In the presidential election of 1860, the Republican Party led by abraham lincoln launched a movement to oppose the extension of slavery beyond the states where slavery already existed. The Republican victory in that election led several southern States to declare secession even before Lincoln took office on March 4. Both the outgoing and incoming U.S. administrations refused to recognize the legitimacy of secession and regarded it as rebellion.
Hostilities began in April 12, 186 1, when confederate troops attacked American military facilities in Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Lincoln's response was to call for a volunteer army in every state, which led to the declaration of secession by four other slave-holding states in the South. As the Federation took control of the border States and established a maritime blockade in the early days of the war, both sides assembled troops. 1In September, 862, Lincoln's The Emancipation Proclamation took ending slavery in the south as a war goal [1], and discouraged the British from getting involved. [2] Confederate commander Robert E. Lee won in the east, but after the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, his momentum of advancing northward was repelled. In the west, the Union controlled the Mississippi River in the Battle of Vicksburg, thus splitting the Confederacy. 1864, Ulysses S. Grant and Lee waged a war of attrition, while Union General william sherman occupied Atlanta, Georgia, and marched into the sea, realizing the long-term advantages of the Union in manpower and material resources. On April 9th, 1865, after Li surrendered to Grant in Abo Mattox Court, the Confederate resistance collapsed.
The American Civil War is the deadliest war in American history, resulting in 620,000 soldiers killed and an unknown number of civilian casualties. It abolished slavery in the United States legally, restored the union and strengthened the role of the federal government. The social, political, economic and ethnic problems of the war decisively shaped the era of reconstruction that lasted until 1877, and brought about changes that helped make the country a unified superpower.
Main article: the origin of the American Civil War and the timetable of events leading to it.
The coexistence of the slave-holding South and the increasingly anti-slavery North made the conflict possible, if not inevitable. Abraham lincoln didn't put forward a federal law against slavery where slavery already existed, but he expressed a wish in his 1858 split speech in the House of Representatives, that is, "to stop its further spread and convince the public that it is finally dying out." [3]1Most of the political struggles in the 1950s focused on the expansion of slavery to newly established territories. [4][5][6] All organized territories may become free states, which accelerated the separatist movement in the south. Both North and South believe that if slavery cannot expand, it will shrink and die. [7][8][9]
The south was worried about losing control of the federal government and falling into the hands of anti-slavery forces, while the north was dissatisfied with the influence of slavery forces in the government, which made the crisis reach its peak in the late 1850 s. Departmental differences in the morality of slavery, the scope of democracy, and the economic advantages of free labor over slave plantations led to the collapse of Whig Party and "Ignorance" Party, and the rise of new political parties (1848 Free Soil Party, 1854 Republican Party, 1860 Constitutional Union). 1860, the last national political party, the Democratic Party, split.
Both the north and the south were influenced by Thomas Jefferson's thought. Southerners used the state rights mentioned in Jefferson's Kentucky resolution to defend slavery. Northerners from the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison to the moderate Republican leader Lincoln emphasized Jefferson's declaration that all men are created equal. Lincoln mentioned this idea in his Gettysburg address.
Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, said in his cornerstone speech shortly before the war that slavery was the main cause of division. After the defeat of the Confederacy, Stephens became one of the most enthusiastic defenders of this failed cause. Stephens' post-war claim to slavery by States did not lead to secession [16], which is in sharp contrast with his pre-war cornerstone speech. Confederate President Jefferson Davis also changed from saying that the war was caused by slavery to saying that the rights of the state were the cause. Although southerners often use the rights of States to defend slavery, sometimes their roles are reversed. For example, southerners demand national laws to defend their interests, such as the rules prohibiting freedom of speech and the fugitive slave law 1850. On these issues, it is northerners who want to defend the rights of their state. [ 18]
Almost all inter-regional crises are related to slavery, starting with the debate on the three-fifths clause and the extension of the African slave trade for 20 years at 1787 Constitutional Convention. The cotton gin invented by Eli Whitney increased the amount of cotton that can be processed by 50 times a day, greatly increasing the demand for slave labor in the south. [19] The dispute about joining Missouri, which practiced slavery, led to the Missouri compromise case of 1820 and the tariff cancellation crisis of 1828 (although the tariff after 1846 was very low, [20] even the tariff issue was related to slavery). [2 1][22][23] The freedom of speech rule that prevented Congress from discussing the petition to abolish slavery in 65438+ was granted to Texas as a slave-holding state in 1845, and the theory of destiny was used as an argument to acquire new territory. In the Mexican-American War (1846- [24] wilmot's proviso is that northern politicians tried to exclude slavery from the territory conquered by Mexico. Harriet Beecher Stowe's popular anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) greatly increased the northern opposition to the 1850 fugitive slave law. [25][26]
1854 ostend manifesto is a failure of the south's attempt to annex Cuba as a slave country. After kansas-nebraska act passed 1854, the second party system collapsed. The bill replaced Missouri's compromise ban on slavery with people's sovereignty, allowing people in a region to vote for or against slavery. The bloody controversy over the status of slavery in Kansas includes large-scale voting fraud committed by pro-slavery border thugs in Missouri. Voting fraud led pro-Southern Presidents franklin pierce and james buchanan to try to recognize Kansas as a slave-holding state (including the pro-slavery Lycompton Constitution). [27] Violence caused by slavery in Kansas broke out with the Wakarusa War, [28]Lawrence was dismissed, [29] Southerner Preston Brooks flogged Republican Charles Sumner, [30][3 1]Pottawatomie Massacre, [32] Battle of Black Jack, Battle of Osawatomie and Marais des Cygnes. The Supreme Court Dred Scott's ruling allowed slavery in areas where most people opposed slavery, including Kansas. 1858' s Lincoln-Douglas debate includes the freeport doctrine of Stephen a Douglas, the leader of the Northern Democratic Party. This theory was used as an argument to defeat Dred Scott's ruling, which, together with Douglas's defeat of the Lycompton Constitution, split the Democratic Party into two factions. The northern abolitionist john brown's attack on Harpers armory was an attempt to incite slave riots. [33] 1860, due to the south's demand for a slave code for the territory, the Democratic Party split between the north and the south, completing the polarization between the north and the south of the country.
Other factors include localism, which is caused by the prosperity and development of slavery in cotton-growing areas in the south, while slavery was gradually eliminated in northern States and steadily declined in border States lacking cotton. Historians have been debating whether the economic difference between the industrial northeast and the agricultural south led to this war; Most historians now disagree with historian Charles Beard's economic determinism and think that the North-South economy is complementary to a great extent. [34] The polarization effect of slavery divided the largest religious sects (Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian) [35] and the disputes caused by the most cruel slavery (flogging, mutilation and family division). In fact, seven out of eight immigrants settled in the north, and more than twice as many whites left the south for the north, and vice versa, which contributed to the defensive-aggressive political behavior in the south. [36]
1860 Lincoln's election was the ultimate trigger for secession. [37] Efforts to compromise, including the Covent Amendment and the Crittenden compromise, all failed. Southern leaders worried that Lincoln would stop the expansion of slavery and make it go to extinction. Slave-holding States have become a minority in the House of Representatives, and now they are faced with the future of being a minority in the Senate and the electoral college forever, against the increasingly powerful North.
enslave
Support for separation is closely related to the number of plantations in this area; The southern States with the most concentrated plantations were the first to secede from the Union. Southern slave states such as Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas and Tennessee had fewer plantations and refused to secede from the Union until the Fort Sumter crisis forced them to make a choice. There are fewer plantations in the border States and they have never left. [38][39][40] As of 1850, the proportion of southern whites living in families with slaves was 43% in the south, 36% in the north and south, and 22% in the border States that mainly fought for the union. [40] 85% of the slave owners who owned 100 or more slaves lived in the south, while only 1% lived in the border States. [40]95% of African Americans live in the south, accounting for one third of the total population in the south, while the north accounts for only one percent of the total population. Therefore, the fear of ultimate liberation is much greater in the south than in the north. [4 1]
The United States Supreme Court's decision 1857 in Dred Scott v. Sandford added to the controversy. Chief Justice Roger B. Tanney's ruling said that slaves were "inferior, and they had no rights that whites must respect". [42] Subsequently, Tanny overthrew the Missouri Compromise, which prohibited slavery in the area north of 36 degrees and 30 minutes north latitude. He pointed out that "the congressional bill prohibiting citizens from holding and owning [enslaved people] north of the dividing line in the United States is unconstitutional and therefore invalid. [43] The Dred Scott ruling was praised by Democrats, but Republicans accused it of "deliberate misinterpretation" of the Constitution. They believe that if Scott can't legally file a lawsuit, the Supreme Court has no right to consider the constitutionality of the Missouri compromise. Lincoln warned that "the next Dred Scott verdict" [44] might threaten slavery in the northern States.
Abraham lincoln said: "The issue of slavery is more important than any other issue; In fact, it has become so important that no other country's problems can be heard at present. " [45] The issue of slavery is related to the struggle for territorial control in various regions. [46] The demand of the South for a slave code for the territory is a problem used by southern politicians to split the Democratic Party, which almost guarantees Lincoln's election and separation. When division became an issue, South Carolina planter and state senator John Townsend said, "Our enemies are about to take over the government, and they intend to rule us according to the capriciousness of their fanatical theories and the declared purpose of abolishing slavery." [47] The whole South expressed similar views in editorials, political speeches and statements on the reasons for separation. Although Lincoln had no plans to outlaw slavery where it existed, white people all over the South were worried about its future.
Southern concerns include not only economic losses, but also fear of racial equality. [48][49][50][5 1] Texas Declaration on the Reasons for Separation [52][53] says that non-slave states "promote the despicable creed of equality for all regardless of race or color", and African races "are naturally regarded as inferior and subordinate races". Alabama separatist e.s. duggan warned that whites and free blacks could not live together; If slaves are liberated and stay in the south, "we ourselves will become executioners of our own slaves." To this extent, the policies of our enemies in the north will drive us; Therefore, we will not only fall into poverty, but worse, we should commit crimes and crimes. " [54]
Since the1830s, the U.S. Postal Service refused to allow the mail carrying the abolitionist leaflets to the south. [55] Northern teachers suspected of having any abolitionist color were expelled from the south, and abolitionist literature was banned. Southerners oppose Republicans and deny that they are abolitionists. [56] The North also felt threatened because, as Eric Foner concluded, "Northerners began to regard slavery as the antithesis of a good society and a threat to their own basic values and interests." [57]
During the1850s, slaves left the border states by buying, selling, manufacturing and escaping, and there were more free African-Americans and European immigrants in the border states than in the southern part of the country, which increased the southerners' fear that slavery was facing the threat of rapid extinction in this region. This fear greatly increased the South's efforts to turn Konsa into a slave state. By 1860, the number of white border state families with slaves had dropped to only 16% of the total. With the rising price of slaves, slaves sold to southern States were owned by a few rich slave owners. [58]
Although Lincoln agreed to the Covent Amendment to protect slavery in the existing states, separatists claimed that this guarantee was meaningless. In addition to Kansas being taken away by northern freemen, separatists are also worried that the loss of slaves in the border States will lead to liberation, and the slave-holding States in the upper south may be the next domino to fall. They are worried that Republicans will use asylum to incite slaves and southern whites who oppose slavery, such as Hinton Ron Hope. Then slavery in the south is like a "scorpion surrounded by fire, which will sting itself to death." [59] Some separatists mentioned the issue of tariffs and slavery, but this situation is rare. Among other reasons, slavery represents more money than tariffs. [59] However, some liberal economists pay more attention to the tariff issue. [60] The cause of division has nothing to do with slavery, but it has little to do with tariffs or the rights of States.