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Divisions Over Slavery and the Causes of the Civil War - Coggle Diagram
Divisions Over Slavery and the Causes of the Civil War
In 1861, the Northern and Southern States of the USA Went to War with Each Other
The American Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865.
Over 750,000 died during the Civil War.
The Civil War was fought between the Northern and Southern states of the USA.
The Northern states were known as the Union and the Southern states as the Confederacy.
The tensions that led to the American Civil War had been around for years. However, the trigger factor was the election of Abraham Lincoln which caused a serious division bringing about the start of the war.
The Civil War was Due to Political, Economic and Social Divisions Which Had Built Up Over Many Years - These Were the Main Causes
There were huge differences between the North and South. However, slavery was the glue that held the economy together. It made both the South and the North prosperous.
The North
Modern, capitalist system where people could make profits.
Mixed economy - farming, small businesses and factories.
Made money through work of paid employees.
Believed slavery was unfair competition for business and factory owners as slaves were not paid.
The South
A semi-modern plantation system dominated by a few powerful slaveholders.
Mostly agriculture, dominated by large plantations - very little industry.
Made money through work of slave labour; cotton growing was huge business.
Believed slavery was natural and modern factories and capitalist businesses made white workers into 'wage slaves'.
Who were the abolitionists
Abolitionists were people in the North who were against slavery - by 1850 there were more and more of them.
1831 - William Lloyd Garrison founded The Liberator, a newspaper that spread abolitionist views.
1833 - National Anti-Slavery Society formed - by 1838 it had 250,000 members.
Escaped enslaved people such as Frederick Douglass wrote articles and spoke about life for enslaved people in the South raising awareness.
Northern abolitionists like Douglass and Harriet Tubman (a freed enslaved person) helped enslaved people escape their masters through the 'Underground Railroad' to freedom.
In 1851, Harriet Beecher-Stowe published Uncle Tom's Cabin - a novel which spoke out about slavery. It sold 2 million copies in ten years.
Southerners were against the abolitionists felling it would affect the way of life in the South and that freed slaves could rise up.
The background to the 1850 Compromise
People in the South saw the cities and industry of the North as too modern and ungodly. The South was concerned, by the 1840s, that it was losing influence to the North.
By 1850, the population in the Northern states was growing rapidly, giving the North more political power. This was because representation in Congress was decided by how big a state was.
Westward expansion saw America growing and in 1846 Congress said slavery should be banned in new territories in the West gained from Mexico. The tensions led to the 1850 Compromise proposed by Southern politician Henry Clay.
What was the 1850 Compromise
California should enter Union as a free state.
Sale of slaves to be banned in Washington DC.
New territories like New Mexico and Utah should decide if they wanted slavery.
States should accept a Fugitive Slave Act making it legal duty to return escaped slaves to holders.
The impact of the 1850 Compromise
Between 1850 and 1854, there were many arguments over whether slavery should be allowed to expand as the USA grew.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 said that states could decide for themselves if they wanted to be slave or free states - this overrode the Missouri Compromise. This led to more tensions between the two sides.
Tensions in the 1850s
The Republican Party (a new political party) was set up in 1854 as an anti-slavery party in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It wanted to stop the spread of slavery. The South relied on the Democratic Party who supported states' rights.
In 1856, a Democrat (James Buchanan) became President. His pro-slavery stance pushed many Northerners to support the Republican Party. He also supported an 1857 Supreme Court ruling (Dred-Scott decision) that said slaves had no rights and the US Government could not ban slavery in territories - this made slaveholders powerful.
Frederick Douglass (an important abolitionist) was successful in gaining a lot of support from the public for ending slavery.
Slaveholders in the South were afraid that the Republican Party would try to end slavery in the South altogether.
John Brown (an abolitionist) tried to start a slave uprising in 1859. He was stopped and hanged, but he became a hero in the North.
The Presidential Election of Lincoln was the Triggers Which Led to the American Civil War
Lincoln was elected in November 1860 with lots of Northern support but virtually none in the South.
In November 1860, South Carolina voted 169-0 to secede from the USA in protest at Lincoln's election.
By February 1861, six other states seceded: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. They formed a new political group called the Confederacy.
Confederacy elected its own President, Jefferson Davis in February 1861.
When Lincoln became President fully on 4th March 1861, he said that the Confederacy was illegal.
On 12th April 1861, Davis ordered his gunboats to open fire on Fort Sumter (a Union fort) in South Carolina.
On 15th April 1861, Lincoln declared war and said he would defend the Union of the United States.
Between April and June 1861, four more states joined the Confederacy: Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee.
Slavery
Slavery caused the American Civil War because differences in view of it between the North and South created tension between the two sides who would eventually fight. The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) reinforced this division making the Southern slaveholders more powerful.
Differences Between North and South
The North was more industrial with more cities and factories. The South was more rural and agricultural with more farming work. There were rivalries between the North and South over which type of businesses should be promoted and supported.
States Rights
There was tension, especially in the South, about how much control the states should have over their own affairs. The Dred Scott case of 1857 said that states should be allowed to decide if they had slavery.
The Election of Lincoln
Lincoln's election brought all these long-term tensions to the surface. Nearly all his support came from the North. The South responded with South Carolina and then six other states seceding under rival President Jefferson Davis.