The Causes of the Civil War

Dec 17

11 min read

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The Causes of the Civil War

The Civil War was the bloodiest war ever fought by the United States. Over 600,000 soldiers died during the war. The Civil War was a terrible part of American history, but was it inevitable?

Three-Fifths Compromise

The Civil War was fought over slavery. The United States had been fighting about slavery since before it was a country. The agricultural economy of the South depended on slave labor, but the industrial economy of the North did not. As a result, half of the country wanted protections for slave owners, and the other did not.

The first compromise between the pro and anti-slavery groups was attempted under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation had used land value to determine taxation on states but states undervalued their land to avoid paying taxes. A committee was established to come up with a plan to tax states based on population instead of land value. While working on the committee, James Madison proposed a three-fifths compromise. Five slaves would count as three people to determine a state’s population.

Madison’s proposal failed, but during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Charles Pinckney again suggested the three-fifths compromise for determining the population of a state. This time, the compromise passed. As a result, Southern states gained representatives in the United States House of Representatives. The additional representatives gave Southern states more power in the federal government. It is not a coincidence that ten of the first twelve presidents owned slaves.

The three-fifths compromise was the first compromise between pro and antislavery states, but it would not be the last. As the country grew, more compromises were needed to keep the peace.

Missouri Compromise of 1820

As the United States grew, more states were added to the Union. These states were admitted as either free or slave states, but a balance was always kept. Half of the states did not allow slavery and half of the states did allow slavery.

In 1803, Napoleon sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States for $15 million. As the Emperor of France, Napoleon desperately needed money to fight his many wars in Europe, so when James Monroe and Robert Livingston approached him about buying the port city of New Orleans, he offered them the entire territory. The United States suddenly had a massive amount of land. Would the new states be slave states or free states?

When Missouri applied for statehood as a slave state, Congress needed a compromise. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 is actually several compromises that led to Missouri becoming a state. First, Missouri would be admitted as a slave state. Second, Maine would be admitted as a free state. Third, slavery would not be allowed in any future state above the 36°30’ parallel.

This compromise was an attempt to settle the issue of slavery in the western territories, but more compromises would be needed.

Missouri Compromise of 1820

entire territory. The United States suddenly had a massive amount of land. Would the new states be slave states or free states?

This compromise was an attempt to settle the issue of slavery in the western

territories, but more compromises would be needed.

Nat Turner’s Rebellion of 1831

Small slave rebellions were common in the South during slavery, but Nat Turner’s rebellion in Virginia was different. Unlike most slaves, Nat Turner was taught to read and write as a child. He was deeply religious and became a preacher. When he was 21, he escaped from his master, but he returned about thirty days later. He said God had told him to stay with his master.

Then, on May 12, 1828, Nat Turner got another message from God. Soon, he would lead a rebellion to end slavery. On February 12, 1831, the sky turned dark from a solar eclipse. Turner believed this was a sign from God to start organizing the rebellion. When Mount Saint Helens erupted on August 13, 1831, the sky again turned dark. It was time to start the rebellion.

On August 21, 1831, Turner and six other slaves murdered their owners, the Travis family, including a nine-year-old and an infant. They then joined around seventy other slaves and killed about fifty more slave owners before the revolt was ended by the state militia two days later. Turner was able to avoid capture for two months before being spotted by a farmer and arrested. He was tried for

murder and executed on November 11, 1831.

The state executed 56 slaves for Nat Turner’s rebellion. White mobs lynched another 200 slaves. Worried about future rebellions, Virginia’s legislature made it illegal for slaves to learn to read or meet in large groups. Nat Turner’s rebellion did not end slavery, but it did terrify the slave owners across the South.

Compromise of 1850

The Missouri Compromise had limited slavery within the Western territories, but when the United States won the Mexican-American War in 1848, more land was added to the Union. Land from Mexico would eventually become New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, Texas, and Colorado. A new compromise was needed to balance slavery once again.

The Compromise of 1850, authored by Senators Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas, admitted California to the Union as a free state. It put no regulation on slavery in any of the other land ceded by Mexico. The compromise also strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act which required people living in free states to return any runaway slaves to their masters.

Abolitionists in the North vehemently opposed the Fugitive Slave Act and continued to work to help slaves escape to Canada. The Underground Railroad was busiest during the 1850s. Over 100,000 slaves escaped to freedom on the Underground Railroad between 1800 and 1860.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel that depicted life for slaves in the South. Many Northerners were horrified to learn about the atrocities of slavery, while Southerners felt attacked by the book.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the second most popular book of its time. The only book that sold more copies was The Bible. As people read about slavery, tensions between the North and the South escalated.

Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

By 1854, many pioneers wanted to move into the Nebraska Territory, but the United States did not officially recognize it. Southern senators did not want to vote on the territory because it was above the 36°30’ parallel. All of the states formed within the territory would become free states and tip the balance of power in the Senate.

Senator Stephen Douglas, one of the authors of the Compromise of 1850, wanted a transcontinental railroad to run through Nebraska on its way to Chicago, so he came up with another compromise. He proposed the Nebraska Territory be separated into Nebraska and Kansas. Both were above the 36°30’

parallel, but instead of following the Compromise of 1820, the residents of the new states would be allowed to vote on slavery.

The compromise was approved, but it caused a rift in the Democratic Party. Northern Democrats were furious about the Kansas-Nebraska Act while Southern Democrats were thrilled. Thousands of pro and anti-slavery individuals rushed to Kansas and Nebraska to vote on slavery.

Bleeding Kansas

As people raced into Kansas to vote on slavery, violence erupted in the region. Pro and anti-slavery groups attacked each other for five years until Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state in January of 1861. Fifty-six people were killed in the fighting.

Before the vote on slavery in Kansas, abolitionists from the North established towns in northern Kansas while pro-slavery groups founded towns in southern Kansas. Additionally, 5,000 “Border Ruffians” from Missouri entered Kansas to vote for slavery and then returned to Missouri.

The vote made Kansas a slave state, and a pro-slavery government was quickly established. Anti-slavery groups dismissed the vote results as invalid because of the “Border Ruffians” and established their own government. The two governments clashed and attacked each other’s towns. On May 21, 1856, proslavery forces attacked the anti-slavery town of Lawrence, Kansas. They burned

and looted homes and businesses including the Free State Hotel and two newspaper offices.

Three days later, in retaliation, the abolitionist John Brown and his sons killed five pro-slavery men in a cabin along the Pottawatomie River in what was named the Pottawatomie Massacre.

In Washington, D.C., Senator Charles Sumner was outraged about the attack on Lawrence. He made a two-day speech condemning the violence and made repeated personal attacks on Senators Stephan Douglas and Andrew Butler who had crafted the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Two days after his speech, Representative Preston Brooks, a distant cousin of Senator Butler, attacked Senator Sumner while he was working. He beat him with his cane until his cane shattered in pieces. Representative Brooks was fined $300 and resigned his position, but he was treated as a hero in South Carolina. He was re-elected the next year, and people from all over the South sent him replacement canes.

Northerners were horrified by the attack and the response from the South. Violence had entered the slavery debate. Could another compromise be reached?

Dred Scott v. Sanford 1857

In 1857, Dred Scott, a slave from Virginia, sued for his freedom at the Supreme Court. Scott had been a slave of Dr. John Emerson. Emerson took Scott with him while he lived in Illinois and Wisconsin, two free states. After many years, Emerson returned to Missouri with Scott.

When Dr. Emerson died, Scott became the property of his wife, Mrs. Emerson. Scott tried to buy his family’s freedom from Mrs. Emerson for $300, but she refused. He then sued for freedom under a Missouri precedent that a slave who had been free would always be free. Since Scott had lived in a free state for many years, this principle applied to him.

In his first trial, Scott was granted freedom, but Mrs. Emerson’s brother, Mr. Sanford, appealed to the Supreme Court of Missouri. The Supreme Court of Missouri decided against Scott. Scott’s lawyers brought the case to federal court where the Supreme Court eventually heard it.

In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court determined Dred Scott could not be freed because he was not a citizen of the United States. The court argued that an ancestor of an individual brought from Africa could never be a citizen of the United States even if some states allowed them to be citizens of the state. Furthermore, slaves were property, and citizens of the United States could not be deprived of their property without due process, so the Compromise of 1820 was invalid.

This decision angered abolitionists and brought more supporters into the Republican Party. It also split support among Democrats. Northern Democrats were against the decision, and Southern Democrats supported it. This fractured Democratic Party would help elect Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. After the trial, the abolitionists who had funded Scott’s legal team bought him from Mrs. Emerson and freed him. He died nine months later.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln, a lawyer in Illinois, ran against incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas for senator. In his acceptance speech for his nomination by the Republican Party, Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” and “this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” Douglas used Lincoln’s speech to show that he was a radical and not fit for the Senate.

In response, Lincoln challenged Douglas to several debates. The two men participated in seven debates across Illinois during the 1858 election. In the debates, Douglas continued to paint Lincoln as a dangerous liberal who wanted racial equality and would destroy the nation. Lincoln pointed out the moral bankruptcy of slavery and showed that Douglas’ Kansas-Nebraska Act had resulted in unspeakable violence.

Douglas was re-elected to the Senate, but the debates propelled Lincoln to the national stage. When Lincoln ran for president in 1860, his team published the debates as campaign materials. Douglas, however, was hurt by the debates. Southern Democrats did not like his moderate views on slavery. The Democratic Party was falling apart.

John Brown’s Raid of 1859

John Brown was profoundly religious and an avid abolitionist. He participated in the Underground Railroad and gave land to escaped slaves in the North. Despite his early peaceful actions, he believed violence was the only way to end slavery. When John Brown met Frederick Douglas in 1847, he told Douglas of his plans to arm the slaves for a massive revolt.

In 1855, John Brown and five of his sons moved to Kansas to support anti-slavery forces. After the attack on Lawerence, he and his sons murdered five pro-slavery men in the Pottawatomie Massacre. On October 16, 1859, John Brown set his plan to arm the slaves in motion. He and about twenty men, some white abolitionists and some fugitive slaves, raided the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. They were soon surrounded and forced to surrender by federal troops led by General Robert E. Lee. Ten of John Brown’s men were killed in the fighting including two of his sons.

John Brown was tried for treason and found guilty. He was executed on December 2, 1859. Before his death, he wrote, “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”

The raid was unsuccessful, but Southerners now feared an attack from the North.

They stockpiled weapons and prepared for an invasion.

The 1860 Election of Lincoln

Just two years after losing his bid for Senate, Abraham Lincoln ran for president as the nominee of the Republican Party. The Democratic Convention had failed to nominate a candidate, so the Southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, and the Northern Democrats nominated Stephan A. Douglas.

Lincoln won every free state and lost every slave state. He earned 1,866,452 popular votes and 180 electoral votes to win the presidency. Douglas got 1,376,957 popular votes but only 12 electoral votes. Breckinridge got 849,781 popular votes and 72 electoral votes. The last 39 electoral votes went to the

Constitutional Unionists party.

Just over a month after Lincoln was elected, South Carolina seceded from the Union. By Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven Southern states had seceded. April would see the Battle of Fort Sumter and the beginning of the Civil War.

Want to learn more about the Civil War? Check out the links below!