expensive, they would begin to lose money and become unable to maintain their slave-fueled lifestyles. The tension and dislike formed by these taxes further polarized the nation. -
Radical abolitionist represents minority opinion
David Walker represented a radical minority of the anti-slavery movement. In 1829 he published An Appeal to Colored Citizens of the World, a pamphlet detailing the injustice done to slaves and the need for retribution. The justice called for in Walker’s pamphlet was violent in nature and marked a shift in the attitude of those who opposed slavery. -
Primary Source
First page of David Walker's Appeal http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/odyssey/archive/01/011800ar.jpg -
Radical abolitionist represents minority opinion (part 2)
This group of people who called for violence as a resolution to the slavery conflict would eventually receive what they desired as the violence of the Civil War ensued approximately 30 years later. -
Political/economic threat to slave-central South creates more frustration (part 2)
They felt that such a law would not only hurt the Southern economy, one that was already trailing behind the North, but would also minimize the voice of slave states in national politics. Even though the proposal passed in the House, it was shot down in the Senate, which was held by Southern politicians. -
Political/economic threat to slave-central South creates more frustration
Created by Pennsylvanian Democratic representative, David Wilmot, this proposal stated that slavery should not be allowed in lands acquired in the Mexican-American War. While Northern abolitionists, free-soilers*, or just anti-South citizens supported it, Southern slave states did not support the proposal. *http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/218365/Free-Soil-Party -
Slaves put under attack to appease slavery opposition
In 1850, California requested to be apart of the Union as a slave state. Rather than find another slave state to enter the Union to maintain the balance between slave and free states, Henry Clay of Kentucky proposed that the Fugitive Slave Law was revamped and reinforced. The new form of this law required any and everyone to aid in the capturing of a fugitive slave. Those who knew of fugitives, but chose not to aid in capturing it, could be penalized for their inaction. -
Slaves put under attack to appease slavery opposition (part 2)
Those who knew of fugitives, but chose not to aid in capturing them, could be penalized for their inaction. Even though the federal government required people to abide by the law, objection to the law led to unrest throughout the North. In Boston, known as the center of the abolitionist movement, massive protests were caused over the fate of the fugitive slave Anthony Burns*.
*http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2915.html -
Quote from Henry David Thoreau on the Fugitive Slave Law
But if any of them will tell me that to make a man into a sausage would be much worse--would be any worse--than to make him into a slave,--than it was to enact the Fugitive Slave Law,--I will accuse him of foolishness, of intellectual incapacity, of making a distinction without a difference. http://quotes.dictionary.com/subject/fugitive+slave+act?page=1#g4QZiUPkHBUtmcIc.99 -
Book exposes cruelty towards slaves and heightens North/South tensions
Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, this book graphicly showed many northerners the cruel treatment of slaves. Even though southerners saw it as untrue and slanderous, the book increased anti-slavery support in the North. Tensions further increased and laid the foundation for the conflict of the civil war. "If a woman can't give a warm supper and a bed to poor, starving creatures, just because they are slaves, and have been abused and oppressed all their lives" -Excerpt from Uncle Tom's Cabin -
Popular sovereignty leads to preview of civil war violence for control over states
Made in hopes of ending debates over the emission of Kansas as a slave or free states, it was decided that the fate of the state would be made by popular sovereignty. As a result people from the North and South flooded the territories, hoping to take control of the states. Violence ensued between northern free-soilers and supporters of slavery from the South. -
Beating draws firmer division between North/South
Two days after a speech in which he criticized the Kansas-Nebraska Act, as well as Senators Stephen Douglas and Andrew Butler, Charles Sumner* was cruelly beaten by Representative Preston Brooks, who took offense to Sumner’s anti-slavery speech. Northerners looked down upon the South and their representative for this barbaric action. The beating only intensified the anti-Southern sentiments felt by the North. *http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/573433/Charles-Sumner -
Injustice to slave in the North motivates slavery opposition
After being brought into northern free states by his owner, the slave Dred Scott, decided to sue for his freedom on the bases that because slavery wasn’t legal in these states, he and his family could not be held as slaves. However, the judge in charge of his case ruled that because blacks did not have the rights to sue and because slaves were seen as property, not citizens, Dred Scott could not sue for his freedom. -
Injustice to slave in the North motivates slavery opposition (part 2)
This ruling also led to the conclusion that slavery could exist wherever they were brought, regardless of whether or not it was a free or slave state. Even though the South applauded this decision, in the North support for the end of slavery and the Republican Party, the main political force for the end of slavery, increased. -
Extremist abolitionist motivates North and further angers South
John Brown, a radical abolitionist, choosing to take action rather than debate about slavery, led several men on a raid of arsenals throughout Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. Armed with weapons, Brown aimed to free slaves and kill any pro-slavery supporters with whom he came into contact. -
Extremist abolitionist motivates North and further angers South (part 2)
Though John Brown was captured and his attack a failure, he still was able to send a message. While southerners saw him as crazy, he was seen by northerners as a martyr, willing to die for a just cause. Many see this difference in opinion as one of the final events that would lead to the Civil War. -
Abolitionist president instills fear in South, possibility of violence becomes imminent
By the time of the election, the many conflicts that led to the division between the North and the South had led to a national crisis. The country was so divided that the two halves of the country practically had two different elections, with Stephen Douglas a Democrat, going against the Republican Abraham Lincoln in the North, while the South was being fought over by their own candidates. -
Abolitionist president instills fear in South, possibility of violence becomes imminent (part 2)
Seeing the Republicans as the party of abolitionist and the ideas of Lincoln as being radical, Lincoln’s name didn’t even appear on the ballot in many southern states. Regardless of this fact, Lincoln won the election. Winning entirely on the support of the North, southern states saw that they had a dwindling voice in government. This along with the idea of having someone they saw as an abolitionist as a president led southern states to consider seceding from the Union. -
Quote from Abraham Lincoln
"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other." -
Secession sets platform for Civil War
Leading the movement, South Carolina became the first state to secede after Lincoln’s election. By February 1861, six other states seceded, electing Jefferson Davis the president of the Confederate States of America. The secession of South Carolina led into an official division between the North and South and set the stage for the conflict of the civil war.
