THE COMING OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

1
THE COMING OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

• THE RISE OF SECTIONALISM AND COMING OF THE WAR

2
COMMON INTERPRETATIONS OF CAUSES OF THE WAR

• Early Interpretations Reflect Sectionalism
• North blamed Southern greed and slavery (John
  Draper)
• South blamed misunderstanding caused by northern
  materialism versus gentle values of South (Edward
  Pollard)
• Copperheads blamed extremists
• Later Professional Historians Broadened Arguments
• Scientific Progressive historians rejected
  regional bias, sought answers in cultural
  differences (Edward Channing, Charles Beard) or
  interest in the West (Turner)
• Southern historians focused on States Rights
  (Frank Owlsley)
• Consensus historians argued that Copperheads were
  correct (Kenneth Stampp)

3
THE RISE OF SECTIONALISM

• Argument Popular with Early Southern Historians
  and Progressives
• Argues North and South, and even West distinct
  cultures and economies
• South cash crop agricultural, Jeffersonian
  ideology, aristocratic values, slave labor force,
  rural society
• North commercial and industrial, Hamiltonian
  ideology, Puritan values, free labor, urban
  society
• West livestock and grain agriculture, Jacksonian
  ideology, independent, family labor, frontier
  society (D. H. Fischer)
• The differences created cultural, economic, and
  political divisions during the Antebellum Period

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Map of Sections
5
Slavery

• Average Slave field hand value rose from 200 in
  1800 to 600 in 1859. At any given time only 25
  of whites owned slaves but non-slave owners still
  made use by renting or using the slaves at the
  bigger plantations to prepare their crops for
  market.
• http//www.innercity.org/holt/slavechron.html

6
Examples of Slave Related Issues

• Northwest Ordinance (1787)
• http//earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/or
  dinance/
• Missouri Compromise (1820)
• http//civilwar.bluegrass.net/secessioncrisis/2003
  03.html
• Webster-Hayne Debate (1830)
• http//www.constitution.org/hwdebate/hwdebate.htm
• Wilmot Proviso (1846)
• http//dig.lib.niu.edu/message/ps-wilmotproviso.ht
  ml
• Compromise of 1850 (1850)
• http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2951.html
• Uncle Toms Cabin (1852)
• http//www.harrietbeecherstowe.org/
• Bleeding Kansas (1855)
• http//www.u-s-history.com/pages/h84.html
• Dred Scott Decision (1857)
• http//odur.let.rug.nl/usa/D/1851-1875/dredscott/
  dredxx.htm
• Harpers Ferry Raid (1859)
• http//www.iath.virginia.edu/jbrown/master.html

7
Tariff

• Northern support for tariff protected their new
  industries/jobs and was another means of raising
  federal funds.
• Tariff of Abominations
• First Threat of Secession by South (1828)
• http//www.arches.uga.edu/mgagnon/students/4070/0
  4SP4070-Burns.htm

8
Internal Improvements

• Southern River systems provided easy and cheap
  transportation. Westerners and Easterners wanted
  federal funding to build roads, canals, and
  railroads.
• National Road (1806-1818)
• http//www.nps.gov/fone/natlroad.htm

9
National Bank

• Northern industrialists and commercial interests
  wanted a central bank to regulate the money
  supply. Westerners and Southerners were
  generally against a national bank.
• Jacksons Veto of the 2nd Bank of the U.S. (1832)
• http//www.whitehousehistory.org/04/subs/04_b_1832
  .html

10
Expansion

• Southern farming techniques and westerners demand
  for cheap land conflicted with Northern
  industrial attempts to secure cheap labor
• Examples
• Louisiana Purchase (1803)
• Missouri Compromise (1820)
• Annexation of Texas (1845)
• Oregon Treaty (1846)
• Mexican-American War (1848)
• Gadsden Purchase (1853)
• http//edtech.kennesaw.edu/web/westward.html

11
States Rights

• Southern fears of the larger population in the
  North and Jeffersonian ideology that argued
  democracy worked better with smaller population
  led them to fear the central government
• Examples
• Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (1798)
• South Carolina Exposition and Protest (1828)
• Popular Sovereignty
• http//www.civilwarhome.com/wheelercauses.htm

12
Cultural Differences

• Nothern Culture represented as money hungry, and
  exploitive of workers. Seen by Southerners as
  mercenary and cowardly. Northerners believed
  they were more humane and industrious
• Southern Culture represented as abusive and
  violent. Northerners felt they were ignorant and
  lazy. Southerners felt they represented
  aristocratic values.
• http//www.olemiss.edu/depts/south/

13
Extremist Reactions

• Some scholars argue that the war was caused by a
  minority of extremists who drove the country into
  conflict over minor issues
• Examples
• Calhoun and Nullification (1828)
• Bleeding Kansas (1855)
• Caning of Charles Sumner (1856)
• Harpers Ferry Raid (1859)
• http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2940.html

14
Lincolns Election

• Lincoln is seen as being too extreme and his
  election forced Southerners who would have
  accepted any other candidate to secede.
• Won a minority of the popular vote
• Demonized by the South as Black Republican.
• http//valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/outlines/election.
  html

15
Ft. Sumter

• In April of 1861, Abraham Lincoln decided to
  challenge the siege at the fort, conducted by
  P.T.G. Beauregard, by sending the Star of the
  West with supplies. Southerners argued this was
  an unnecessary provocation and fired on the fort.
  Northerners believed the South fired the first
  shot and the war was in self-defense.