Directions:
Complete the Connect to Self at the top of the page. Using the Expert Information below and/or your own research, complete the table of causes of the civil war. When you are done with that, complete the timeline of major events leading towards war within the United States. Complete the Connect to Self at the bottom of the page. Where you see empty image boxes on my template, make sure you insert images that support the information.
Feel free to use your creativity when representing the information. I want it to be organized in a somewhat similar manner to my template, but you can use additional tools from Weebly if you'd like.
Complete the Connect to Self at the top of the page. Using the Expert Information below and/or your own research, complete the table of causes of the civil war. When you are done with that, complete the timeline of major events leading towards war within the United States. Complete the Connect to Self at the bottom of the page. Where you see empty image boxes on my template, make sure you insert images that support the information.
Feel free to use your creativity when representing the information. I want it to be organized in a somewhat similar manner to my template, but you can use additional tools from Weebly if you'd like.
Connect to Self: Refer back to a recent disagreement you have had with a friend. Think about what caused it, the effect it had on your friendship, and the effect it had overall in the big picture of life. What things might create major disagreements within our society? Try to list an economic, social, and political cause.
Causes of the Civil War
Timeline Progressing Towards War
1820:
1828-1832:
1846-1848:
1850:
1852:
1854:
1856:
1860:
1828-1832:
1846-1848:
1850:
1852:
1854:
1856:
1860:
Connect to Self: What side might you have taken in 1860? Explain
Expert Information
Many different viewpoints and events caused the Civil War, but most were linked to the concept of sectionalism, or loyalty to a specific section of the country rather than to the nation as a whole. Other related causes included disagreements on states’ rights, tariffs and slavery.
By 1819, the U.S. began to divide into “sections” because of westward expansion, the rise of “King Cotton” in the South, the growing industrial North, and conflicting economic and political interests between the North and the South. Each section of the country wanted national laws favoring its own region. Conflicts arose when one law was made to help one section at the expense of another.
Causes of the Civil War
In the South, life centered on an agricultural society based on the plantation system (growing cotton using slave labor). Southerners saw themselves as “gentlemen farmers” or the “gentry”, who were lords of the manor with a high social standing in the community. They wanted low land prices to expand slavery and cotton farming as well as low tariffs to keep down the cost of buying manufactured goods from Europe and create favorable trading terms for the export of raw farm products.
In contrast, the North developed into an industrial society based on manufactured goods and free labor. Northern industrialists wanted high land prices to discourage westward migration of their labor force and a high tariff to protect U.S. goods from foreign competition.
Conflict also arose over states’ rights (right of a state to limit federal power). Most Southern states believed in state sovereignty (state power) and felt that a state had the power to cancel a federal law it considered unconstitutional. In the 1820s -1830s, the idea of a state declaring a federal law illegal and canceling it (nullification) put the concept of states’ rights to the test.
A crisis emerged after the U.S. passed two tariffs (import taxes) in 1828 and 1832 designed to help Northern manufacturers compete against foreign competition by taxing European imports to increase the costs of these goods. Southerners traded cotton for goods made in Europe, and the tariffs hurt the South’s ability to trade and save money. Southerners protested by declaring these tariffs illegal and cancelled or nullified them within their state, which only added fuel to the fire.
Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina led the fight to get rid of the tariffs saying, “The Union - next to our liberty, most dear.” To him, a state’s freedom was more important than saving the Union. Daniel Webster, a senator from Massachusetts, disagreed with Calhoun and stated, “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.” President Andrew Jackson agreed saying, “Our Federal Union – it must be preserved.” Calhoun continued to challenge the Union and threatened to secede or withdraw South Carolina from the U.S. A compromise was finally reached to avert this crisis, but this only put off the Civil War temporarily.
The issue of slavery had been debated since the creation of the U.S. Constitution. Many Northerners felt slavery was an evil institution, but in the South it was an economic necessity. Even though only 25% of white southerners owned slaves and half of these families had fewer than four slaves, the tiny (2%) elite who owned 50 or more slaves held a majority of slave property in the South and thus had both economic and political power. Ironically, the great majority of white southerners owned no slaves at all, yet this issue defined their state’s economy.
The concern about slavery really heated up when new states applied to join the U.S. because both the North and South wanted to keep the number of slave and non-slave states equal to balance the power in Congress. As debate over the spread of slavery grew (especially to the west), so did the need for compromise, but eventually even that became impossible.
Sectional views on slavery and other issues caused a political power struggle between the free labor states of the North and the slave labor states of the South. Congressman, and former president, John Quincy Adams was one of the most outspoken opponents of slavery and even predicted a civil war over the issue. If such a war were to happen, Adams imagined, “its result might be the extirpation of slavery from this whole continent.” In acuality, the section of the country that controlled the federal government was the one that established economic policies, such as tariffs, that affected the very livelihood of the other. Political power, then, became crucial to economic interests. By 1861, the political power struggle between the North and South resulted in the Civil War.
Events in history often force people to make difficult decisions. From 1803 to the late 1840s, the U.S. borders expanded west to the Pacific Ocean and required citizens to decide whether slavery would be allowed in these new territories. At first, compromise seemed possible, but with increased debate and violence, Americans soon realized that deep-rooted sectionalism and the heated issue of slavery had the potential to cause a full blown civil war.
In 1820, Missouri applied to become a state and started a chain reaction of critical events. Missouri’s admission as a slave state would upset the balance of power and give the South a majority in the Senate. Determined not to lose power, Northerners fought against letting Missouri enter the Union. A debate raged for months until Kentucky Senator Henry Clay (called the Great Compromiser) suggested a plan called The Missouri Compromise (1820) saying, “I know no South, no North, no East, no West, to which I owe my allegiance.” Clay’s plan was for Maine, who had also applied for statehood, to be admitted as a free state to balance the admission of Missouri as a slave state. As part of the compromise, Congress drew an imaginary line across the southern border of Missouri (36 latitude) and banned slavery in the Louisiana Purchase territory north of that line. Thus, Missouri was admitted as the only exception.
In 1848, the U.S. acquired vast amounts of land in the Southwest, called the Mexican Cession, after their defeat of Mexico in the Mexican War (1846-1848). Since the Missouri Compromise only pertained to the Louisiana Purchase, the question of slavery in these territories was still unresolved and created more tension between the North and South. While Southerners supported slavery in this territory, Northerners opposed the spread of slavery west. To settle the debate, Henry Clay proposed the Compromise of 1850, a plan to admit California as a free state, enact a harsher Fugitive Slave Law (capture and return of runaway slaves) and divide the Mexican Cession into the territories of New Mexico and Utah where voters would decide the slavery question according to popular sovereignty (vote of the people).
Events That Led to the Civil War
In 1852, Harriett Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a dramatic novel exposing the cruelties of slavery. It shocked Northern readers with its evil portrayal of slavery and outraged Southerners who saw it as abolitionist propaganda. Still considered one of the most influential books ever written, it sold 300,000 copies the first year.
By the mid 1850s, the country began to think the slavery question should be settled in the courts because Congress’s attempt at compromises still left widespread disagreement. In 1857, a court case concerning a slave named Dred Scott made its way through Missouri courts to the U.S. Supreme Court. In this case, Scott had moved with his owner from a slave state to a free state, and Scott sued for his freedom after his owner’s death. The case of Dred Scott v. Sanford, created an uproar with the following decisions:
1. Slaves were not citizens, so they could not bring suit in court.
2. Slaves were property in the eyes of the law.
3. Congress could not ban slavery from the territories.
4. The Missouri Compromise, which had banned slavery in certain areas, was unconstitutional.
Dred Scott Decision declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional!
In 1854, two new territories were created from the Louisiana Purchase: Kansas and Nebraska. Once again, tension arose over the spread of slavery. Illinois Senator, Stephen Douglas, proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, where both states would use popular sovereignty to answer the question of slavery. The act pleased Southerners but outraged many Northerners because it repealed the Missouri Compromise, which had prohibited slavery north of the 36 latitude line. In 1856, popular sovereignty caused a small-scale civil war known as “Bleeding Kansas” when violence between proslavery settlers and antislavery settlers blew up in the state. Antislavery supporter John Brown led the most violent campaign to end slavery which forecast the dark days ahead.
Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise!
For the first time, sectional political parties developed as the North and South divided over the slavery issue. In 1856, Northerners committed to stop the expansion of slavery in the west and created the Republican Party. In 1860, the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, was elected after running on this platform. Although Republicans wanted to stop the spread of slavery, Southerners believed Lincoln was an abolitionist who would abolish slavery and destroy the South’s way of life. Feeling threatened by Lincoln, Southern states began to secede from the Union, beginning with South Carolina.
By 1819, the U.S. began to divide into “sections” because of westward expansion, the rise of “King Cotton” in the South, the growing industrial North, and conflicting economic and political interests between the North and the South. Each section of the country wanted national laws favoring its own region. Conflicts arose when one law was made to help one section at the expense of another.
Causes of the Civil War
In the South, life centered on an agricultural society based on the plantation system (growing cotton using slave labor). Southerners saw themselves as “gentlemen farmers” or the “gentry”, who were lords of the manor with a high social standing in the community. They wanted low land prices to expand slavery and cotton farming as well as low tariffs to keep down the cost of buying manufactured goods from Europe and create favorable trading terms for the export of raw farm products.
In contrast, the North developed into an industrial society based on manufactured goods and free labor. Northern industrialists wanted high land prices to discourage westward migration of their labor force and a high tariff to protect U.S. goods from foreign competition.
Conflict also arose over states’ rights (right of a state to limit federal power). Most Southern states believed in state sovereignty (state power) and felt that a state had the power to cancel a federal law it considered unconstitutional. In the 1820s -1830s, the idea of a state declaring a federal law illegal and canceling it (nullification) put the concept of states’ rights to the test.
A crisis emerged after the U.S. passed two tariffs (import taxes) in 1828 and 1832 designed to help Northern manufacturers compete against foreign competition by taxing European imports to increase the costs of these goods. Southerners traded cotton for goods made in Europe, and the tariffs hurt the South’s ability to trade and save money. Southerners protested by declaring these tariffs illegal and cancelled or nullified them within their state, which only added fuel to the fire.
Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina led the fight to get rid of the tariffs saying, “The Union - next to our liberty, most dear.” To him, a state’s freedom was more important than saving the Union. Daniel Webster, a senator from Massachusetts, disagreed with Calhoun and stated, “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.” President Andrew Jackson agreed saying, “Our Federal Union – it must be preserved.” Calhoun continued to challenge the Union and threatened to secede or withdraw South Carolina from the U.S. A compromise was finally reached to avert this crisis, but this only put off the Civil War temporarily.
The issue of slavery had been debated since the creation of the U.S. Constitution. Many Northerners felt slavery was an evil institution, but in the South it was an economic necessity. Even though only 25% of white southerners owned slaves and half of these families had fewer than four slaves, the tiny (2%) elite who owned 50 or more slaves held a majority of slave property in the South and thus had both economic and political power. Ironically, the great majority of white southerners owned no slaves at all, yet this issue defined their state’s economy.
The concern about slavery really heated up when new states applied to join the U.S. because both the North and South wanted to keep the number of slave and non-slave states equal to balance the power in Congress. As debate over the spread of slavery grew (especially to the west), so did the need for compromise, but eventually even that became impossible.
Sectional views on slavery and other issues caused a political power struggle between the free labor states of the North and the slave labor states of the South. Congressman, and former president, John Quincy Adams was one of the most outspoken opponents of slavery and even predicted a civil war over the issue. If such a war were to happen, Adams imagined, “its result might be the extirpation of slavery from this whole continent.” In acuality, the section of the country that controlled the federal government was the one that established economic policies, such as tariffs, that affected the very livelihood of the other. Political power, then, became crucial to economic interests. By 1861, the political power struggle between the North and South resulted in the Civil War.
Events in history often force people to make difficult decisions. From 1803 to the late 1840s, the U.S. borders expanded west to the Pacific Ocean and required citizens to decide whether slavery would be allowed in these new territories. At first, compromise seemed possible, but with increased debate and violence, Americans soon realized that deep-rooted sectionalism and the heated issue of slavery had the potential to cause a full blown civil war.
In 1820, Missouri applied to become a state and started a chain reaction of critical events. Missouri’s admission as a slave state would upset the balance of power and give the South a majority in the Senate. Determined not to lose power, Northerners fought against letting Missouri enter the Union. A debate raged for months until Kentucky Senator Henry Clay (called the Great Compromiser) suggested a plan called The Missouri Compromise (1820) saying, “I know no South, no North, no East, no West, to which I owe my allegiance.” Clay’s plan was for Maine, who had also applied for statehood, to be admitted as a free state to balance the admission of Missouri as a slave state. As part of the compromise, Congress drew an imaginary line across the southern border of Missouri (36 latitude) and banned slavery in the Louisiana Purchase territory north of that line. Thus, Missouri was admitted as the only exception.
In 1848, the U.S. acquired vast amounts of land in the Southwest, called the Mexican Cession, after their defeat of Mexico in the Mexican War (1846-1848). Since the Missouri Compromise only pertained to the Louisiana Purchase, the question of slavery in these territories was still unresolved and created more tension between the North and South. While Southerners supported slavery in this territory, Northerners opposed the spread of slavery west. To settle the debate, Henry Clay proposed the Compromise of 1850, a plan to admit California as a free state, enact a harsher Fugitive Slave Law (capture and return of runaway slaves) and divide the Mexican Cession into the territories of New Mexico and Utah where voters would decide the slavery question according to popular sovereignty (vote of the people).
Events That Led to the Civil War
In 1852, Harriett Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a dramatic novel exposing the cruelties of slavery. It shocked Northern readers with its evil portrayal of slavery and outraged Southerners who saw it as abolitionist propaganda. Still considered one of the most influential books ever written, it sold 300,000 copies the first year.
By the mid 1850s, the country began to think the slavery question should be settled in the courts because Congress’s attempt at compromises still left widespread disagreement. In 1857, a court case concerning a slave named Dred Scott made its way through Missouri courts to the U.S. Supreme Court. In this case, Scott had moved with his owner from a slave state to a free state, and Scott sued for his freedom after his owner’s death. The case of Dred Scott v. Sanford, created an uproar with the following decisions:
1. Slaves were not citizens, so they could not bring suit in court.
2. Slaves were property in the eyes of the law.
3. Congress could not ban slavery from the territories.
4. The Missouri Compromise, which had banned slavery in certain areas, was unconstitutional.
Dred Scott Decision declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional!
In 1854, two new territories were created from the Louisiana Purchase: Kansas and Nebraska. Once again, tension arose over the spread of slavery. Illinois Senator, Stephen Douglas, proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, where both states would use popular sovereignty to answer the question of slavery. The act pleased Southerners but outraged many Northerners because it repealed the Missouri Compromise, which had prohibited slavery north of the 36 latitude line. In 1856, popular sovereignty caused a small-scale civil war known as “Bleeding Kansas” when violence between proslavery settlers and antislavery settlers blew up in the state. Antislavery supporter John Brown led the most violent campaign to end slavery which forecast the dark days ahead.
Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise!
For the first time, sectional political parties developed as the North and South divided over the slavery issue. In 1856, Northerners committed to stop the expansion of slavery in the west and created the Republican Party. In 1860, the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, was elected after running on this platform. Although Republicans wanted to stop the spread of slavery, Southerners believed Lincoln was an abolitionist who would abolish slavery and destroy the South’s way of life. Feeling threatened by Lincoln, Southern states began to secede from the Union, beginning with South Carolina.
Trade Notes
Political
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Social
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Economic
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- 1820: Missouri Compromise -Missouri is admitted as a slave state, Maine as a free state, line is drawn through La. Territory along southern Missouri border. Slavery NOT permitted north of this line.
1828-1832: Tariff of Abominations – Northern manufacturers protected at the expense of southern importers. Nullification issue arises. Secession threatened by SC. Sectionalism grows.
1846-1848: Mexican War – US victory results in Mexican Cession in 1848 – slavery question must be addressed as territories apply for statehood.
1850: Compromise of 1850 – California admitted as free state. Popular sovereignty allowed to decide slavery issue in NM Territory. Harsher Fugitive Slave Law enacted. Sectionalism grows.
1852: Uncle Tom’s Cabin –Abolitionist novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Northern anti-slavery passions are enflamed. Southern resentment arises through feelings of being misrepresented. Adds to sectionalism.
1854: Kansas-Nebraska Act. Popular Sovereignty allowed to decide slavery issue in Kansas and Nebraska. Missouri Compromise ignored. Northerners outraged. Southerners pleased.
1856: Bleeding Kansas – pro and anti slavery opposition forces clash violently in Kansas. Republican Party formed with an anti-slavery extension platform.
1860: Republican Lincoln elected. SC secedes followed by 6 others. War begins.