Causes of the Civil War Many events lead up to the Civil War. It was also known as the bloodiest war in history and consisted of many small wars between the Union and the Confederate. A few hundred thousands of people died and along the way many acts were made to try and keep peace with both sides. There are a few events that happened between 1850 and 1860. The Compromise of 1850 The Compromise of 1850 was passed after the Mexican- American war. It was meant to evenly split the territory gained from the war. When California entered as a free state and the balance between free and slave states was unbalanced. Each state in the U.S had voters who would decide on whether or not they were against or for slavery. There were many conflicts that and battles that were fought because of slavery territory and keeping it fair. Fugitive Slave Law - 1850 The Fugitive Slave Law was passed the United States Congress in 1850. This law was very controversial. Both the North and the South were to capture and return slaves within the U.S. territory. Anyone who helped any of the The other half would be called Kansas. Those in the new territory of Kansas would vote and decide to be against or for slavery. While the South supported the idea the North did not. The North saw it as a betrayal. This caused thousands of people to flood kansas and vote to be a slave or free state. This was the moment when the Civil War was approaching. Bloody Kansas - 1855 After the Kansas-Nebraska act passed there was a lot of conflict between people who were anti and pro slavery. In the Kansas territory there was so much violence that left more than two hundred people dead. It then became known as bloody Kansas and since both sides were willing to fight for what they believed in. Both sides even set up rival governments and there was very little room to compromise. Dred Scott Supreme Court Decision -
Tempers raged and arguments started because of the Missouri Compromise. The simple act caused many fatal events because of what was changed within the United States. It may not seem like a big thing now, but before slavery had been abolished, the topic of slavery was an idea that could set off fights. The Missouri Compromise all started in late in 1819 when the Missouri Territory applied to the Union to become a slave state. The problem Congress had with accepting Missouri as a slave state was the new uneven count of free states and slave states. With proslavery states and antislavery states already getting into arguments, having a dominant number of either slave or free states would just ignite the flame even more. Many representatives from the north, such as James Tallmadge of New York, had already tried to pass another amendment that would abolish slavery everywhere. Along with other tries to eliminate slavery, his effort was soon shot down. The fact that people couldn’t agree on whether or not slavery should be legalized made trying to compose and pass a law nearly impossible.
The Compromise of 1850 also cause social problems. Even though the Compromise of 1850 made California a free state, made most of the newly obtain Mexico territory decide slavery under popular sovereignty, and gave the South a new slave state(Doc A), there were still issues such as the Fugitive Slave of 1850. The Northerners refused to follow the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, and many more citizens became abolitionist because of the law. For example in (Doc C) it shows a poster, stating to African Americans that Boston police officers will be slave catchers, and kidnappers. This Document shows the direct defiance that many northerners made, increasing the anger that the Southerners had. The Southerners actually agreed to the Compromise of 1850, mainly because of the reissued Fugitive Slave Law, however after many Southerners became aware of Northerners not following the law, they became aggravated. However many Northerners believed that the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was ludicrous, for example Ralph Waldo Emerson (Doc D). After the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was issued, many African Americans were kidnapped, this led to Ralph’s statement of how terrible the constitution is. The significance of this document is that it displays the issues the North had with the Fugitive Slave Law of
Although, the Compromise of 1850, put a more humane side to the solution, the problem of slavery is yet to be solved..
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was one of the first events that demonstrated Lincoln’s disapproval yet tolerance for slavery. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, proposed by Stephen A. Douglas and signed by Franklin Pierce, divided the region into two territories. The territory north of the 40th parallel was the Kansas Territory and the south of the 40th parallel was the Nebraska Territory, the controv...
Therefore, in 1787, two delegates by the names of Roger Sherman and James Wilson introduced the Three Fifths compromise in the Philadelphia Convention. The Three Fifths compromise states that a slave be counted as three-fifths of a person. Therefore, the population of the southern states equaled the population of the northern states. Now that the populations were balanced, the south and the north sent the same amount of representatives to The House of Representatives. Pro-slavery southerners felt as if the north still had an advantage, but it was actually the south that had the advantage in the Senate and The House of Rep...
The original Fugitive Slave Act was made in 1793. One of the things this stated was that slave owners were allowed to search for their escaped slaves in states that didn’t believe in slavery. When a slave (or a person suspected of being a slave) was caught, the people (or person) went to court to get the slave returned to it’s owner. If enough evidence was provided, the slaves were returned to their owners. This act also made it so that anyone who helped slaves in anyway, such as hiding them, were to face a $500 fee. Many people, especially those from northern states, disagreed with this act. The people of the northern states felt as if their land was being used by bounty hunters. They also disliked how, with people taking free African Americans as slaves, it felt as if the act was leading up to the legalization of kidnapping. Certain people who disagreed with this act created groups to help save slaves, and even created housing for them that would be safe for them to escape to areas where slavery was illegal.
In Conclusion, the decision handed down by The United States Supreme Court in Dred Scott v. Sanford. That African American slaves "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever profit could be made by it." This was a grave mistake made by the Supreme Court and could only add fuel to the fire of the issue of slavery.
One item in the Compromise of 1850 was the provision for a stronger Fugitive Slave Law. This new law made it a federal crime to not return a runaway slave to the south. The law also established that any suspected runaway slave was to be tried by a single judge, not by a jury. Also, these judges were compensated by a system that provided them with more money for deciding that the slave was guilty than innocent. This law obviously encouraged people not to harbor runaway slaves, and when they were caught, it provided the judge an incentive to have them returned to the south.
The new territories and the discussion of whether they would be admitted to the Union free or slave-holding stirred up animosity. The Compromise of 1850 which offered stricter fugitive slave laws, admitted California as a free state, allowed slavery in Washington D.C., and allowed new territories to choose whether they wanted to be slave-holding or free was supposed to help ease tension between the North and South. Yet Southern states wanted more new territories to be slave-holders so the institution of it would continue to grow. They believed slavery was a way of life and as Larrabee said in his senate speech, “You cannot break apart this organization and this system that has intertwined itself into every social and political fiber of that great people who inhabit one-half of the Union.” (“There is a Conflict of Races”).
In the years leading up to the Civil War, there was great conflict throughout the United States. The North and South had come to a crossroads at which there was no turning back. The Secession Crisis is what ultimately led to the Civil War. The North and the South disagreed on slavery and what states would be free states. The South despised Lincoln's election and rose up in revolt by forming the Confederate States of America.
The Fugitive Slave Act was part of the Compromise of 1850. This act required that authorities in the North had to assist southern slave catchers to retrieve and return slaves to their owners. Southerners favored this act because they saw no slavery in the territories to the west, by the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act it would help preserve slavery in the south. This act allowed southern slave owners to get their slaves back when they escaped to the North that is why this act was important and critical to southern survival. The view of this act by the North was the opposite, especially from those who were black, they feared this act. The blacks in the North were terrified that this act would make it so they could be ushered back to the south even if they were innocent. This led to the creation of resistance groups in the North.
Nebraska and Kansas were fought over by people to choose if they were going to be free states or slave states. A lot of people died due to this fighting, Nebraska
...ers mobilized in 1860 behind moderate Abraham Lincoln because he was most likely to carry the doubtful western states. In 1857, the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision ended the Congressional compromise for Popular Sovereignty in Kansas. According to the court, slavery in the territories was a property right of any settler, regardless of the majority there. Chief Justice Taney's decision said that slaves were, "...so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." The decision overturned the Missouri Compromise, which banned slavery in territory north of the 36°30' parallel.
Both regions wanted to try and gain another state, so both sides took to create a government within the territory. Pro-slavery southern settlers held an election that legalized slavery, but anti-slavery northern settlers wouldn’t have it and held their own election, abolishing slavery and then petitioned for statehood. However, they were denied statehood by Congress and were seen as traitors. Federal marshals were sent to arrest them, but they fought back causing both sides to fire at each other.
The populous term used in the 1850s was used to describe the outbreak of violence that was emerged from the Kansas-nabraska act during mid decade. The act was declared by the U.S. Congress on May 30th 1854. Permitting persons in territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´. This had caused pro-slavery and free settlers to transport to Kansas to influence decisions in attempt to affect the outcome. Anti-slave forces were led by John Brown. Brown along with thirteen other members had joined battle in which was recognised as ‘Kansas Border War’ which had ended 1861, with a wagon laden with guns and ammunition, Brown settled in Osawatomie and soon became the leader of antislavery guerrillas in the area.