Causes of the Civil War

Causes of the Civil War The unresolved debate over the spread of slavery, that was meant to be settled by the Missouri Compromise of 1820, resurfaced with the Compromise of 1850 and later the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The 1850 Compromise admitted California as a free state, in return for allowing slavery to continue in Washington D.C. In addition the territory of New Mexico (including present-day Arizona and Utah) was organized without any specific prohibition of slavery, and laws throughout the land for the capture of fugitive slaves were strengthened. This last aspect of the Compromise was known as the Fugitive Slave Act. It stipulated any slave who escaped to another state or into federal territory would be seized and returned to their owner. The Act also imposed an additional penalty on any individual who helped a slave escape. Many northerners reacted angrily to these seemingly unjust and inhumane laws, and there presence spurred the operation of the fabled Underground Railroad, a network of thousands of homes and other "stations" that helped escaping slaves travel from the southern slave-holding states to the northern states and on to Canada, and thus freedom. In 1854 there was yet another attempt at North-South compromise over the spread of slavery into new territories and states. The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise and sought to resolve the status of the Louisiana Purchase by dividing it in two: Kansas and Nebraska. The act left the matter of determining the status of a new state as slave or free--as the decision of the new states' citizens. This in turn led to more intensified violence as both northern and southern interest groups attempted to increase the number of pro and anti slavery settlers in the new territories by encouraging migration from other states. The tendency towards importing pro and antislavery forces into the Kansas territory during the mid- and late 1850s resulted in widespread conflict and violence. In fact there were so many violent incidents that occurred in Kansas, often involving neighbours attacking neighbours, the area was nicknamed bleeding Kansas. The importance of the elections in Nebraska and Kansas was reflected in the words of pro-slavery Missouri Senator David Atchison who said "We are playing for a mighty stake. If we win, we carry slavery to the Pacific Ocean. Attempts at political compromise were clearly intensifying North-South hostilities rather than resolving them.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise and sought to resolve the status of the Louisiana Purchase by dividing it in two: Kansas and Nebraska. The act left the matter of determining the status of a new state as slave or free--as the decision of the new states' citizens. In reaction to the South's fierce defence of slavery an abolition movement in the North began to emerge and attract popular following. The abolitionists believed not only that slavery was wrong, but also the Federal government should move to abolish it. They were very vocal about their beliefs, and

increasingly began to challenge the South's right to own slaves, including vigourous opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act. The popularity of abolition had been further forwarded in 1852 when author Harriet Beecher Stowe published her famed novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, a very popular account of slaves' lives and the plight of runaway slaves. The book served to introduce anti-slavery ideas to an increasing number of Americans, and further fueled the conviction that slavery was morally wrong and should be abolished. Many southern states quickly banned sales of Uncle Tom's Cabin, arguing it was biased and misrepresented the truth. To this day Beecher's famed novel is on the recommended reading list of many American high schools and universities. If there was a personal event of the period that captured the hearts of the nation and embodied growing demand to extend basic human rights to African-Americans, it was the Dred Scott case of 1857. This event widened the political and social gap between North and South and took the nation closer to the brink of Civil War. Scott was a slave who judicially challenged the institution of slavery, and who forever changed the definition of property in America. He had visited the free territory of Minnesota with his master and claimed that this made him a free man. A federal court initially ruled that Scott was a free citizen. But the Supreme Court later ruled otherwise in an appeal. It stated that Negroes were an inferior race and that African-Americans could never become United States citizens. Dred Scott was returned to slavery. The Dred Scott ruling greatly divided the nation and further demonstrated the inability of northerners and southerners to find a workable compromise. The dispute over slavery acquired even more violent overtones in 1859 when a group of abolitionists, led by John Brown, seized an arsenal in Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and called upon local slaves to participate in armed insurrection. Brown had also previously been involved in an event in 'bleeding Kansas' in which five pro-slavery supporters were dragged from their beds and brutally murdered. Eventually the insurrection was put down and Brown, as well as many of his followers, were hanged for their actions. John Brown was executed for his actions in 'bleeding Kansas' and seizure of a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Southerners viewed Brown as a blood-thirsty villain, while northerners saw him as a just hero. How does the above painting portray Brown? Can you support your claim with visual evidence found within the painting? The nation was deeply divided as the presidential election of 1860 drew near. The deep chasm that slavery had formed in America saw the Democrat Party splinter into three separate groups, allowing for the newly formed Republican Party, led by long shot candidate, Abraham Lincoln, to win the federal election. However Lincoln did not win any southern states, and thus Lincoln's election was a mirror image of the deep sectional divisions that existed in the country. From such a position of believing its voice was not being heard in the country's management of political affairs, it was a short step to the proposition that a state had the right to dissolve its association with the Federal Government if it felt it was not being treated fairly. Within days of the election South Carolina seceded from the Union. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas soon followed suit. Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Arkansas would later round out the seceding states that would form the break away Confederate States of America. In addition, the border states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri remained part of the Union but possessed sizeable populations of pro-slavery inhabitants. The stage was set for the most damaging, and yet most defining event in American history, the Civil War of 1861-65.