Well APUSH!! I hope you all had a great break! I miss you!!!
Pictured here are the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. Many events contributed to the increasing conflicts that would eventually result in the Civil War.
Explain one cause of the Civil War and how it contributed to tearing the nation apart.
As always, be sure not to repeat a classmate's answer!
Mrs. Demmel
Sectional disagreements over slavery was one of the many causes of the Civil War. Northern and southern states would fight over which territories to make slave or free, and these sectional disagreements would trump over party interests, leading to parties having no definite stance on the issue. The agrarian South depended on slavery to fuel its economy, while the North depended more on industrial means, and many people in the North believed in antislavery and abolition. This teared the nation apart by destroying the unity among party members, and lead to the secession of the South because they felt threatened by the North's desire to keep all the new territories gained through wars and purchases free from slavery.
ReplyDeleteAn event that contributed to the rising conflict between North and South that eventually led to the Civil War was John Brown’s Raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. John Brown, a radical abolitionist, was a veteran of the “Bleeding Kansas” conflict during which he had been involved in the murder of countless proslavery inhabitants. On October 16, 1859, Brown and twenty other men attempted to storm the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, arm the African Americans of Virginia, and lead a mass slave uprising. Unfortunately for Brown and his men, they failed to notify the slaves themselves had had not made any plans for escape. When their plan failed, John Brown was captured and convicted by the state of Virginia for treason, murder, and fomenting insurrection. He was executed by hanging on December 2, 1859.
ReplyDeleteJohn Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry and his subsequent trial and execution deepened America’s sectional divisions. In the North Brown was hailed by many as a hero and martyr. His actions represented the North’s commitment to abolition. In the South, Brown’s raid confirmed fears that northerners were conspiring against slaveholders by inciting slave rebellion. These fears were heightened when it was discovered that Brown was sponsored by six members of the northern elite: Gerrit Smith, George Stearns, Franklin Sanborn, Thomas Wentworth, Theodore Parker, and Samuel Gridley Howe. Brown’s attack on Virginia helped to further convince southerners that the North would not accommodate their economic system and that secession was the only way to preserve their way of life.
Sources:
DeleteFaragher, John M., Mari J. Buhle, Daniel Czitrom, and Susan H. Armitage. Out of Many: A History of the American People; AP Edition. Sixth ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001. Print.
The event which finally started the civil war was the election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860. As Lincoln was heavily against slavery, many southerners believed that he was in favor of the northern states. Even though Lincoln stated that he would not interfere with slavery where it existed, many southerners still feared that Lincoln's republican party would would abolish slavery. These southerners believed their way of life would be lost without slavery. As a result of the election, in 1860-1861, seven states: South Carlina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas voted to secede from the union and formed the Confederate States of America.
ReplyDeleteOne event that leads to the Civil war was Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beating of Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. After the Kansas Nebraska Act and the violence that followed, Senator Charles, a passionate abolitionist, raged in a two day speech about in his words the "crime against Kansas" and ridiculed by name three of his colleges name, including the absent, elderly and Sick South Carolina Senator Andrew P. Butler. Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina, who already had a history of violence, responded to these insults on his cousins behalf. While an insult of the kind between gentlemen would have been settled by a duel, in Brooks’ eyes Sumner was not a gentleman. He was a dog and should be beaten by one. Entering the Senate Chamber in 1856, with a metal tipped cane, Brooks is reported to have approached Sumner and said ““You have libeled my state and slandered my relation, who is aged and absent. And I feel it to be my duty to punish you.” He then proceeded to strike Sumner brutally atop the head. Senate chairs were bolted to the ground and a tall Senator Sumner legs were trapped leaving him unable to escape the beating as it continued with only his arms to defend himself. Eventually breaking free of his desk, Sumner tried to escape down the aisle. He was followed by Brooks who broke his cane atop Sumner head. The attack did not stop until Brooks was physically restrained.
ReplyDeleteThe house voted to expel Brooks but could not get the necessary votes to do so. Brooks got a 300 dollar fine and a hero’s welcome when he was returned to home. He was reelected by South Carolina and received many canes to make up for the one he had broken over Sumner head (Fun fact: Brookes cane is in one piece today. It was picked up from the Senate Chamber floor by a Southern Congressmen fixed and kept in his family. Today it resides in the Boston’s Old State House. It is slightly smaller than a regular can at the time would have been because of the mending. I got to see it!) Brooks died a year after beating Sumner. Sumner, who required stitches after the accident, was also cheered as a hero and reelected. His chair remand empty for three years as he mended from the physical and psychological wounds of the incident. Sumner remained an open and vocal abolitionist and filled his senate seat after he had healed. He died in 1874.
The Sumner’s beating shook America. Although northern newspaper joked that the champion bare-knuckle boxer Tommy Hyer should be sent to represent their interest, the unmistakable fact remained, blood had been shed, not just anywhere, but in the very center of American government. Furthermore, the divide between the two sides was great as both saw themselves as the victim. The event also reaffirmed stereotypes in both Northerners and Southerners. It supported Northern beliefs that the south was far more violent as well as irrational and uncultured and Southern beliefs that the North was rude, loud mouths, who would only talk and boss others around therefore weren’t real men. For many this was a sure sign of war. Both the North and the South was disgusted by the other side’s reaction. That violence could not even be controlled in government was an indicator of how serious the tensions between the North and South had become.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/preston-brooks-attacks-charles-sumner
http://www.ushistory.org/us/31e.asp
http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Caning_of_Senator_Charles_Sumner.htm
http://history1800s.about.com/od/abolitionmovement/a/sumnerbeaten.htm
A controversial event, the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom’s Cabin", did contribute to the start of the Civil War. The book, published in 1852, was a national and international hit. It focused mainly on the evils of slavery, scrutinizing the very extreme torture of slaves. People connected to the personal aspect of it, as it was centered around one character, and soon began to think like the book. The book caused major anti-slavery sentiment throughout the nation. In fact, Stowe met Abraham Lincoln a few years after her book was released, and he said, "So, you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war" when the war began.
ReplyDeleteA contributing factor to the secession of the South and the start of the American Civil War, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was a bill that plunged the American Party System and ultimately the Union into chaos. Introduced by Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas in 1854, it opened the northern part of the Indian Territory to white settlers and left the question of slavery in the territories to be decided by popular sovereignty. Believing that Northerners would support it because of his plan for a northern transcontinental railroad route, Douglas assumed it would be safe to pass in Congress. However, he made a great political miscalculation. Northern Whigs soon rejected it absolutely, while Southern Whigs and Democrats approved, splitting the two parties down sectional lines. This was decimating to both parties; Whigs were unable to field a presidential candidate in 1856, while Northern Democrats lost two-thirds of their seats and left the party with a southern majority. The problems did not stop with politics. Later in 1854, violence erupted in the territory of Kansas. Nicknamed “Bloody Kansas”, antislavery Free-Soil and proslavery forces clashed violently over the decision to join the union as a slave or free state. These events would lead to the secession of the South, as unable to find a compromise due to the deep sectional splits between the two groups, politicians felt that it was the only solution. Ultimately, the Kansas-Nebraska Act began the spiraling of relations between the North and South and the conflict that ensued afterward.
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited
DeleteFaragher, John M., Mari J. Buhle, Daniel Czitrom, and Susan H. Armitage. Out of Many: A History of the American People; AP Edition. Sixth ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001. Print.
A major cause to the start of the civil war was the economic differences between the north and the southern United States of America. In the mid 19th century the lifestyles and economies of the north and south were completely opposite. The south was an agricultural based economy relying on one crop, cotton, and slave labor to produce that crop at an astonishing rate. The North was completely industrial based and relied on transforming the cotton into products to ship and trade around the world. The south was based on a plantation system while the north was accustomed to city life. These disparities created great conflict between northerners and southerners of the United States of America and led to the civil war.
ReplyDeleteOne major cause of the Civil War was the Dred Scott case. The Dred Scott case was when a slave named Dred Scott tried to sue for his freedom. Scott was owned by a man named John Emerson who lived in the slave state of Missouri. Emerson was sent to the free state of Illinois on military assignment and brought Scott with him.They lived in Illinois for ten years before Emerson wanted to move back to Illinois. Scott refused to come saying that he had become a citizen of Illinois and therefore was a free man. Scott then sued for his and his families freedom. The case made it to the supreme court where the vote was 7 to 2 condemning Scott to a life of slavery on the basis that Scott was a slave and slaves had no rights and therefore he could not sue. This sent abolitionists into an uproar, causing many arguments and even some riots, further revealing the immorality of slavery and the tension based around the topic.
ReplyDeleteOne major issue that helped lead to the start of the American Civil War was the destruction of the American Party System. In the mid 1800s, the two main parties were Whigs and Democrats. Each of these parties attempted to appear beneficial to people of all sections of America, which was the cause of America going from being sectionally led to the American Party System. While Whigs were mostly in the north and Democrats in the south, there was a presence of each party in most parts of America. Although, because of issue like that of slavery in the 1840s and 50s, the parties began to split again, between north and south. These splits were caused by sectional differences that each party could not account for and still be favorable to both sections. This split led to other issues which led to the Civil War.
ReplyDeleteOne cause of the civil war was State's rights. The states, mainly southern ones wanted the ability of nullification. They wanted to say no to laws that the Federal government was passing. At that time the South thought they were being treated unfairly and wanted to nullify the laws the north was imposing on them. The ability to nullify a law gives states power and the North believed this power would undermine the county. Thus the Civil War began.
ReplyDeleteOne cause of the civil war was the abolitionists and there ideas. One of the major congressional passings of this time was the fugitive slave act. It said that if a slave ran away and ended up in the north, the northerners would have to return it. The problem was that many northerners didn't like slavery and therefore didn't help return these slaves, and pretty much set them free. The southerners didn't like this as this was a passage of the US congress. They wanted their slaves back and the north and its abolitionists wanted these slaves freed. These led to more conflict leading up to the civil war.
ReplyDeleteThe Panic of 1857 was a contributing factor to the civil war. As the North began to lose confidence in its industrial economy, the South took the opportunity to boast about their own successful slavery-driven economy. This deepened sectional differences further as the North grew further resentful of the South. While the panic didn't last very long, the sectional differences, were nonetheless affected, and these differences played a major role in the secession of the South, leading to the Civil War.
ReplyDeleteOne major factor that contributed to the start of the Civil War was the Battle at Fort Sumter. Although the Confederacy had already been formed, this battle was the final straw that plunged America into war. In the aftermath of the secession of South Carolina, Major Robert Anderson stayed loyal to the Union. He was located in Fort Moultrie in South Carolina. He, without receiving orders to do so, moved his troops from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter was more modern and more easily defensible than Moultrie. This was a brazen act of defiance to the Confederacy, and one of it's first orders was to destroy Fort Sumter. The Union was badly outgunned and out manned, and eventually surrendered the fort on April 14th, 1861. This action led to a very popular cry for war in both the North and the South, and is commonly seen as the first battle of the Civil War.
ReplyDeleteAn incontrovertible contributing cause to the start of the American Civil War was the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act as part of the Compromise of 1850. This act provided substantial legal support for the recapture and deportation of escaped slaves found in the northern states, essentially writing Southern ideology into law. As a result, Northern abolitionists and free African Americans became outraged when they felt the South threatened the freedom they allowed all Northerners, while the South felt that the North was refusing to acknowledge their right to own a certain type of property. The deepening of sectional division that this caused drove the regions further apart especially when 'mob rule' in the North specifically acted above the Fugitive Slave Act, and this increasing split contributed significantly to the secession of the southern states and the start of the Civil War.
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ReplyDeleteIn relation to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, another significant event that further moved the nation to war was the issue over the Lecompton Constitution. While the reign of popular sovereignty in Kansas led to continuing violence and hardship, a first election in 1855 was held to determine the state's stance on slavery. The lopsided proslavery outcome had dominated and clearly been the result of the illegal voting by the individuals who acknowledged themselves as the Missouri border ruffians. The Lecompton Constitution was therefore written and proslavery Kansas applied for statehood. While Buchanan fully supported the state's status on the issue of slavery and the Lecompton Constitution, opposition was met from Stephen Douglas, who enacted the Kansas-Nebraska Act on a basis of popular sovereignty. He claimed the election to be a violation of this principle, and he additionally insisted that the Lecompton Constitution be voted on by Kansas voters in a legal and honest election. With this new approach of referendum, the original citizens of Kansas voted on the rejection of the Lecompton Constitution and the state's prior proslavery status. Kansas was therefore admitted as a free state in January 1861. The defeat of this constitution had not come easily and very much reflected upon the wavering issue and violence that'd come as a result of the nation's sectional differences and perspective upon slavery. The second election and victory of the Kansas citizens only brought further bloodshed and sporadic ambushes. Congress as well was affected, for violence was brought onto the table. By defending the principle of popular sovereignty, Douglas originally thought he'd been trying to preserve the Democrats as a national party, but instead, this issue only further broke the party apart, and he ended up losing the southern wing. The further grievances that Kansas experienced afterwards only confirmed the suspicion that the union would not last any longer.
DeleteA cultural divide existed between the North and the South, even before the United States became a country. As the world moved toward industrialization in the 1800s, that divide was deepened to the point that society viewed the two cultures as basically being two separate peoples. The South, whose economy was based on plantation farming and deeply rooted traditions, contained a society that was built on class and people differentiation. Comparatively, the North was far more industrialized and (literally) held the political center of the country. Northerners, as a general, were more receptive toward new ideas and traditions, and thus more willing to adapt to the changing times as far as politics, society, and the economy were concerned.
ReplyDeleteAlthough these views of the two differing cultures are grossly simplified, what's significant is that the cultural divide /was/ enough that it truly separated the people. The conflict of states' rights and peoples' rights came during an extremely passionate and nationalistic time for all of the world, which fueled the already innate stubbornness in the American people to fight and defend what they held to be the truth. With secession, the mentality became of two separate entities fighting, rather than one, which helped fuel the enthusiasm both sides (the South more than the North) had for the war and further dividing the country.
One event which contributed to the Civil War was the creation of the Republican Party. Viewed as an extremely liberal party that not only wanted to free slaves but also embrace the idea of racial equality. These false ideas were heavily advertised throughout the South during the election of 1860. As the Republican party did nothing to dispute these claims in the South and they were still a new party, worthy of suspicion, southern fears were stirred up. It was this intensifying of fears that abolitionists were gaining strength that pushed the South right to the edge of Civil War.
ReplyDeleteAnother factor that led to the civil war was the Underground Railroad. While slavery was still intact, many abolitionists helped slaves escape through the Underground Railroad.This proved that abolitionists would do anything to help the slaves escape. Also, most southerners were mad at the abolitionists who helped the slaves escape because the slaves were their property. When the abolitionists wouldn't stop stealing the slave owner's property, the southerners knew that there was a major problem between the two sides.
ReplyDeleteOne event that helped cause the Civil War was the end of the Mexican War. From this war we gained a ton of new territory so this caused the rifts in our society so deepen with all the debates about whether or not the new territories should be slave states or not.
ReplyDeleteOne cause of the Civil War was the economic and social differences between the North and the South. After the cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney, the south became very dependent on the export of cotton, and thus very dependent on the import of slaves. Since the north essentially had opposite views on the matter, thinking that slavery was not an option, it created and strong disagreement and thus a cause of the Civil War.
ReplyDeleteOne factor the contributed to the cause of the civil war was an unfair tax placed on the South by the North. The South was exporting a lot of their textiles to England who in return sent them industrial goods. The North wanted the South to buy industrial goods from them so they placed a heavy tax on ships going to and from England. This obviously upset the South and added to the growing tension which eventually lead to the Civil War.
ReplyDeleteA leading cause to the Civil War was John Brown's raid on Harper's Fairy, Virginia. Brown attempted to lead an anit-slavery revolt by raiding a Virginia weaponry facility and arming slaves in route to freedom. Robert E. Lee who was a military luitenant in Virginia quickly haulted the raid and soon Brown was hanged for his actions. The North made Brown out to be a martyr and rallied around his death against the South in anger. The South meanwhile thought the raid of being a rising up from the North and an indication that war was to be waged soon. The Civil War eventually broke out, and the nation further divided over such differences. At the heart of Brown's raid and the war was the issue of slavery, which even more so tore our nation apart, pinning the country against itself in our country's bloodiest war.
ReplyDeleteA very basic cause of the Civil War is the speedy expansion to the West. Such quick accumulation of land not only led to more settlement and plantations, but it also emphasized the issue of balance of slavery in these new settlements. As new states and territories were organized, the issue of free or slave state remained. These created sectional differences, which mentioned above, initiated the Civil War.
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