Notes on the Causes of the American Civil War

Abolitionists

• Most abolitionists at the beginning of the 19th Century believed in gradual emancipation.
• Slave owners should receive compensation
• Also that freed slave should be encouraged to go Africa
• In 1822, the USA purchased Liberia on the West coast of Africa as a base to return ex-slaves
• This plan was unsuccessful, as most ex-slaves saw themselves as Americans.
• In the 1830 a new wave of abolitionism came into place (William Lloyd Garrison)
• Convinced that slavery was a sin, Garrison rejected the nation of gradual emancipation
• He demanded immediate abolition
• In 1833 a militant Nation Anti-Slavery society was established
• They were supported by Evangelical Protestants and other well educated members
• They were able to produce Anti-Slavery Act
• Women played a key role in the movement along with free Blacks
• The impact of abolitionists must not be over exaggerated as it only had limited appeal in the North and faced violent revolts in the South
• They were able to force the MORAL issue of slavery and keep it as a major political issue

Nature of Slavery

• In 1860 there were 4 million slaves( mainly in the lower South)
• 1 in 4 Southern families owned slaves
• 50% of slave owners owned less than 5
• 50% of slaves lived on Plantation (over 20 slaves)
• 50% worked on cotton
• 10% worked on tobacco
• 10% worked in sugar, rice and hemp
• 15% worked as domestic servants

The Nature of Slavery- Mild view

• Slaves did not work harder than most free Americans
• Flogging were rare, if only because the slave owners had vested interested in care of property
• Most owners preferred the carrot as a source of motivation to the stick
• Slave were reasonable fed, clothed and housed
• The fact that there were no major slave revolt(apart from Nat Turner’s in 1831) suggest that slave conditions were not so bad
• Only a few hundred slaves per year tried to escape north or to Canada.
• Some slaves were granted or earned enough to buy their freedom

The Nature of Slavery- Harsh view

• Slaves could be sold, punished, sexually exploited, and killed by the owners
• Firm discipline and corporal punishment seems to be the norm (flogged and branded)
• Slave families and marriages were broken by forced separation
• By the 1850s few slaves were granted freedom
• Most fugitive slaves were severely punished
• Slaves took every opportunity to get out of slavery- The Civil war.

Was Slavery Profitable?

• The South had little incentive to industrialize
• Slavery allowed for cotton profits to soar
• By 1860’ slavery was flourishing in the South
• The global demand for cotton had not slowed as it was expected to.
• Slavery on the other hand allowed the South to only focus on cotton and plantation life.

Free Blacks

Impact of Mexican War

Western Expansion

• As new states applied to join the Union, the key issue was whether they would be free or slave.
• 1819- Missouri applied to join the Union as a slave state
• Northern states opposed their entrance as it would tilt the Congress against them
• The Missouri Comprise- Missouri can enter as a Slave state with the creation of Maine as a free state.
• Also, no slavery in the Louisiana territory north of altitude 36 30. South of that line slavery could exist

Annexation of Texas

• Americans settle in Texas (then part of Mexico)
• Most were southerners and had taken slaves with them
• In  1836- Texas won independence from Mexico
• Yet Northerners opposed annexation as it would strengthen the political power of the South
• Both President Jackson and Van Burn shelved the issue of Texas.
• Texas was an independent Republic
• In 1844, Democrat James Polk- a slave holder from Tennessee, was elected President on a platform of the annexation of Texas
• Outgoing Whig President John Tyler was anxious to leave his mark on history
• In a joint resolution of Congress, it was in favor of the annexation of Texas
• 1845- Texas was admitted to the Union

President Polk’s War 1846-1848

• Mexico still claimed Texas as its own, and Polk wanted to push into California and New Mexico.
• Negotiations failed.
• Polk’s aim was to provoke an incident that would lead to war- a war would lead to further annexation.
• May 1846- Mexican troops ambushed a party of US troops in disputed territory.
• Polk asked Congress to declare war. Congress did.
• Southerner and Westerner supported the war , Northerners saw it as a war of Southern-aggression
• Summer of 1846, US troops annexed New Mexico.
• By the time the troops arrived in California, the settlers had proclaimed independence from Mexico.
• In 1847, General Zachary Taylor defeated the Mexicans and Buena Vista; white General Winfield Scott captured Mexico City.
• By the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) California and new Mexico were ceded to the USA

Wilmot Proviso

• In 1846- David Wilmot, a Northern Democrat proposed that slavery be excluded from any territory from the Mexican War.
• Wilmot was not an abolitionist, just didn’t like that Polk was pursuing a pro- Southern policy.
• In supporting the Proviso Northern Democrats hoped to keep Blacks out of the new territories and that White settlers would not have competition from large planters.
• After a bitter debate the Proviso passed the HoR.
• The voting was sectional
• Every southern Democrat and all but 2 southern Whigs voted it down
• Senator Toombs from Georgia warned that if it passed congress he would be in favor of disunion
• Failing to pass senate the proviso did not become law
• Southerner’s warned that they had every right to take their property wherever they went
• John Calhoun from South Carolina warned that they would secede if the Northern majority did not recognise the Southern minority and their rights.

The Election of 1848

• The Democrats chose Senator Cass of Michigan who supported popular sovereignty
• The Whigs chose Mexican War Hero Zachary Taylor, a Southerner Slave Owner. Did not run on a Slavery platform
• Most Northern Whigs were prepared to endorse him as seemed the likely winner
• Free Soil Party- supported by Northern Democrats who did not like Cass and ‘Conscience’ Whigs who disliked Taylor, and Abolitionists, who supported the Wilmot Proviso, chose Van Buren as their candidate.

President Taylor

• Although a slaveholder himself, Taylor wanted to act in a way that was beneficial to the entire nation.
• His solution to California and New Mexico was to have them ratify a constitution and apply for State hood.
• California did and applied as a non slave State.  
• New Mexico did not have enough people, yet Taylor was prepared to admit them into the union.
• New Mexico had a border dispute with Texas.
• Southerner’s supported Texas
• Northerner’s and Taylor supported New Mexico
• A clash between the state and the US army seemed imminent
• Southerners called together a convention in 1849 in Nashville for all southern states to meet
• Their main aim was to adopt some mode of resistance to Northern aggression
• Bitter divides were created in Congress
• Southerners were also enraged that Northern states were harboring fugitive slaves and not upholding the law

The 1850 Compromise

• Taylor was determined not to make concessions to the South. Talk secession did not worry him
• Whig elder statesman Henry Clay was worried and offered the Senate a resolution of compromises
• California was to be admitted as a free state
• Utah and New Mexico were to be organized as territories without any mention of slavery
• Slave trading should end in Washington, DC
• A more stringent Fugitive Slave Act was intended to placate the South
• Texas should surrender the disputed land to New Mexico. In return Congress would assume the $10 million debt which Texas still owed
• July 1850- Taylor who opposed the compromise, died. Fillmore a Northern Whig took over.
• Fillmore although sympathetic to Clay’s compromise could not prevent it from being defeated
• Senator Stephan Douglas took each part of the compromise and submitted them individually
• Northerner’s and Southerner’s voted for their preferences and moderates swung the vote.
• By September all of the parts of the Compromise  had been passed

Rise of the Republican Party

• Up to the 1850’s the two party system worked to help contain sectionalism
• With the loss of faith in the Whigs and the collapse of the two party systems sectionalism became a key issue and a direct focus of the political system.
• Two new parties are created and filled the void left by the demise of the Whigs in the north
• The republicans
• The know nothings

The Know Nothings and Republicans

Know Nothings:

• Nativists/ Anti-immigration
• Wanted land in the West only to be south to Americans
• Wanted there to be an 21 year wanting period on citizenship
• Attracted the interests of both Northern and Southern Democrats
• In 1856 were able to block the establishment of a strong Republican Party

Republicans:

• Began as an opposition to slavery/ slavery expansion

Kansas- Nebraska Act 1854

• The Nebraska Territory is to be developed under Western expansion
• The north is eager for the development and the South is not as most of the Territory is above 36 30 latitude
• According to the 1820 Missouri Compromise  it would make this a free territory
• Stephan Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska bill
• Separate territory into two
• Repel the Missouri Compromise

Situation in Kansas 1854-6

• Northerners thought that if slavery expanded into Kansas it might expand anywhere
• Southerners feared that a free Kansas would be another step towards the end of slavery
• “We will engage in competition for the virgin soil of Kansas and God give the victory to the side which is stronger in numbers as it is right.” Senator Seward