Making Of America - Unit 3: Civil War And Reconstruction, 1861-77 Flashcards
Early tensions - 1793 Cotton Gin
• machine spread up the processing of cotton, therefore slaves were worked harder than ever to grow and pick it, driving up the number of slaves being used and the amount they had to work
1803: The Louisiana Purchase
• after this event, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi joined the USA as slave states
• the amount of land available for plantations increased massively
• the ‘Cotton Kingdom’ once again saw slavery grow, and Northern anger grew in return
Early tensions - 1820 Missouri Compromise
• states had to join the USA in pairs - one slave, one free
• the political balance in Congress was maintained, but slavery grew in Missouri and south of it
• Neither side had control, and the compromise stayed in place until 1854
Causes of the American Civil War? (ACW) 1831
1831 - William Lloyd Garrison founded ‘The Liberator’ a newspaper that spread abolitionist views - spreads message on the horrors of slavery
Causes of ACW - 1833
• National Anti-Slavery Society formed by Garrison and Tappan - by 1838 it had 250000 members producing pamphlets, essays and petitions
Causes of ACW - Frederick Douglass
• escaped enslaved people such as Frederick Douglass wrote articles and spoke about life for enslaved people in the South, raising awareness
• successful in gaining a lot of support from public for ending slavery
Cause of ACW - Harriet Tubman
• Northern abolitionists like Douglass and Harriet Tubman helped enslaved people escape their masters through the ‘Underground Railroad’ to freedom
•southerners felt their property was being wrongfully taken
Causes of the ACW - 1846 Westward expansion
Westward expansion saw America grow. Congress said slavery should be banned in new territories West gained from Mexico (this tension led to the proposed Clay Compromise)
Causes of ACW - Harriet Beecher Stowe
• 1851 - published Uncle Tom’s Cabin - a novel which spoke out about slavery. It sold 2 million copies in ten years
Cause of ACW - southerners vs abolitionists
• southerners were against the abolitionists, feeling it would affect the way of life in the South and that freed enslaved people could rise up
and kill the white population
Cause of ACW - balance of power
Slaveholders feared losing influence as the North grew richer. Since Congress representation was based on state population, the South was losing political power.
Causes of ACW - Henry Clay
• 1850 - pro-slavery politician Henry Clay proposed that:
• California became a free state, and slave states were banned in WDC
• new territories decided on slavery themselves
• all states had to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act - a legal duty to return escaped slaves
• the compromise was a major win for slaveholders
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
• states could decide for themselves if they wanted to be a slave or free states
• this overrode the Missouri Compromise
• white men came from other states to spoil the vote
Causes of ACW: Republican Party is set up
• set up in 1854 as an anti-slavery party in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act
• wanted to stop the spread of slavery and believed the South were becoming too powerful
Causes of ACW - James Buchanan
• 1856
• Democrat James Buchanan became President
• pro-slavery stance pushed many northerners to support the Republican Party
• the republicans stopped strong state governments and agriculture/plantations
Causes of ACW - Dred Scott Case
• the Supreme Court said that slaves had absolutely no rights and that the US govt could not ban slavery in territories
• Buchanan openly supported this, as it made slaveholders more powerful
Causes of ACW - John Brown
• tried to start an uprising by leading a raid on the Harper’s Ferry arsenal in 1859
• he planned to steal weapons and arm enslaved people to rebel against their owners
Result of the Brown raid
• failed
• Brown was captured
• tried for treason
• executed
• actions made him a hero to abolitionists and a villain to the South
Causes of the ACW - Abraham Lincoln is elected
• 1860 - AL was elected as President of the USA
• he was a republican
• many referred to him as ‘Honest Abe’
• viewed as a hard-working American
• Southerners now want to leave the union
How was the election of Abraham Lincoln a trigger for the ACW?
• Lincoln was elected in November 1860 with lots of Northern support but almost none in the south
• in November 1860 - South Carolina voted to secede from the USA in protest at Lincoln’s election
• by February 1861, six other states had seceded: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas - formed a new political group called the Confederacy
• the confederacy elected its own President, Jefferson Davis
• when Lincoln became President fully on March 4th 1861, he said that the Confederacy was illegal
• on 12th April, Davis ordered his gunboats to open fire on Fort Sumter (a Union Fort) in South Carolina
• on 15th April 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
Total War - 1863 -65 summary
• August 1862 - Lincoln states he would save the Union with or without freeing slaves
• 22 September 1862 - Lincoln issued a warning to the Confederacy - surrender or all slaves will be freed
• many abolitionists saw this as Lincoln finally opposing slavery - others saw it as a war strategy
• historian Adam Smith - Lincoln’s proclaimation was a calculated tool of war, not just morality
• rumours of peace talks existed, but Lincoln showed commitment to war
• 1 January 1863 - the Emancipation Proclaimation was issued - slavery would end if the Union won
• millions of slaves promised freedom
Roles of black people in the ACW
• 70% of Northern black men (33,000) joined the Union army
• also took white Northener jobs who were off fighting - could sometimes increase tensions between the two
• drove cattle, washing in camps, some were treated unfairly by generals (paid less than white counterparts, couldn’t be officers), did cooking in camps, women looked after children in camps, heavy labour duties eg digging ditches, building pickets and being blacksmiths, building roads
• some formerly enslaved people said it was as hard as being on plantations
Positive changes during Total War (1863 - 65)
• Emancipation Proclamation - all slaves in confederate free
• January 1863 - the 54th Massachusetts Coloured Regiment became the first Northern black regiment
• 70% Northern black men joined
• ex-slaves took on jobs such as field hands, mechanics and barbers, and started earning money.
• many slaves in the Deep South were given 40 acres of land by General Sherman (a Union general) taken from plantation owners
• many black women supported the armed forces by working as cooks or nurses
• volunteers continued to teach freed slaves how to read and write - over 200,000 by 1865
• by 1864, black soldiers fought for and won the fight for equal pay
Limits during Total War (1863-65)
• some slaves continued to work on cotton plantations even after they had been freed
• black soldiers were often given some of the worst jobs: late-night guard duties cleaning and ditch digging
• black soldiers were not allowed to become officers
• the Emancipation Proclamation would not be a full Constitutional Amendment until the war was over
Questions of Abraham Lincoln after the war
• Should the South be treated as conquered lands or brought back into the Union immediately?
• what should happen to the people who fought against the Union?
• should the south send representatives to Congress straight away? If they do, will they try and block Reconstruction?
• if freed slaves are made citizens, won’t this increase the population, and therefore the power, of the Southern states in Congress?
• what will the status of black Americans be? Will they be free non-citizens like Indians, or full citizens?
13th Amendment to the Constitution of the USA (31 January 1861)
• neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
• 15th April 1865 - 6 days after the war had ended
• killed by John Wilkes-booth
• theatre in Washington
Johnson’s aims and actions
• believes his most important job after the war was to bring the country back together again - allowed the Confederate states to reapply for membership of the Union with almost immediate effect. This meant they got their old power back immediately
• opposed the powerful plantation owners who served as generals, and believed they should be punished, but did not think this should extend to other people who fought - planned to punish only the very top levels of the Confederate army. Published a plan to pardon 16,000 Confederate soldiers in May 1865
• was suspicious of the US government getting involved in state laws and forcing states to do things which they disagreed with - allowed Southern states to re-establish their state governments with little interference
• strongly believed that the poor whites in the South needed protecting and defending from the growth of big businesses and capitalist Northern industry - returned lands that had previously been given to ex-Slaves, including the Sea Islands. Only 2000 black families held on to the land they had been given
When did the Confederacy surrender?
• 9th of April 1865
• nearly 750000 Americans lay dead
• 18% of Confederate soldiers never came home
Situation by December 1865
• President Johnson believed Reconstruction had finished
• this remark shocked most of the Republican Party (Union)
• laws differed from state to state but had the same effect - black codes were introduced which limited the rights of black people, eg banning marriage between black and white people, ownership of weapons was illegal for black people, black people could not serve on juries
• some had not even sworn an oath of loyalty to the Union
• state governments of the South were back in the hands of plantations owners
Was radical reconstruction a time of great progress for African Americans? 1865
President Andrew Johnson allowed all Confederate states to rejoin the USA, even though some tried to vote against the 13th Amendment (abolishing slavery).
The Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group, was founded. Johnson did little to stop its formation.
December-Congress finally met after months of not being in session. Many believed Johnson had overstepped the mark by making key decisions without their support, including allowing Southern states back into the Union too easily.
Was radical reconstruction a time of great progress for African Americans? 1866
February - under influence of radical republicans, Congress began implementing its own Reconstruction plan to undo Johnson’s lenient policies.
February - Freedman’s Bureau re-established to provide education, healthcare, and support for formerly enslaved people. Little land remained for distribution.
March - Civil Rights Bill passed to protect black American’s rights. President Johnson vetoed it twice, but Congress overrode him.
April - 14th Amendment proposed granting citizenship to all born in the USA, regardless of skin colour
Was radical reconstruction a time of great progress for African Americans? 1867
March-July Reconstruction Acts - ex-confederate governments shut down.
People who fought against the Union were banned from voting.
Military sent to the South to protect black American’s rights
Was radical reconstruction a time of great progress for African Americans? 1868
June - Seven Southern states
