1. Challenges to Slavery & Seccession

2. Republican Party Antislavery political party formed in 1854
Free-Soilers joined with antislavery Democrats & Whigs
Message = government should ban slavery from new territories
Supported by Northerners
Democrats were becoming the Southern party

3. Democratic Candidate James Buchanan won the election
Election of 1856
Democratic Candidate James Buchanan won the election
He was from Pennsylvania and supported the idea of popular sovereignty

4. Dred Scott Decision Until 1857 some slaves who had lived in
free states or territories were successful
when they sued for their freedom Biddy Mason had done this
Dred Scott’s case went all the way to the Supreme Court & changed this
Dred Scott was owned by an army doctor in Missouri, but was then moved to free territory & then back to Missouri where the doctor died
Scott sued for his freedom claiming he should be free because he once lived on free territory
Dred Scott

5. Dred Scott Decision, continued
His case went to the Supreme Court & this gave the court a chance to address the issue of slavery in the territories
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney said that Dred Scott was still a slave
Scott was not a citizen & had no right to bring a lawsuit
Taney said that an enslaved person was property & under the 5th Amend. Congress could not take away property without “due process of law”
Taney also said that the Missouri Compromise and popular sovereignty were also unconstitutional for the same reason
Southerners were glad that nothing could legally prevent the spread of slavery

6. Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Stephen Douglas & Abraham Lincoln were running against one another in the Illinois senate race of 1858
Douglas– believed slavery issue could be resolved through popular sovereignty
Thought people could exclude slavery by refusing to pass laws protecting slave holders
Lincoln – thought slavery was wrong all together
Douglas wins the Senate seat, but Lincoln became more well-known as a result of the election
Scene from a Lincoln-Douglas Debate in the Illinois Senate campaign of 1858

7. Abolitionist John Brown led 18 men, both whites & African Americans, on a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia
His target was a federal arsenal (storage place for weapons)
The raid was quickly stopped by local citizens & federal troops
Brown was convicted of treason & murder and sentenced to hang
Some viewed Brown as a hero and a martyr
A martyr is a person who dies for a cause
Southerners fear that a great Northern conspiracy against them would continue to grow
Raid on Harpers Ferry

8. The South Secedes Lincoln wins the election of 1860
Lincoln & Republicans promise to not disturb slavery where it already exists, South doesn’t trust this promise
Dec. 20, 1860 – South Carolina secedes (withdraws) from the Union
Senator John Crittenden makes one last effort to save the Union & proposes amendments that would protect slavery south of the Missouri Compromise line --- but Compromise was just not possible at this point

9. Confederacy The Confederate States of America
Formed by the states who had seceded from the Union
South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, & Texas
Chose Jefferson Davis as their president
Southerners justified (or backed up) their right to secession with the theory of states’ rights
Saw the Constitution as a contract that had been violated by the national government
refused to enforce Fugitive Slave Act & denied Southern states equal rights in territories

10. Secession

11. Presidential Responses
Pres. James Buchanan was in office until March 4, 1861 – he told Congress that the Southern states had no right to secede, but that he had no power to stop them
Question of what would happen with the slave states that chose to remain in the Union – many were afraid that use of force against the Confederacy would force those states to secede
Pres. Lincoln vowed to hold federal property in the South & enforce laws of U.S. in his inaugural address

12. By the time Lincoln took office only two Southern forts remained under Union Control – Fort Pickens & Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter was located on an island in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina
Fort Sumter was low on supplies & Confederates demanded its surrender
Lincoln sends an unarmed expedition with supplies to Fort Sumter
Lincoln left the decision to start shooting up to the Confederates
Fort Sumter

13. Confederates ordered their forces to attack Fort Sumter before the Union supplies could arrive
April 12, 1861
Fort Sumter surrendered
This was a small Confederacy victory, but it convinced the North that war was necessary
The War Begins

14. Call to Arms North & South take Action
Pres. Lincoln calls for 75,000 troops to fight to save the Union
Volunteers also rush to sign up to fight in the South
Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, & Arkansas vote to join the Confederacy