Chaos in the run-up to Civil War
Editor无毛视频檚 note: Information on the Civil War is well-known, but what about some of the factors that led to its start? This week, we examine some of those issues and how, after years of growing tensions, the nation went to war with itself.
The seeds of the Antebellum period in the United States were planted many years before the Civil War would tear the country apart.
无毛视频淔or the newly independent United States, the first order of business was to establish a national government,无毛视频� explained Roger Micker, president of the Wheeling, W.Va.-based Ohio Valley Civil War Roundtable. 无毛视频淔rom 1781 to 1789, the Articles of Confederation demonstrated a weakness that would not be able to sustain a united country on the world无毛视频檚 stage. On March 4, 1789, the Constitution went into effect replacing the Articles.
无毛视频淧olitical, economic and cultural differences generated deep political divisions among the newly created United States, evidenced by four of the states not supporting ratification. In time, several crucial compromises, including the Three-Fifths Compromise, were agreed upon to secure its passage.无毛视频�
Micker, who is a member of the Friends of Gettysburg, added that the greatest cause of the Civil War could be attributed to sectional issues of the consequences and morals of a northern economy based on a concept of free labor, and a southern economy based on slavery and a strong claim for states无毛视频� rights. A slavery by birth law guaranteed that the institution would perpetuate from one generation to the next, though, occasionally, a slave might receive manumission based on decision from a planters无毛视频� committee.
The Atlantic Triangular slave trade, he added, would legally exist until 1808.
无毛视频淯nder abysmal conditions, an estimated 13 million people were taken as captives from the west coast of Africa and forced onto slave ships bound for North and South America 无毛视频� 2 million slaves would die at sea,无毛视频� added Micker, who also serves on the Governor of Ohio Civil War Committee. 无毛视频淎n estimated 650,000 slaves would be delivered to the coastlines of the 13 colonies and forced into a harsh life of human bondage.无毛视频�
As the 19th century began, the profits of industries in the north were being impacted by modernizing textile mills and other manufacturing plants and mining, he added. And, in the agricultural south, the market value of cotton was approximately $5.5 million.
Cotton production reached 2 billion pounds a year by 1860, and Virginia, and North Carolina, the chief tobacco-producing states, grew 155 million pounds of tobacco a year.
无毛视频淭he southern planters became the target of high tariffs, which were supported by a Congress dominated by northern senators and representatives, and 70% of the nation无毛视频檚 treasury could be traced to the taxation of southern wealth,无毛视频� added Micker, a retired history teacher. 无毛视频淭hat led to debates in Congress over heavy government spending for northern urban improvements and transportation systems while the economic stress of inflated costs of southern imports were ignored.无毛视频�
Those debates, he explained, led to physical attacks.
无毛视频淥ne representative said that 无毛视频業f a member wasn无毛视频檛 carrying a single gun, he was probably carrying two,'无毛视频� Micker said. 无毛视频淔ollowing his Crime Against Kansas Speech in the Senate, Charles Sumner was severely beaten with a cane by Rep. Preston Brooks.无毛视频�
In the south, the tariffs were labeled as an abomination, and anger spread through state capitals, added Micker, who lectures on Civil War-related topics.
无毛视频淪outh Carolina 无毛视频榝ire eaters,无毛视频� under the leadership of John C. Calhoun, threatened to nullify the tariff law and secede in 1832,无毛视频� Micker said. 无毛视频淧resident Andrew Jackson reacted with a threat to send troops to South Carolina to enforce federal laws. The next year, the tariff was reduced to the rate held in 1828, which provided very little relief.无毛视频�
At the time, Micker said, southern planters were facing another dilemma: Too much of their fields were being overused. The solution, he said, was a western expansion in the Louisiana Territory and the Indian Removal Act, which would open areas for increased crop production, and statehood would require more slave labor.
无毛视频淭o illustrate 无毛视频� William Walker, a lawyer, doctor and editor, led a few dozen mercenaries into northern Mexico, took control and claimed the land as a Louisiana colony,无毛视频� Micker said. 无毛视频淎fter this failed attempt, he led 60 men to invade Honduras in 1860 for the same reason. Managing to gain leadership of the country无毛视频檚 liberal faction and help defeat a conservative regime, Walker proclaimed himself as president. While on a mission to seek an alliance with England, Walker was captured by the British Navy. He was returned to Honduras, where he was executed by a firing squad.无毛视频�
States that had been carved out of the Northwest Territory, where slavery and involuntary servitude were prohibited, enforced 无毛视频淏lack laws无毛视频� to discourage free Blacks from northern migration, Micker said. Several laws might have required any of the following as requirements for residency: The purchase of a $500 bond, a $100 registration fee and fines for not carrying permits. In some regions, he added, there were postings warning Blacks to 无毛视频渒eep out.无毛视频�
无毛视频淭o challenge the immorality of slavery, abolitionists and abolitionist societies were being heard from,无毛视频� Micker explained. 无毛视频淗arriet Beecher Stowe无毛视频檚 无毛视频楿ncle Tom无毛视频檚 Cabin无毛视频� set off a firestorm across the country. Meetings, pamphleteering, protests and abolitionist newspapers coincided with maintaining routes of the Underground Railroad System that delivered a message of hope for the enslaved.无毛视频�
Bloodshed, he added, resulted in 1854, when proslavery and Free-Soilers clashed over Kansas无毛视频� election for statehood.
无毛视频淪ome newspapers exacerbated the slavery issue by reporting rumors or condemning individuals or groups,无毛视频� Micker said. 无毛视频淚n 1860, New York City had more than a dozen newspapers published daily, delivering commentary supporting or denouncing the abolitionist issues. Elija Lovejoy set up a print shop to print an abolitionist newspaper in Alton, Ill. His office would be vandalized and the press was tossed into the Mississippi River. Afterward, Lovejoy was attacked and shot to death.无毛视频�
Former slaves, like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, were targets, Micker added.
无毛视频淚n addition to fulfilling her role as Moses, who led 70 of the enslaved to freedom, Tubman went on to serve as a nurse, cook, scout and spy for the U.S. Army,无毛视频� Micker said. 无毛视频淪he is credited with guiding a military raid as Combahee Ferry, S.C., and liberating 700 slaves.
无毛视频淔ollowing his escape from a slave breaker, Douglass employed his oratory skills that would make him not only wanted by slave catchers for a lucrative bounty, but by abolitionist societies who were eager to hear his lectures in New England as well as in Britain and Ireland.无毛视频�
As the mid-1850s approached, Micker said, the nation无毛视频檚 attention was focused on a court case, a meteor and a presidential race, Micker said.
无毛视频淒red Scott lived in St. Louis as an enslaved hand,无毛视频� Micker continued. 无毛视频淎fter he was moved to Illinois and then to Wisconsin Territory, he sued John Sanford for his freedom. The case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Scott, reasoning that not being a citizen meant Scott had no rights and he was considered as property and could be taken to a new territory. The Missouri Compromise was then considered to be unconstitutional.无毛视频�
Micker also pointed to Herman Melville无毛视频檚 poem 无毛视频淭he Portent,无毛视频� which described John Brown as a 无毛视频� 无毛视频� Meteor of the War.无毛视频� His attempt to free slaves in the Harper无毛视频檚 Ferry area ended swiftly, and he was hanged on Dec. 2, 1859.
In the next decade, Micker explained, it was thought the new Republican Party could threaten the future of the South. Interest was fervent, he said, among northerners and southerners in the electioneering. Many thought that if Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, it could lead to the demise of the South无毛视频檚 economy and heritage. The Democratic Party, he added, split and Lincoln won in a landslide.
无毛视频淥n Dec. 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded, and the Confederate States of America was established in Montgomery, Ala.,无毛视频� Micker said. 无毛视频淥n April 12, 1861, upon Fort Sumter, S.C., another shot was heard 无毛视频檙ound the world.'无毛视频�
In our next installment, we无毛视频檒l focus on the post-Civil War era and the growth of the nation. We无毛视频檒l travel to northern Utah to learn about the driving of the Golden Spike, which connected the east and west coasts of the growing nation through the first transcontinental railroad.