Handout the American Civil War

Handout â€Å"A House Divided†: Towards the American Civil War, 1831-1861 Causes of the American Civil War 1. social-economic differences between North and South 2. regional conflict about over slavery in unorganized territories 3. break-up of national political party system; emergence of new party system based on region (i. e. North-South) (see also handout week 4) 4. ideological and cultural polarisation between North and South Constitution: three-fifth’s clause; fugitive slave clause; slave trade clause 820 Missouri Compromise: – Missouri admitted as slave state – Maine created as free state – Line of 1820 (36 . 30 ) 1828-1833 – South Carolina tariff nullification crisis 1831-1860 – antislavery activism (1831: William Lloyd Garrison –The Liberator) 1831 slave rebellion led by Nat Turner in Southampton County, Virginia 1845 annexation of Texas 1846-1848 Mexican War 1848U. S. victory over Mexico; territorial expansion (Californ ia, Utah and New Mexico territories) 1850 Compromise of 1850: California admitted as free state – â€Å"popular sovereignty† in New Mexico and Utah – slave trade prohibited in District of Columbia (Washington, DC) – Fugitive Slave Act 1852 Book publication Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act (â€Å"Bleeding Kansas†) 1854 splitting of Whig; foundation Republican Party (â€Å"Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men†) and American (â€Å"Know Nothing†) Party 1857 Dred Scott Decision of the U. S.Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Taney (pro-slavery) 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry (John Brown) 1860 Democratic Party splits into two (North vs. South) November 1860 – Lincoln (Republican Party) elected president December 1860 – South Carolina secedes from the union 1861- January: secession of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas – February: adoption Confederate Constitution and creation of Confederate States of America (South); pres.Jefferson Davis; capital: Montgomery, Alabama. – March: inauguration of Pres. Lincoln – 12 April: attack on (federal) Fort Sumter by door Confederate (Southern) troops; beginning of the Civil War 9 April 1865 – surrender by (Confederate) general Robert E. Lee (Appomattox) 14 April 1865 – assassination attempt on Pres. Lincoln; Lincoln dies on April 15. George Fitzhugh, Sociology for the South (1854) and Cannibals All! or, Slaves Without Masters (1856) John Calhoun, Disquisition on Government (1850)