Sectionalism, Civil War, and Reconstruction

As the nation grew, so did the debate over the role of the federal government. Some favored a stronger federal government, especially those in the North, while many leaders in the South opposed such ideas. With anti-slavery forces growing in the North, southern politicians and landowners feared a federal government with the power to impose legislation on states. So, in an attempt to protect southern economic interest and slavery, southern leaders advocated states rights. One of the most famous examples during this time was the Nullification Crisis during Jackson's presidency, which resulted in a show of force from the federal government in response to the threat of secession.

Reconstruction Comes to an End

Because of the bad economy, as well as the many scandals surrounding President Grant (who came in after Johnson's administration), the Democrats were hopeful that their candidate could win the 1876 election. However, because the election was contested (due to disputed results in some states), the Compromise of 1877 was created in order to settle the conflict through the election of Hayes as president and the end of reconstruction efforts in the south,

Segregation

Transitioning Populations

Post-Reconstruction

Once the Jim Crow Laws were in place, segregation had begun. In 1896, the Supreme Court upheld segregation in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, which involved a 30-year old man name Homer Plessy. Plessy, who was 1/8 African American was jailed for sitting in a “whites only” railway car in Louisiana, which was a crime. He was found guilty, jailed, and he sued. The Supreme Court then ruled that segregation was legal as long as the separate facilities and services were equal, however in reality, the facilities for whites were usually far superior to those of blacks.

With the end of Reconstruction and the rise of groups like the KKK, African Americans soon lost whatever political position they had gained in the years following the emancipation. In addition, Southern states soon passed Jim Crow Laws that required blacks and whites to use separate public facilities, thus beginning segregation. Many states tried upholding the 15th Amendment by requiring citizens to pass literacy tests or pay poll taxes in order to vote. In order to keep these laws from hindering poor illiterate whites, some states instituted grandfather clauses, which stated that if your grandfather had been able to vote, so could you.

When sharecropping and tenant farming proved unsuccessful, many African Americans moved to the cities in search of jobs. As a result of this migration, the population of urban blacks in the Sought increased by 75% in the late 1800s. Many African Americans also moved northward and westward in the hopes of finding more opportunities.

Seceeding States and Civil War Erupts

Sectionalism Causes Conflicts

In response to the issue of slavery in the West, a new political party was formed. This new Republican Party was a combination of other political party members who opposed the spread of slavery in the west. However, despite the growing power of the party, in the 1856 election, Democratic candidate James Buchanon won the presidency.

During Buchanon's term in office, African Americans citizenship was denied through the Dred Scott decision and John Brown unsuccessfully attempted to incite a slave rebellion at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. By the time the presidential election of 1860 had arrived, the country was at a boiling point regarding slavery.

The agricultural south hit an all-time high of production after the advent of the Industrial Revolution and westward expansion. With more territories opening up for farming and new machines making it easier to produce cash crops, slavery was seen as an important necessity to continue advancement. As a result, the increased tensions between the north and south over the issue of slavery was seen as a direct attack on the southern economic system and their way of life.

Advantages in the

North and South

Northern Advantages

• More railways lines (quicker transportation of supplies and soldiers over long distances)
• More factories for producing (weapons and supplies)
• Pre-established government and a standing military force.
• 2/3 population of entire United States (allowed for more soldiers to be sent into battle as well as provide the labor force for the economy)

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Fort Sumter

Southern Advantages

• Better military commanders (prominent Generals Jackson and Lee)
• Smaller population to fight a war of attrition (smaller defensive battles designed to wear the opponent's morale and supplies down in order to win)
• Different philosophy (believed they had to resist long enough that the Union would give up, not necessarily win)
• Motivation (belief of defending homeland, way of life, and right to govern themselves)

In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act which allowed the previously free and unorganized territories of Kansas and Nebraska to choose whether or not to permit slavery (popular sovereignty). and, as a result, it effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise and reignited the slavery issue. The territory became known as “bleeding Kansas” as armed clashes between pro-slavery forces and abolitionist settlers became a common thing.

Events did not fair much better in Washington, when a fight broke out between two congressmen (Charles Sumner from Massachusetts and Preston Brooks from South Carolina) over the issue. Meanwhile two rival governments (one slave and the other free) had formed in Kansas, leaving the territory in a state of civil unrest.

Dred Scott Decision

After Lincoln's election, a total of 11 southern states seceded from the union. Though the north held more states in the Union than southern states in the Confederacy, the four states caught between the two (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware) suffered from intense divisions between the North and the South.

The first shot of the Civil War happened in 1861 at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina when southern Confederates opened fire on northern Union soldiers who were delivering supplies to the fort via a cargo ship. In response, President Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 volunteers and the capital of the Confederacy was moved to Richmond, Virginia.

Election of 1860

The 1857 the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford threw the nation into further turmoil. Dred Scot, a slave in Missouri, was taken by his owner into a free territory where he lived for four years. Later, the ownerreturned to Missouri where he died, and after his death, Dred Scott sued for his freedom.

The Supreme Court ruled that Scott had no right to sue because, as a slave, he was not a citizen.It also declared that slave owners could not be deprived of their property without due process of law.

This also struck down the Missouri Compromise, because it was a violation of the fifth amendment to declare slaves free of their owners without due process of law even if the slave had entered a free state.

John Brown's Raid

The Election of 1860 consisted of Stephen Douglas, a northern democrat who supported popular sovereignty, Vice President John Breckinridge (a southern democrat and a former congressman) and a lawyer from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln from the new Republican Party.

The South felt threatened by Lincoln because of his opposition to slavery, and believed that Lincoln would try to dismantle slavery in the South if elected. As a result, when Lincoln won the 1860 election, South Carolina responded by seceding from the Union, and by 1861, six other states had seceded as well. Meeting in Montgomery, Alabama to draft their own constitution. these states elected Jefferson Davis as the president of the new Confederate States of America.

In October of 1859, a group of radical abolitionists led by John Brown attacked the federal arsenal (where weapons are made and stored) in order to give them to slaves who could rise up in rebellion. Their plan failed when U.S. troops under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee surrounded the arsenal and forced Brown to surrender. Although the government hanged Brown, the failed raid intensified southern resentment of the abolitionist movement. Many southerners saw this as an affirmation that the South would have to shed blood to protect its way of life.

African Americans During Reconstruction

Prior to Lincoln's death, Congress passed the 13th Amendment to the constitution, which ended slavery throughout the U.S. Then, in 1866, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, with the intent of giving citizenship rights to freed slaves. Though President Johnson opposed this measure, Congress was able to override his veto, and the 14th Amendment was passed, which granted blacks the status of citizenship and was ratified in 1868. The last major piece of Reconstruction legislation was in the 15th Amendment, which guaranteed the right to vote for African American men.

Farming and the Freedman's Bureau

Changing Way of LIfe

The 13th amendment freed the slaves, though now the freedmen had to adjust to life after slavery. They had no land or money. In order to survive many turned to sharecropping (renting the land from landowners and "sharing a portion ofthe crops" in lieu of rent), though many sharecroppers fell victim to dishonest landowners.

In 1865, Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau in order to better facilitate the transition from slave to free man. It served to provide clothing, medical attention, meals, education and even some land to freed blacks and some poorer white, though it was disbanded in 1869 from lack of support.

Following the Civil War, many African American churches spread throughout the south. They became centers for African American social and political life. With the help of the Freedmen’s Bureau, churches, and the southern African American community established the first African American schools taught by African American soldiers who had acquired some education while in the service, and students that included both children and adults.

African Americans also played an important role in southern politics during Reconstruction. Some 600 African Americans served in southern state legislatures, some were elected to offices as high as lieutenant-governor, and a few African Americans represented southern states in Congress. Northern blacks and some elite blacks saw themselves as superior to poorer, uneducated blacks who had recently been emancipated.As a result, Southern blacks resented northern African Americans who came south and assumed positions of political influence that should have gone to southern blacks.

In addition, after Johnson took office, many southern states passed black codes meant to keep African Americans subordinate to whites by restricting the rights of freed slaves. Some whites even advocated for violence against freed African Americans through groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

Reconstruction Begins

In March 1864, President Lincoln put Ulysses S. Grant in charge of the Union army. Pushing South, Grant engaged Lee in a number of bloody battles. Finally, when Lee’s army found itself surrounded in Virginia, the confederate general elected to surrender rather than see more lives lost. On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. Although some fighting continued afterward, this effectively ended the war.

Lincoln's Final Year

Andrew Johnson

Despite some northern opposition, due to the string of Union victories after Lincoln appointed Ulysses S. Grant as the commander of all the Union armies, as well as Sherman's march to the sea, Lincoln was able to win reelection in 1864. However, Lincoln's final term in office was to be short. In April of 1865, shortly after Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, an actor and supporter of the Confederacy. As a result, Lincoln's Vice President, Andrew Johnson, became the next president of the United States.

Before Lincoln's death, the president had wanted to heal both sides of the Union. Through his plan, Lincoln wanted not only to rebuild the south, but he also wanted to restore the unity of the nation through mercy. Andrew Johnson supported Lincoln's plan after he became president, though many saw it as being far too lenient with the south. As a result, conflict quickly rose between Johnson and the Radical Republicans, who wanted tougher actions taken against the former Confederate states, supported the harsher policy called Radical Reconstruction. Upset by Johnson's approach that failed to offer African Americans full citizenship rights, the Republicans soon became the dominant party in the south, which shaped the direction southern states took in the years following the Civil War.

The battle between Johnson and Congress came to a head in 1868 when Johnson tried to fire Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who had been appointed by Lincoln, because he was closely tied to the Radical Republicans. This violated the Tenure in Office Act, which limited the president’s power to hire or fire government officials. Led by Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, Congress voted to impeach the president of the U.S. On May 16, 1868, the Senate voted to spare Johnson’s presidency by just one vote.

Political Divisions

Northern Opposition

The Emancipation Proclamation

Though four slave states remained with the Union when the south seceded, many southern sympathizers resided in Maryland. Worried about the impact this could have on the Union's efforts, President Lincoln took drastic action by declaring martial law, suspending writs of habeas corpus (unlawful imprisonment) and jailed the strongest supporters of the Confederacy, thus allowing Maryland to vote in favor of remaining with the Union.

Lincoln also established the draft. Resenting the wealthy (who could pay $300 to avoid military service or hire a substitute in their place), this draft was extremely unpopular among the poor and immigrants. In July of 1863, draft riots broke out in New York City, killing more than 100 people and the lynching of at least 11 African Americans (whom many immigrants and poor blamed for the war).

Northern opposition to Lincoln and the war was seen in the political opponents called the copperheads, who played on northern fears that freed slaves would move north and steal white jobs.

The Union victory at Antietam gave President Lincoln the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves in any state rebelling against the Union. However, it also maintained slavery in the border states loyal to the Union.

With this executive order, Lincoln hoped that Confederate states would return to the Union rather than risk losing their slaves, as well as hoped to undermine the South’s reliance on slave labor and ensure the support of England and France - both had already abolished slavery.

Not only did the Emancipation Proclamation free slaves in the southern states, it also encouraged free African Americans to serve in the Union army. Congress authorized accepting African Americans into the army in 1862. Though on warships they served side by side with other Union sailors, in the army, African Americans only served in all black regiments, who were under the command of white officers and were often the object of racism and discrimination. One of the most memorable African American units was the 54th Massachusetts, who won a place in history for their assault on Fort Wagner in Charleston, SC.

Civil War in a Nutshell

• Abraham Lincoln – First Republican President in history.
• Ulysses S. Grant – Assumed command of the entire Union army. Defeated the South. Accepted Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. Went on to become the 18th president of the U.S.
• William T. Sherman – Union general who captured Atlanta in 1864. He is most remembered for his “march to the sea” in which he burned and destroyed southern cities and railways.
• Jefferson Davis – Served as the first and only president of the Confederate States of America.
• Robert E. Lee – Assumed command of the Confederate army. Despite winning several impressive victories during the course of the war, he did not have nearly enough men to win. He eventually surrendered to General Grant.

Land Battles

Water Battles

• Battle of Bull Run - first official battle of the Civil War in 1861 resulting in a Confederate victory under the leadership of General "Stonewall" Jackson
• Second Battle of Bull Run - 1862 battle resulting in another southern victory when Robert E. Lee destroyed Union hopes of invading Richmond
• Antietam - bloodiest battle in the entire Civil War after in 1862
• Chancellorsville - 1863 battle resulting in another Confederate victory when Lee's smaller army of 40,000 defeated 70,000 Union troops through help from "Stonewall" Jackson
• Gettysburg - turning point in the Civil War in 1863 when Union General Meade defeated Lee's army and ended southern hopes of invading the north
• Vicksburg - tuning point in the Civil War in 1863 when the Confederates lost control of the Mississippi River after General Gage laid siege to the town of Vicksburg for two months
• Sherman's March to the Sea - 1864 skirmishes led by Union General William T. Sherman, who used total war from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia, leaving a 300 mile path of destruction in order to decimate southern supplies, morale, and transportation routes

The Civil War saw innovations in naval technology. The Confederates created an ironclad form an old wooden steamship called the Merrimack. As a result, the Union’s wooden steamships found themselves powerless against this innovative weapon, so the Union built an ironclad of its own called the Monitor.

On March 9, 1862 these two ships met at the Battle of Hampton Roads off the coast of Virginia. After several hours of fighting the Merrimack withdrew, and eventually the South blew up the Merrimack to keep it from falling into the enemy’s hands.

The Civil War also marked the first time submarines were used as a weapon of war. The Union was the first to use a sub, but it never saw any action. The most notable Confederate sub was the CSS Hunley. On February 18, 1864, it became the first North American submarine to successfully sink and enemy ship (it sank during the same battle).

Sectionalism Tears the U.S. Apart

In 1861, the Civil War divided the nation. It was fought between northern states that remained loyal to the Union and southern states that decided in favor of succession. They wanted to rule themselves. Two of the most notable reasons were states rights and slavery.

Slavery

State's Rights

As sectional differences became more defined, the debate over slavery became more and more heated. As new regions became U.S. territories and eventually states, they threatened to upset the balance of power. One northerner in particular feared that the new territories brought into the union from the Mexican Cession would renew the slave trade. As a result, David Wilmot proposed banning slavery from any land purchased from Mexico in the Wilmot Proviso. Many northerners agreed with this proposal, while southerners denounced it. Though it was eventually voted down, this reopened the issue of slavery once again. For this reason, compromises were reached to maintain peace, such as the Missouri Compromise (which established the 36 parallel as the dividing line between free northern states and slave southern states) and Henry Clay's Compromise of 1850 (which added California as a free state, strengthened fugitive slave laws, popular sovereignty in new territories, and the abolition of the slave trade in Washington, D.C.). As a result of the Compromise of 1850, some territories were allowed to decide upon the issue of slavery through popular sovereignty (individual states could vote whether or not they wanted to become slave states).

Sectionalism, Civil War, and Reconstruction