Week 7. Civil War

Events leading up to Civil War
1957 financial panic
1858 after Congressional debates Kansas citizens reject pro-slavery constitution

Dred Scott Case
March 6, 1857 Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott was born a slave
his master took him as a servant to Illinois and the Winsconsin Territory where slavery was prohibited
then took him back to Missouri
Scott sued for freedom arguing that residence in free-soil states made him free
jury agreed, but the Supreme Court overruled jury decision
in this decision, Supreme Court declared Missouri Compromise unconstitutional
and challenged the concept of popular sovereignity
Scott's owner married a Northern abolitionist and he was freed anyway
but because of this decision northerners now feared southern conspiracy

John Brown's raid
1859 John Brown occupied a federal arsenal in Harper's Ferry, VA
his rebellion was soon crushed, he was tried for treason and hanged
became a martyr for an antislavery cause
but southerners began to fear northern/Republican conspiracy

Secession:
1858 in Lincoln-Douglas debate during Senate elections in Illinois Abraham Lincoln spoke against slavery but affirmed white supremacy
both parties were divided along sectional lines on the question of slavery
1861 Lincoln becomes president on a platform that advocates against the extension of slavery
1860-1861 Southern states secede (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas)
February 1861 Confederate States of America formed with Jefferson Davis as president
March 1861 Lincoln in his inauguration address promises not to interfere with slavery where it exists
Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina join the Confederacy
West Virginia formed as a free state and joined the union
remaining slave states, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri join the Union (all except Delaware after a brief military conflict)

The War
began: April 1861, federal forces at Fort Sumter surrender to Confederate forces
in response, Lincoln recruits militiamen, orders blockade of Southern ports
ended: April 1865, Confederacy's Robert Lee officially surrenders to Union's Ulysses Grant at Appomatox, VA
the war was bloody (50 percent more Americans died than during World War II)
total (included civilians, transformed cities, farms, and invaded homes)
mechanical and therefore impersonal (used artillery, conveyed greater injuries from a distance)
Union won because it had more human and industrial resources, and (after Emancipation Proclamation) a moral cause

Emancipation Proclamation
initially Lincoln waged war to restore the Union, but
fugitive slaves joined Union army camps
slave labor supported the Confederacy
the North needed a moral ideal to fight for
public opinion moved more and more against slavery
September 1862 Lincoln proclaimed that on January 1, 1963 all slaves in Confederate states will be free (but not slaves in Union slave states like Delaware)
allowed blacks to serve in the Union army (10 percent of Union army)
December 1865 the Thirteenth amendment abolishing slavery ratified
at that point, only Kentucky and Delaware had slaves

Civil War Photographs
no images of battle because people had to pose still for photographs
but images of soldiers' life, hospitals, etc.