A Nation Divided
When you think about what caused the Civil War, the first thing that probably popped into your head was slavery. Slavery had been around since the ancient times, but on a more relative timeline, since the United States was first formed. Why was it being questioned all of a sudden? The North and South had very different economies. While the northern states depended on manufacturing, the southern states depended on agriculture, and slaves. Slaves have become a major part of their economy. They increased the output while decreasing the cost for the owners. Soon moral and ethical questions arose on whether it was alright to own slaves and to treat them like such. The North began ''distance' themselves from South, and the South did the same to the North. At this point, there were little to no slaves in the North.
As new states began to enter the Union, the question of whether or not to allow slavery in the new states had started debate between the North and South. Tensions began to rise and the increasing amount of power that the South began to gain in Congress did not help to ease the situation. As time passed, the divide between the North and South had only grown.
THE NORTH
The North was mainly dependent on manufacturing for its economy. There were almost no slaves to be found in the North. Most abolitionists of slavery were from the northern states. The North was anti-slavery. The North consisted of Maine, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Indian, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, California, Nevada, and Oregon.
THE SOUTH
The South was mainly dependent on agriculture for its economy. There were many slaves in the South. The number of slaves that people had allowed them to own and grow larger plantations, which ultimately increased their wealth. The North was anti-slavery.
The South consisted of North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Texas.
The Missouri Compromise of 1820
The Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820, making Missouri a slave state, and Maine a free state. It was passed as a means of balancing the power in congress between the slave states and the free states. The Missouri Compromise had also deemed slavery illegal in the Louisiana Territory. In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by Congress, and allowed the residents of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether they wanted to allow slavery inside their borders or not. The Act caused the Missouri Compromise to be repealed. Finally in 1857, the Missouri Compromise was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision.
The Wilmot Proviso was a document made to stop slavery from spreading to the land acquired by the Mexican War (1846-1848). James K. Polk sought the appropriation of 2 million dollars in order to negotiate the terms of the treaty. David Wilmot proposed his amendment to the bill since he feared the addition of a pro-slavery territory. Even though the amendment was not ratified thanks to the Southern States, the Wilmot Proviso inspire John C. Calhoun to oppose the Compromise of 1850 since it was not just to the Southern states.
The Wilmot Proviso (1846)
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was a bill that approved and mandated "popular sovereignty". The bill allowed settlers of a certain area to decide if slavery should be allowed in that new state. Stephen A. Douglas proposed the bill. The bill had essentially nullified and ignored the Missouri Compromise of 1850. Calhoun was in favor of this, as now the Southern states would gain more power, and slavery would be revived again. Clay and Webster, however, disapproved, as they had supported the Compromise of 1850. The race to see which party/side would gain control of the territory had lead to the Bleeding Kansas act.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
The "Birth" of the Republican Party (1854)
The birth of the Republican party was a collage of many groups, including Whigs, Free-Soilers, antislavery Democrats, etc. The main purpose of the party was to put an end to slavery. The party blew up in the North and included businessmen who thought slavery was hurting the industry and moral leaders. It was soon able to compete with other more established political parties. In the election of 1860, their representative, Abraham Lincoln, wins and becomes the president.
