Road to Civil War Review

​11/17

​Agenda: Road To Civil War Review and complete assignments

​a. Explain the importance of key issues and events that led to the Civil War; include slavery, states’ rights, nullification, Compromise of 1850 and the Georgia Platform, the Dred Scott case, Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860, and the debate over secession in Georgia.

b. Explain Georgia’s role in the Civil War; include the Union blockade of Georgia’s coast, the Emancipation Proclamation, Chickamauga, Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign, Sherman’s March to the Sea, and Andersonville.

​CATS:

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The military action in what city gave the Union Army complete control over Confederate rail lines in the "Deep South" and set the stage for Sherman's "March to the Sea"?

Key Issues: Slavery

• Slavery increased drastically with invention of cotton gin

  South’s economy became dependent on cotton; slavery considered essential to economic growth

• Abolitionists in the North called for end of slavery

• Gap widened every time U.S. gained more territory

• South wanted slavery in new territories; North wanted to contain slavery to just the southern states

​Key Issues: States' Rights

• States’ rights – the amount of power a state government has in relation to the amount of power held by the federal government

• E.g., Worcester v. Georgia-Georgia lost the case but refused to follow the ruling: proved that a state could do as it pleased if there was not a unified attempt by the federal government or other states to stop them

• Southern states used the states’ rights argument to justify owning slaves.

​Nullification

• Nullification – a states’ rights issue involving disputes about tariffs*

• North supported high tariffs to support manufacturing industry

• South opposed tariffs because they would take away profits from cotton farmers (Britain imposed a revenge tariff on cotton)

• House of Representatives voted to renew the tariff, South Carolina threatened to nullify* the tariff and possibly secede*

• President Andrew Jackson threatened to attack South Carolina if they seceded.

• *tariff – tax on improts

• *nullify – invalidate, void

• *secede – leave the United States (the Union)

​Short-Term Compromises: Missouri Compromise

• Allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, Maine as a free state

• Banned slavery north of 36° 30’ (MO border)

• ​ Established States must enter as pairs

​Short Term Compromises: Compromise of 1850

• California had a population large enough to apply for statehood.

• The South: smaller population than North, fearful of losing balance of power in the Senate, one day giving North power to end slavery

• Talk of secession common in South; war almost erupted: halted when several senators wrote a compromise the groups agreed to follow

• Two most important terms of the compromise:

  • California admitted as a free state

  • Northern legislators agreed to pass the Fugitive Slave Act*

• Fugitive Slave Act: guaranteed return of any runaway slaves to their owners if the slaves were caught in the North

​Compromise of 1850- Ga Platform

• While Compromise of 1850 was debated in Congress, Georgia’s political leaders were deciding if the state would accept the terms of the Compromise. Their efforts and attitudes became known as the Georgia Platform.

• Georgia Platform led by Robert Toombs (pro-slavery) and Alexander Stephens (pro-slavery, pro-Union; later Vice-President of the Confederacy during Civil War)

• Georgia Platform: Georgia would accept the Compromise of 1850 only if Northern states enforced the Fugitive Slave Act; other Southern states followed, halting war for 11 years.

• In 1861, debate in Georgia General Assembly over whether Georgia should join other Southern states threatening secession. Georgia eventually secedes from the Union.

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​Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Missouri Compromise repealed, allowed popular sovereignty in states/territories

• Violent conflicts among pro- /anti- slavery groups: Both flooding in to sway vote

• “Mini” civil war in KS—”Bleeding Kansas

​Breaking Point: Dred Scott Case

• Dred Scott v. Sandford (Dred scott vs Missouri): Dred Scott was a slave who was taken by his owner to the free states of Illinois and Wisconsin. Upon his return to Missouri, Scott sued based on the belief that his time in the free states made him a free man.

• Verdict: Supreme Court declared that slaves and freed blacks were not citizens of the United States and did not have the right to sue in court.

• ​Upset northerners who realized something must be done about slavery

​Breaking Point: Election of 1860

• Due to the division of the country (sectionalism), four candidates ran for president in 1860.

• Due to the issue of slavery, Northern and Southern Democrats split into two parties. A third nominee was from the Constitutional Union Party (avoid secession). Abraham Lincoln was the nominee for the Republican party.

• Lincoln’s name not even on the ballot in most Southern states; still won the election

• After the election, the Southern states voted one-by-one to secede from the Union.

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Finish Civil War Artifact Story, RTC Flipbook or/and Civil War Take Home