Session 6

• War broke out in America between the Northern states – the Yankees and the Southern states – the Confederate or Feds


  1861
• Federal model of government


  Power is shared between the federal or central government in Washington and the state governments
• Federal territories


  Areas settled by settlers that the president sent officials from Washington to govern, although they could also choose their own local officials too
• When the population of a federal territory reached 60,000 they could become a state
• South


  • Climate is generally warm and sunny, with long, hot, humid summers, and mild winters, and heavy rainfall
  • Climate is ideal for agriculture and the ability to grow many different crops in large amounts
• Population of the South


  • Europeans (mostly of English and Scotch-Irish descent)
  • Enslaved Africans
• Groups in the South


  • Planters (who ran large farms or plantations)
  • White independent farmers
  • Tenant farmers (who rented land and paid the landowners in crops or money)
  • Labourers
  • Frontier families
• Southern economy


  • Based on agriculture
  • Crops such as cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar cane and indigo were grown in great quantities
  • These crops were known as cash crops, ones that were raised to be sold or exported for a profit
  • Crops were raised on large farms, known as plantations, which were supported by slave labour
• After Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793, cotton took over as "king" of the southern economy
• To clear land and grow cotton Southerners started using slave labour. Slavery was essential for the prosperity of the Southern economy
• The South had little manufacturing, the Southerners wanted cheap imports. Since they exported most of their cotton and tobacco they believed that high tariffs –taxes on imported goods—would scare away the foreign markets that bought their goods. For these reasons the South was against tariffs
• Planters

  • They were the upper class of the South
  • They lived like country gentleman of England and ran the political and economic life of the South
  • Plantations were far apart and developed their own communities
  • Recreational activities included such things as fox hunting, dancing, horseracing, and watching cockfights
• There were few schools or churches in the South since neither education nor religion were very organized
• North


  • Climate of warm summers and snowy cold winters
  • Terrain is rocky, hilly, and not good for farming
  • These conditions along with a short growing season made farming difficult
  • Most of the forest was made up of timber used for shipbuilding
  • Many sheltered bays and inlets on the Atlantic coast where ships could sail along wide rivers
• At the Fall Line many ships dropped their cargo. Cities, which served as trading canters, grew up at these points
• People realized that the waterfalls were a cheap source of energy, and the waterpower began to be used to run factories
• Between 1800 and 1860 the overall population in the North rose from about 5 million to 31 million, partly due to massive immigration of over 2 million Irish, German and other northern Europeans
• Northern economy


  • Based on many different industries including shipping, textiles, lumber, furs, and mining
  • Most people lived on small farms and found that much of the land was suited for subsistence farming—raising food crops and livestock for family use—rather than producing goods to export or send to other countries
  • Northerners started to use their "ingenuity" to manufacture all kinds of goods using waterpower and coal for steam plants
  • Items such as textiles, iron, and ships were manufactured in great quantities and traded for foreign products
• To protect its industries from foreign competition, the North favoured high tariffs, or taxes on goods coming in from other countries
• Northern cities

  • Took on an increasingly important role in determining the culture of the North
  • Merchants, manufacturers, wage earners, and new business owners brought new ideas to the North
  • Most Northerners were Protestant believers
  • Villages became strong centres of community activities
  • Both religion and education were organized institutes
• Public education grew in the north after the 1830's, although a minimum of boys went to secondary school, and college was reserved mostly for the wealthy
• Transportation improvements in the first half of the 1800's

  • Over 88,000 miles of surfaced roads
  • Canals, mostly built in the North, were a cheap source of transportation
  • By 1850, 30,000 miles of rail tracks connected distant parts of the United States, mostly in the North
• Even though the north and South were very different, and the south had slavery whilst the north did not, the two economies of the North and South complemented each other so that in that respect the Union worked well
• There were things they disagreed on – like for example free trade – the South wanted open trade whilst the North wanted protection for its industries
• Because there were equal numbers of Northern free states and Southern Slave states, they balanced each other, and a compromise had to be found
• This was to change for two reasons: the growth of the abolition movements and as the USA expanded westwards and new states were formed, this upset the balance between slave and free states
• Abolition Movement


  • Began in 1817 when The American Colonisation Society tried to resettle 12000 freed slaves in Africa
  • In 1832 the Anti-Slavery Society was established and gained momentum after slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1833
  • It demanded equal rights form feed slaves but was much stronger in the North than the South
• Westwards Expansion


  1. The federal government divided the land into new territories

  2. As each territory was settled and its population grew, the people within it could apply to become a state

  3. They were then admitted as a state into the union

  4. As the free states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois entered the Union so too did the slave states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama which maintained the voting balance between North and South
• Missouri Compromise


  1. When in 1819 Missouri was ready to enter as a slave state the North opposed it until a compromise was reached

  2. Maine would be admitted as a free state, but no more slave states above the line of latitude 36 degrees North
• Compromise of 1850


  1. California would be admitted as a Free state – breaking the balance between Free and Slave states

  2. The decision whether to admit slavery in the new south west territories would be taken by their own governments

  3. An effective Fugitive Slave Act was passed which made it easier for slave catchers to catch runaway slaves in the North and return them to the South
• Some slaves were able to escape using the Underground Railroad which was a secret route to the north along which slaves were helped by notable individuals such as Harriet Tubman
• This compromise kept the peace but the possibility of the two sides breaking apart grew even stronger. Increasingly Southerners were considering secession from the Union whilst the Fugitive Slave Act, as well as Nat Turner's rebellion and Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin", a novel which portrayed the evil of slavery, made the north aware of slavery and from that anti-slavery feeling grew
• Kansas Nebraska Act


  1. In 1854 the Union was threatened again over a disagreement over the building of the transcontinental railway

  2. The Southerners favoured a southern route and bought a stretch of land from Mexico for $10 million – The Gadsden purchase

  3. The alternative and chosen route was a stretch of land through Nebraska and this prompted the creation of two new territories Nebraska and Kansas

  4. To win Southern support these were not going to be Free states, but the people of the territories could decide for themselves whether to be free or slave
• The Kansas Nebraska Act now meant that the Missouri Compromise no longer applied so new states north of the line could become slave states although it was unlikely
• Bleeding Kansas


  1. People on both sides tried to encourage like-minded settlers to move there to influence the vote of whether it would be a slave state or not

  2. In 1856 Kansas had two illegal governments

  3. In 1856 the Free State town of Lawrence was attacked by pro slavery supporters

  4. Newspaper presses were smashed, and property stolen and burned

  5. In response John Brown and his sons led a group to attack a pro slavery settlement Potawatomie Creek

  6. Five men were killed

  7. Violence spread, and, in the end, the Federal government had to step in and Kansas was declared a free state
• John Brown


  • On 16 October 1859 he and 19 followers seized the Federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry Virginia where it was believed he was trying to arm a slave rebellion
  • The building was recaptured by a force of marines led by Robert E Lee
  • Several were killed including one of Brown's sons and Brown himself was hanged for treason
  • At first the South saw him as a mad fanatic, but as Northern abolitionists painted him as a martyr, opinion changed, and the South thought that the raid proved that the North wanted to destroy them
• In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected President. Southern fears that Republicans would abolish slavery reached a new height as Lincoln was a republican who was opposed to the expansion of slavery
• Before he was sworn in 7 states voted to leave the union. These were South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Texas Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. These 7 states formed the confederacy and from this point on a compromise was no longer possible and just a spark would ignite a civil war
• Jefferson Davis

  From Kentucky, became President of the Confederacy – a plantation owner and soldier, he supported state rights but spoke out against secession
• Events at Fort Sumter

  1. When South Carolina decided to leave the union in 1861, Fort Sumter which guarded the approach to Charleston, South Carolina was occupied by 85 Union soldiers

  2. In April 1861 the Confederate commander demanded the Fort surrender but this was refused

  3. Confederate cannon open fired and the fort surrendered the next day

  4. The Civil War had begun