Long Term Causes of the Civil War
> Economic: - job competition (for immigrants) - different types of economy + industrial/capital in the North + slave labor/agriculture in the South > Social/Moral: - Northern States, France, England + opposed to the use of slavery -Uncle Tom's Cabin + Harriet Beecher Stowe opened the eyes to the cruel acts of slavery and created tensions between the Northern and Southern states > Political (increasing sectionalism): - Fugitive Slave Law + slaves were forced to return to their plantations -Kansas- Nebraska Act + "Bleeding Kansas" > cruel acts and raids were created and harmed many innocent people during the settling of the Kansas territory. The violence was over whether Kansas should use popular sovereignty to decide if the citizens were to hold slaves or if the Free-Soil party would represent the state. - The Dred Scott Decision + Dred Scott, a slave, claimed to be free when he and his master traveled to Illinois and Minnesota. The Supreme Court ruled otherwise. This created extreme tensions between the slaves and their masters (trust issues, paranoia) and the Confederate states and the Union. |
Triggering Events of the Civil War
> Election of Lincoln (1860) - first Republican elected - Free- Soil party + opposed the spread of slavery into new territories > February of 1861 - Confederate States of America is formed + made the split official and the war was now ready to go into full swing > Jefferson Davis is elected President of the Confederate States of America - the Confederate States now have a leader - opinions and tensions between the Union and the Confederacy have heightened > Confederacy fires on South Carolina Union Fort Sumter - first battle of the civil war - marks the beginning of the Civil War |