Causes of the Civil War Flashcards
Typical Southerner Values
- Many Southerners had no wish to industrialise and urbanise
- General Southern belief that old agrarian ways and values were better than Yankee materialism
- More concerned about their personal, family and sectional honour than Northerners
Typical Northerner Values
- Generally better educated and more responsive to new ideas
- Northerners saw Southerners as backward and out of touch with ‘modern’ ideas and ideals
What year was Frederick Douglass born and when did he die?
1818 - 1895
What was the name of his newspaper and when was it first published?
The North Star (1847)
Who was Frederick Douglass?
The most famous and influential African American of his time
When was John Brown’s Raid?
16th October 1859
John Brown’s Raid
19 men left Maryland for Harper’s Ferry where they aimed to seize weapons, retreat to the Appalachians and spark a slave revolt. A few slaves were induced or compelled to join Brown and a number of hostages were taken.
A train pulled into Harper’s Ferry, shots were fired by one of Brown’s men and a black baggage master was killed. Brown took refuge in a fire-engine house and a 36-hour siege followed.
On 18th October, the fire house was stormed and Brown was captured with 6 of his men.
Results of John Brown’s Raid
- Brown was tried for treason and was executed on 2nd December 1859
- Raised sectional tension
- Suggested a future of slave revolts
Who was Dred Scott?
A slave who had accompanied his owner to Illinois, then Wisconsin before returning to Missouri
Dred Scott Case
In the 1840s, Scott went before the Missouri courts, claiming he was free on the grounds that he has resided in a free state and in a free territory
When were the results of the Dred Scott case released?
March 1857
What did the Dred Scott case decide?
- Scott couldn’t sue because black Americans didn’t have the same rights as white citizens
- Scott’s stay in Illinois didn’t make him free
- Scott’s stay in Wisconsin made no difference because the 1820 Missouri Compromise was illegal
Results of Dred Scott case
- Northerners were horrified - further proof that Buchanan was involved in Slave Power Conspiracy
- Many Northerners saw it as a chance to undermine the Republican Party and the concept of popular sovereignty
Who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin?
Harriet Beecher Stowe
When was Uncle Tom’s Cabin first published?
1851
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- A story published in weekly instalments in an anti-slavery newspaper that attacked slavery
- Sold 2 million copies in 10 years
Results of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
The book aroused wide sympathy for slavery and probably pushed some northerners towards a more aggressively anti-slavery stance
What did Clay offer in January 1850 as part of the 1850 Compromise?
- California was to be admitted as a free state
- Utah and New Mexico were to be organised as territories without mention of slavery
- Slave-trading but not slavery itself should end in Washington DC
- A more stringent Fugitive Slave Act should be passed to placate the South
- Texas should surrender the disputed land to New Mexico and in return, Congress would assume the $10million public debt that Texas owed
What was passed in September 1850 as the Compromise?
- Statehood for California
- Territorial status for Utah and New Mexico, allowing popular sovereignty
- Resolution of the Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute
- Abolition of the slave trade in Washington
- A new Fugitive Slave Act
Results of the 1850 Compromise
Political leaders hailed the Compromise as a settlement of the issues that threatened to divide the nation
Fugitive Slave Act
- Authorised federal marshals to raise posses to pursue fugitives on northern soil - those who refused to join risked a $1000 fine
- The law didn’t just target recent runaways but also those who had fled the South decades earlier
When was the Kansas-Nebraska Act suggested?
January 1854
Who proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
Stephen Douglas
Kansas-Nebraska Act
- It repealed the Missouri Compromise, introducing popular sovereignty instead
- It divided the Nebraska territory into two; Kansas and Nebraska
Results of Kansas-Nebraska Act
- Slavery could now expand northwards
- Proof to many Northerners that Slave Power Conspiracy was at work
- Helped to revive North-South rivalry
When was the Kansas-Nebraska Act approved?
May 1854
When was Bleeding Kansas?
May 1856
Bleeding Kansas
A pro-slavery posse, trying to arrest free-state leaders, ‘sacked’, the town of Lawrence. This event was magnified out of proportion by northern journalists who claimed that dozens of free-staters were killed (there were no casualties).
At Pottawatomie, John Brown murdered 5 pro-slavery settlers. Overnight, he became a northern hero.
Results of Bleeding Kansas
- Increase in tension
- Lead to tit-for-tat killings in Kansas
- Bleeding Kansas became a rallying cry for northerners opposed to what they perceived to be the Slave Power at work
Abraham Lincoln
1809 - 1865
When did Lincoln become President?
November 1860
Why would Lincoln’s victory not spark a Southern secession?
- Lincoln had promised that he wouldn’t interfere with slavery in those states where it existed
- Even if Lincoln wanted to abolish slavery, his party didn’t control Congress
- Secession would mean abandoning an enforceable Fugitive Slave Act: slaves would be able to flee to the North
- Secession might lead to Civil War
When did the first state secede?
South Carolina - 20th December 1860
Doctrine of Nullification
Proclaimed the right of any state to overrule or modify any federal law deemed unconstitutional
