Causes Of The Cival War Flashcards
Missouri Compromise
- Main was added to be a free state
- Missouri was added to be a slave state
- At the 36*30’ line the Louisiana territory was split and the north of the line slave trade was banned and south of the line slavery was permitted
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
banned slavery north of the Ohio river
Compromise of 1850
- California as a free state
- ended slave trade in the Nations Capitol D.C.
- admit New Mexico and Utah to slave territory
- made a strong fugitive slave law
Ostend Manifesto
The Ostend Manifesto was a message sent to the Secretary of State by three American diplomats who were meeting in Ostend, Belgium. President Franklin Pierce, who had taken office in 1853, had been trying to purchase the island of Cuba from Spain, but Spain had rejected the offer. The message from the diplomats urged the U.S. government to take Cuba by force if Spain continued to refuse. When the message was leaked to the public, angry Northerners accused Pierce’s administration of wanting t0 take over Cuba to make it a slave state.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Douglas’s final version of the bill was known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which created the Kansas and Nebraska Territories. It also abolished the Missouri Compromise by leaving the slavery decision up to popular sovereignty, which allowed the settlers themselves to vote on whether to permit slavery in the two territories.
The “Gag” Rule
Choked off all debate on slavery in congress, it did not silence the abolitionist.
Fugitive slave law
The fugitive slave law states that any escaped property can be returned and not be free.
Uncle Toms Cabin
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that was published in 1852. In the novel, Uncle Tom, a slave, was tortured by his evil slave master, Simon Legree. The novel opened up northerners’ eyes to the realities of slavery and aroused powerful emotions about slavery more so than any other work of literature. Southerners hated the novel and Stowe. In the North, Uncle Tom’s Cabin caused millions to turn against slavery
Bleeding Kansas
After the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854, settlers poured into Kansas. Most were peaceful farmers looking for good farmland, but some moved there to either support or oppose slavery. Kansas would have two competing governments in the territory, one for slavery and one against.
In May 1856, proslavery settlers, and “border ruffians” from Missouri stormed into Lawrence, Kansas, the home of the antislavery government, and caused chaos including burning a hotel, looting several homes, and throwing abolitionist newspaper printing presses into the Kaw River.
The Lawrence raid outraged northerners so much that people raised money to replace the destroyed presses. Also, “free-soilers”, the antislavery settlers, began to move to Kansas.
Soon after, a passionate abolitionist named John Brown planned his own revenge. Two days after the Lawrence raid, Brown and seven followers invaded the proslavery town of Pottawatomie, Kansas, and dragged five men they suspected of supporting slavery from their homes and “hacked” them to death.
Bleeding Congress
Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was greatly disturbed by the violence in Kansas and believed it was proof that Stephen A. Douglas had plotted with southerners to make Kansas a slave state.
In 1856, Sumner addressed his suspicions in a fiery speech called “the Crime Against Kansas,” which insulted Douglas and many southerners, including Senator Andrew P. Butler of South Carolina.
Two days after the speech, Senator Butler’s nephew, South Carolina representative Preston Brooks, attacked Sumner in the Senate, beating him with his cane until it broke in half. When the attack was over, Sumner had collapsed, bloody and unconscious.
Southerners cheered Brooks for defending the south while Northerners viewed the beating as another example of southern barbarity.
Dred scott Supreme Court case
Dred Scott was a salve who travled to Wisconsin (free slave state) who wanted to go to court to gain his freedom. This happened in 1857 with 5 south judges and 4 north judges. In the end he was not allowed his freedom and the state made a law that told him that he was slavery and he could not run away. This made many northerners unhappy and gave slaves no hope.
John Browns raid
John Brown is a man who disliked slavery and people thought he was insane. He raided harpers ferry because they had military supplies.
Election of 1860
Presidents and who won
Stephan A. Douglas: northern democrats- supported popular sovereignty. He wanted the people to decide which states where slave or free.
John C. Breckinridge: southern democrats- believed slavery can be permitted in any US territory
Abraham Lincoln: Republican Party- opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories but did not call for abolition in already slate states
John Bell: constitutional Union party- ignored slavery all together
Secede/Secession
Lincoln stated he would: not interfere with southern slavery, support the fugitive slave law, NOT allow slavery expansion in the west.
South Carolina, Georgia, Florida,Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana
Attack on ft. Sumter
April 12, 1861, South Carolina opened fire on the union and attacked. This event started the civil war
