owlteacher.com american history unit 7 prologue to the american civil war
TRANSCRIPT
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American History
Unit 7
Prologue to the American Civil War
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The Civil WarThe Civil War An IntroductionAn Introduction
• During the 1800’s, Northerners and Southerners found that they disagreed about a lot of things.
• The two parts of our country seemed more like to different countries.
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Slavery was a big Slavery was a big problem!problem!
• Northerners wanted to stop the spread of slavery.
• Southerners wanted new states to allow slave-holding.
• But it wasn’t the only problem: foreign trade and taxes also caused hard feelings between the two sections of the country.
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“Rarely in human history has war really settled a problem. The Civil War made as many problems as it settled. It divided the nation so completely that some problems left over from the Civil War are
still around today.”
- E Richard & Linda R. Churchill
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SlaverySlavery• By the early 1700s,
slavery had caught on in a huge way throughout the Southern colonies.
• In places like South Carolina, slavery became essential to the economy, and slaves soon outnumbered whites in that colony.
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• The Declaration of Independence declared no slave free.
• The constitution skirted the issue, except for the purposes of:– Determining representation in Congress
(the 3/5’s Compromise)– And specifying that the slave trade
(importation of slaves) was to end in 20 years.
SlaverySlavery
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Slavery
• From the beginning, a significant amount of Americans were opposed to slavery!
• They issued a statement against the institution as early as 1724.
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The Underground The Underground RailroadRailroad
• As the generation of the late eighteenth century had been fascinated by inventions like the cotton gin, so, by the third decade of the nineteenth century, Americans were enthralled by another invention: railroads.
• The railroads seemed nothing less than a miracle technology, and maybe because of abolitionists abolitionists (those who wanted to abolish or get rid of slavery) were in search of a moral miracle to end slavery.
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The Underground The Underground RailroadRailroad
• Maybe this is why they called the loosely organized, highly stealthy network developed in the 1830s to help fugitive slaves escape to the North or Canada the Underground Railroad.
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Harriet TubmanHarriet Tubman
• The most famous “conductor” of the Underground Railroad” was Harriet Tubman
• She was a courageous, self-taught, charismatic escaped slave, single-minded in her dedication to freeing others.
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Abraham Lincoln’s Rise to Abraham Lincoln’s Rise to PowerPower
• Born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky.
• Served as militiaman in the Black Hawk War of 1832.
• Although he had little appetite for military life, he took “much satisfaction” in having been elected captain of his militia company.
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Lincoln becomes the 16Lincoln becomes the 16thth President of the United StatesPresident of the United States
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• During the election, he had spoken out strongly against the spread of slavery and hoped that one day it would end.
• Lincoln hoped to prevent a war.
• ““We are not enemies, but friends,”We are not enemies, but friends,” Lincoln told Southerners after taking the oath of office.
• ““We must not be enemies.”We must not be enemies.”
• But time was running out.
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Secession!Secession!
• Lincoln’s election to the Presidency pushed the South to secession.
• They considered Lincoln to be a “black Republican”.
• The first to leave the Union was South Carolina on December 20, 1860; Mississippi followed next on January 9th, 1861, Florida on January 10th, Alabama on January 11th, Georgia on Jan. 19th, Louisiana on Jan. 26th, and Texas on February 1st.
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Jefferson DavisJefferson Davis• Together these seven states formed a new country. • They called the new country
the Confederate States of America.
• They elected Jefferson Davis as President.
• Four days after declaring succession, delegates from these states met in Montgomery, Alabama, where they wrote their own constitution for the Confederate States of America.
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James BuchananJames Buchanan
• Before Lincoln was officially inaugurated, James Buchanan declared his powerlessness as the Union crumbled around him.
• Either he really didn’t have a clue what to do, or he simply just wanted to leave the problem to incoming president.
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Fugitive Slave Act?Fugitive Slave Act?
• Lincoln believed that the Fugitive Slave Act should be enforced.
• Yet by remaining silent on these issues during the period between his election and his inauguration, he conveyed the impression that he fully shared the Radical Republican opposition to any kind of compromise on the subject of slavery.