Complete summary of the build up to the civil war, and the tensions that surrounded the US at the time. For CIE a level history specifically but can generally be used as notes on the US as well.
Sectional tensions in the United States
In 1789, the USA consisted of 13 states based on the east coast of North America. The rest
of North America was governed- very loosely- by other European powers: Britain, Spain,
Russia and France.
The colony of Louisiana, taken by France from Spain in 1800, was sold to the USA three
years later for just $15 million, or 3 cents per acre. The Louisiana Purchase more than
doubled the size of the USA.
The USA expanded westwards and gained new lands. Those lands had to be organised into
federal territories before being allowed to become states. This westward expansion raised
the issue of slavery.
The two main sections of the early USA became known as the North and the South. The 13
original states were split roughly half and half, with three main differences between the
sections:
• Slavery
• Economic differences
• Cultural differences
Slavery and Missouri Compromise
In 1860, slavery was legal in the South of the USA, but was illegal in the North. The US
constitution had allowed slavery, and it was a fundamental feature of the Southern
economy and society. However, by the 1820s all Northern states had banned slavery.
White Black and mixed race
Free Slave
North 18.42 million 0.23 million -
South 6.29 million 0.26 million 3.95 million
White Southerners found themselves having to try and justify slavery in various ways:
economic, political and moral. As new states joined the
USA, a key issue was whether they did or did not allow
slavery- whether they were ‘slave’ states or ‘free’ states.
The United States relied on a careful balance between the
two. If that balance was disturbed, then the political
stability of the nation was at risk.
In 1820, plans to admit Missouri as a slave state caused
problems because it upset the equal number of Slave and
Free states.
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,An early compromise between North and South, known as the Missouri Compromise, was
eventually agreed by Congress in 1820. Missouri could join the United States as a slave state
if Maine, in the north- east, joined as a free state.
Congress also agreed that in the Louisiana Territory bought from France in 1803, there
would be no slavery in lands north of latitude 36*30’ that were still awaiting statehood. The
only exception was the state of Missouri.
Economic differences
Economic and social differences between the North and South became more apparent over
time.
• By 1860, the original 13 states of the USA had grown to 18 Free states and 15 Slave
states.
• The North’s population was 18.65 million, the South’s 10.5 million. The North had a
higher standard of living and was the destination for the majority of immigrants to
the USA.
• The North and the South also differed on the size of industry. Increasing internal and
foreign trade, helped by transport changes (canals, roads and river use), led to the
growth of a range of industries such as engineering and textiles.
• With great support for business and enterprise from state governments, and the
growth of a mobile society that respected wealth and business skills, a very different
socio- economic system emerged in the North than existed in the South.
• The South didn’t welcome industrialisation, and largely retained its agrarian
economy with much less industrial production.
• In 1860, only 8% of US factories were located in the South.
• A larger part of the Southern workforce was involved in the production of cotton,
tobacco and rice, and slaves were vital to the harvesting of those crops.
• Foreign competition had led to the lowering of cotton prices on the world market,
and many of the larger farms and slave owners were falling into debt.
• There was a growing feeling in the South that its economic interests were being
sacrificed in order to increase the profits of Northern industrialists.
• By the 1850s, more than half of US exports consisted of raw cotton.
• The economic interests of the South and North began to come into conflict.
• The South supported free trade in order to encourage greater trade with Britain.
• The North wanted tariffs to protect the new industries being formed in the Northern
region against competition with Britain.
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, Cultural differences
• The importance of ‘honour’ was still central to Southern life; it was disappearing in
the North.
• Honour is a code of duties imposed by a social group on its members; if your honour
was questioned, you had to defend it.
• Duels formed part of this honour code.
• In the North, states began passing laws that suppressed duelling, and a formal legal
code started to replace an informal social code.
• Independent Southern nationalism based on slavery, chivalry and a strong Christian
faith.
• The North’s own regional identity was based on free labour, liberty and a more
puritanical Christianity.
Political issues
US Constitution in a nutshell:
• The USA is a republic, the head of state being an elected President.
• The USA is a federal state, with powers shared between the federal government and
the various states.
• The US system of government is based on a system of checks and balances to ensure
that no one part of government becomes too powerful.
• The US government is built on the idea of the separation of powers. The Legislature,
Congress, makes the laws. The Executive, the President, is in office for 4 year terms
and recommends national policies. The Judiciary, Supreme Court, decides whether
the politicians’ laws and policies are within the rules of the Constitution.
• To amend the Constitution; two- thirds of both Houses of Congress and three-
quarters of the states have to agree.
The Founding Fathers didn’t envisage the formation of political parties, but they soon
emerged.
Once slavery became a national issue, political parties became forces for disunity.
Political parties
By the 1840s, two political parties had emerged: the Democrats and the Whigs. The Democrats
identified more with rural, agricultural America and were very suspicious of the federal
government taking too much power from the states. The Whigs were more concerned with the
growing industrial towns and cities. They wanted to use the power of federal government to
protect and develop a more integrated national economy.
Issues such as slavery and ‘states rights’ began dividing parties on sectional lines.
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