• The “Storm Clouds Gather” (1851‐1860)
• Notes #12
• Introduction
• Events preceding the Civil War
• I. Slavery and the Old South
A. Why did slavery survive in the South after the American Revolution?
• Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin (1793)
• B. Rise of the Cotton Kingdom
• “King Cotton”
• Demand in Great Britain
• Surplus of slaves from the older slave states
• Slaves could clear and cultivate land quickly
• Cotton required year‐around labor • C. Effects of Slavery on the South:
• Economic:
• Social Class Structure:
• Planters
• Yeoman Farmers
• Lower Classes
• Caste System
• D. Slave Culture (Chap. 11)
• Family Life (see p. 279)
• Slave Religion (see p.281)
E. The South attempts to “close ranks:”
• Abolitionism
• Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831) • The “Gag rule” (1836)
• Cassius M. Clay
• The “pro‐slavery argument”
• II. Increased Antislavery Opinion in the North
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
• Reaction to the Tougher Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
– “Personal Liberty Laws”
• Anthony Burns’ Case (1854)
The “Underground Railroad”
Chief “Conductor”
• III. The Issue of Slavery Expansion to the West • Stephen Douglas (D‐Illinois)
• Transcontinental Railroad”
Kansas‐Nebraska Act (1854)
“Popular Sovereignty”
Kansas‐Nebraska Act (1854)
“Popular Sovereignty”
• Effects on the Whig Party
– “Cotton” Whigs (pro‐slavery)
– “Conscience” Whigs (anti‐slavery)
• “Independent Democrats”
• “Free‐Soil” Party
Formation of the Republican Party (1854)
• “Bleeding Kansas” • John Brown
• Pottawatomie Creek Massacre (1856)
• The Caning of Charles Sumner by Preston Brooks (1856)
• The Concept of the “Slave Power”
Election of 1856
• IV. The “Worsening Crisis”
• The Presidency of James Buchanan –1857‐1861
• The Dred Scott Case (1857)
• Lincoln‐Douglas debates (1858)
• John Brown (1859)
• John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry, VA (1859)
• The Presidential Election of 1860
• Abraham Lincoln (R) • John C. Breckinridge (Southern Democrat)
• Stephen Douglas (Northern Democrat)
• John Bell (Constitutional Union)
• Secession!
• South Carolina leaves the Union (12/60)
• 6 Other Southern states follow (Jan‐Feb, 1861)
• Why did Secession occur?