The Civil WarThe Civil War18611861––18651865

Essential Questions• What social, political, and economic issues tended to

divide Americans in the period prior to the Civil War?

• Why did the election of Abraham Lincoln seem to exacerbate sectional tensions in the prewar period?

• What impact did political and military leadership have on the conduct of the war?

• How did the war affect minorities during the period (women, free blacks, slaves, immigrants)?

• How did the Civil War “make” modern America?

Fundamental Causes of the War

• Sectionalism and states’ rights• Slavery • Economic issues

The Dividing Union• Missouri Compromise (1820)• Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Law• Kansas–Nebraska Act (1854)• Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

Cartoon criticizing the Fugitive Slave Law

Dred Scott

The Election of 1860

Abraham Lincoln

John C. Breckin-

ridge

Stephen A. Douglas

John Bell

Electoral Votes in 1860

Secession• South Carolina

was first to secede

• Several other states followed soon after

• Virginia seceded after the Battle of Fort Sumter

Seceding states appear in green

Discussion Questions

1. What were the three fundamental causes of the Civil War? Which do you think was the most important? Why?

2. How did the Dred Scott decision help bring the country closer to civil war? Do you think the decision made civil war inevitable? Why or why not?

3. While running for president, Abraham Lincoln said that he had no plans to abolish slavery. Why then did Southerners fear his election so much?

The Creation of the Confederacy

• Delegates met in Montgomery, Alabama

• Formed the Confederate States of America

• Jefferson Davis elected president, with Alexander Stephens as vice president

CSA President Jefferson Davis

Buchanan’s Inaction

• Believed secession was illegal, but that acting to prevent it was also illegal

• Decided to let the incoming administration handle the problem

President James Buchanan