US Civil War 1850-1865

Resistance to Slavery

Africans themselves

African people themselves naturally, always presented themselves and recognized themselves as people. These slaves expressed the same complex emotions as their white masters, held opinions and passions. The more white people who came into contact with slaves, more and more whites saw them as fellow humans. Although most white people suppressed these feeling to protect themselves from uncomfortable guilt. In many cases the practice of having slaves made white lives comfortable and more prosperous. 

The next strike for slavery was, ironically, the forced conversion of Africans to Christianity. Christianity was used to argue for and against slavery but as more and more Africans converted to Christianity willingly or not, the more White people were forced to acknowledge them as children of God. This paradox then meant that the slave owners were enslaving their fellow Christians instead of the non-Christian foreigners they had become more comfortable with. 

Many Africans sought freedom where they could. Many were able to educate themselves to a level where they could write memoirs of their time as a slave. These personal, first hand accounts were widely read and once in the shoes of a fellow man, an educated man and fellow Christian, the general public found it harder to turn a blind eye to their humanity. 

US Government

Ever since the founding of the United States the practice of slavery has been in question. Jefferson himself was against the practice but had slaves himself. 

In 1820, there were already concerns about the spread of Slavery and when Missouri wanted to become a State and a Slave State then the government issued the Missouri compromise which allowed Missouri to be a state as long as Maine could become a State as a Free State. This kept the representatives in the federal government equal. Another stipulated that no future states above Missouri could ever become a Slave State. 4 years later Oregon was introduced as a free state to counter the introduction of Texas.

1820 - Missouri Compromise 

Page 241 of founding brothers

Jefferson "I had for a long time ceased to read newspapers, or pay any attention to public affairs, confident they were in good hands, and content to be a passenger in our bark to the shore from which I am not distant. But this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union."

Many politicians in government were abolitionists but they were seen as radicals and a danger to the country.

Foreign Powers

France - Code Noir -1685

Louis XIV's Code Noir regulated the slave trade and institution in the colonies. It gave unparalleled rights to slaves. It included the right to marry, gather publicly, or take Sundays off. Although the Code Noir authorized and codified cruel punishment against slaves under certain conditions, it forbade slave owners to torture them or to separate families. It also demanded enslaved Africans receive instruction in the Catholic faith, implying that Africans were human beings endowed with a soul, a fact French law did not admit until then. It resulted in a far higher percentage of blacks being free in 1830 (13.2% in Louisiana compared to 0.8% in Mississippi).

Britain

The English and Irish were capturing one another as slaves until 1102 when it was outlawed. The law was intended for white Christians but stood as a legal obstacles when African slaves started showing up in the 1500's. In a 1569 court case involving Cartwright, who had bought a slave from Russia, the court ruled that English law could not recognize slavery, as it was never established officially. This ruling was overshadowed by later developments. It was upheld in 1700 by Lord Chief Justice Sir John Holt when he ruled that "As soon as a man sets foot on English ground he is free". The African slaves' legal status was unclear until the 1772 Somersett's Case, when the fugitive slave James Somersett forced a decision by the courts. Somersett had escaped and his master, Charles Steuart, had him captured and imprisoned on board a ship, intending to ship him to Jamaica to be resold into slavery. While in London, Somersett had been baptized and three godparents. As a result, Lord Mansfield, Chief Justice of the Court of the King's Bench, had to judge whether Somersett's abduction was lawful or not under English Common Law. No legislation had ever been passed to establish slavery in England. The case received national attention and five advocates supported the action on behalf of Somersett. A judge ordered that the slave be released. Although the legal implications of the judgement are unclear when analyzed by lawyers, the judgement was generally taken at the time to have determined that slavery did not exist under English common law and was thus prohibited in England. As a result, by 1774, between 10,000 and 15,000 slaves gained freedom in England. The decision did not apply to British overseas territories; e.g. the American colonies had established slavery by positive laws.

Mexico

Mexico abolished slavery in 1829 on the US southern border it became sanctuary for free and escaped black people. Texas was part of Mexico at this time and as such the slaves were set free. Because of the Missouri Compromise Pro-Slavery powers wanted Texas to join as a slave state. Also, the fact that runaway slaves were finding freedom in Mexican-Texas upset many southerners. 

When Texas joined the USA in 1845, slavery became legal again. When Texas joined Mexico and the USA disagreed about where the southern border actually stood. USA said the Rio Grande and Mexico said the more northern Nueces River. Both sent troops to stake their claim and the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 ensued. Support for the way was divided between pro-slavery advocates and anti-expansionist Slavery.

Quakers 

The Quakers were among the most prominent slave traders during the early days of the country; paradoxically, they were also among the first denominations to protest slavery. In the United Kingdom, Quakers would be foremost in the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787 which, with some setbacks, would be responsible for forcing the end of the British slave trade in 1807 and the end of slavery throughout the British Empire by 1838. In the United States, Quakers would be less successful. Throughout the nineteenth century, Quakers increasingly became associated with antislavery activism and antislavery literature. 

John Brown

John Brown had been regarded as crazy, a traitor and a terrorist for many years. Lets take a look at the pre-civil war era through the eyes of Americas most controversial terrorist. 

John Brown was born May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut. A religious and serious man, tall and skinny. As a child he had seen a slave boy get beaten by his master. It sickened and disgusted him and had a lasting effect on his life. As a young man, some white families asked Brown to help them drive off Native Americans who hunted annually in the area. Brown replied, "I will have nothing to do with so mean an act. I would sooner take my gun and help drive you out of the country." As a child in Hudson, John not only came into contact with the local Indians, he "hung about them... & learned a trifle of their talk". Throughout his life, Brown maintained peaceful relations with Native Americans, even accompanying them on hunting excursions and inviting them to eat in his home. John Brown fathered a large family and tried providing for them by starting 20 different business ventures in 7 different states. They all failed and his family lived in poverty. At the time he lived in Hudson, Ohio which was a town founded by anti-slavery idealists. 

He wasn't the only one who disapproved of slavery however, at that time it was only about 20% of the population that disapproved of it. Intellectuals, lawyers and Christian leaders would speak out publicly against slavery at risk of their own safety. In Boston, when Pro-slavery organizations heard an abolitionist would be speaking they posted nearly 500 notices of a $100 reward for the citizen that would first lay violent hands on him. The speaker canceled at the last minute, and Lloyd Garrison, editor and publisher of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, was quickly scheduled to speak in his place. A lynch mob formed, forcing Garrison to escape through the back of the hall and hide in a carpenter's shop. The mob soon found him, putting a noose around his neck to drag him away. Several strong men, including the mayor, intervened and took him to the most secure place in Boston, the Leverett Street Jail. 

Around that time, in St. Louis, Missouri an ordained Presbyterian preacher named Elijah Parish Lovejoy had set up a church and resumed work as editor of the Observer. His editorials criticized slavery and other church denominations. His criticism angered pro-slavery advocates and they burnt down his printing press 4 times. On the 4th time they shot and murdered Elijah Lovejoy. According to John Quincy Adams, president at the time: the murder "[gave] a shock as of an earthquake throughout this country". 

The national reaction ranged from complete disgust to self-righteous approval. Some pro-Slavery advocates believed that Lovejoy was a threat to their way of life and had it coming to him. When informed at a meeting about the murder, John Brown said publicly: "Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery."

Underground Railway

John Brown had connections to anti-slavery activists. He started joining the Underground Railway which was a series of safe houses for runaway slaves to hide in on their way to freedom.

John Brown met Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth as well as other famous abolitionists of the day. 

Fugitive slave act - 1850

Tensions were hotting up, national opinions were swinging. Slaves were escaping plantations and many white people were sympathetic and hid them or helped them escape to Canada. Brown aided in the passing [to Canada] of an estimated 2,500 slaves. French Canada was free. After the Revolution, on 4 April 1792, France granted free people of colour full citizenship. The French constitution passed in 1795 included in the declaration of the Rights of Man that slavery was abolished.

The protection of escaped slaves infuriated the slave owners. Appeals were made to the government. If slaves were by law, property, then taking property away from its owner is, by law, stealing. Southern slaveowners started blaming northern abolitionists and the country was becoming divided. 

The law was passed in 1850 that any person found guilty of hiding a slave should face a hefty fine. The Northern states however, had no obligation to actively seek these people so instead, southern slave owners would pay bounty hunters and slave hunters.

Nebraska-Kansas act-  1854

Slavery continued to effect every issue in American politics. When plans were set down to create a cross county train line, the US government needed to issue the Nebraska and Kansas territories statehood. However, they both stood north of the Missouri line. It had previously been agreed that states south of the line would allow slavery and the states north of the line would be free states. If, by this rule, Nebraska and Kansas became free states then the number of free states in the US would outnumber the pro-slavery southern states. The Pro-Slavery States were not happy about this and saw it as a threat once more to their way of life.

The government thought it would be a good compromise to issue these states 'popular sovereignty' which meant the people living in those states would decide. This sounded fair but they underestimated the anger on both sides. There was a rush of settlers to both territories who wanted Kansas and Nebraska either to be a free state or a slave state. Both believed themselves to be justified to force their ideals on the land. Settlers congregated in either all free towns or all pro-slave towns. These rival towns kicked off a time known as Bleeding Kansas. The conflict was characterized by years of electoral fraud, raids, assaults, and murders carried out in the Kansas Territory and neighboring Missouri by pro-slavery "Border Ruffians" and anti-slavery "Free-Staters."

Concerned and passionate, John Brown left for Kansas, enlisting a son-in-law and making several stops just to collect funds and weapons. Brown and the free-state settlers were optimistic that they could bring Kansas into the union as a slavery-free state.

Police Officers in Kansas were either pro-slavery or anti-slavery and tried using their authority to intimidate the other side. One Police Officer went to a free State town named Lawrence and tried arresting a free-stater. Lawrence residents drove the Officer out of town after they shot him. In retaliation the Police stated that this was an assassination attempt and planned to go back with 300 men. This group planned to enter Lawrence, disarm the citizens, destroy the antislavery newspapers, and level the Free State Hotel. 

They marched into town with flags of southern states, looking for violence. The proprietor of the Free State Hotel, soon learned of the oncoming forces, and he journeyed out to meet them. He offered for them to come to his hotel and he'd make them feel at home. They accepted and he  prepared "an elegant dinner, the best that the fresh and abundant stores in the cellar could afford" (which included "costly wines") so as to placate the marshal and his men harmless. The Sheriff his followers ravenously consumed the meal, then left without paying. The Sheriff met with the towns Mayor to discuss the situation at hand. The Sheriff wanted every firearm in the town. The Mayor said that he couldn't do that, however, hoping to encourage the men to leave the city peacefully, agreed to turn over the city's only artillery piece. 

"As soon as Jones had possession of the cannon and other arms, he proceeded to carry out his purpose to destroy the Free-State Hotel. He gave the inmates till five o’clock to get out their personal effects. When all was ready he turned [the posse's very own] cannon upon the hotel and fired. The first ball went completely over the roof, at which all the people cheered, much to the disgust of Jones. The next shot hit the walls but did little damage. After bombarding away with little or no effect till it was becoming monotonous, they attempted to blow up the building with a keg of powder. But this only made a big noise and a big smoke, and did not do much towards demolishing the house. At every failure the citizen spectators along the street set up a shout. At last Jones became desperate, and applied the vulgar torch, and burned the building to the ground. [...] Jones was exultant. His revenge was complete. "This is the happiest moment of my life," he shouted as the walls of the hotel fell. He had made the "fanatics bow to him in the dust." He then dismissed his posse and left." 

One person—a member of Jones's gang—died during the attack, when he was struck in the head by a collapsing bit of the Free State Hotel. Nevertheless, the attack on Lawrence angered many anti-slavery settlers. People had been killed by the ongoing violence on both sides. John Brown, 4 of his sons and a small band of Anti-slavers travelled to the Pro-Slavery Pottawatomie late in the evening.

Wicked Game elections: 1856: 34th min

Some time after dark, the party left their place of hiding and proceeded on their "secret expedition". Late in the evening, they called at the house of James P. Doyle and ordered him and his two adult sons, William and Drury to go with them as prisoners. (Doyle's 16-year-old son, John, was spared after his mother pleaded for his life.) The three men were escorted by their captors out into the darkness, where Owen Brown and one of his brothers killed them with broadswords. John Brown, Sr. did not participate in the stabbing but fired a shot into the head of the fallen James Doyle to ensure he was dead. Brown and his band then went to the house of Allen Wilkinson and ordered him out. He was slashed and stabbed to death by Henry Thompson and Theodore Winer, possibly with help from Brown's sons.^[6] From there, they crossed the Pottawatomie, and some time after midnight, forced their way into the cabin of James Harris at swordpoint. Harris had three house guests: John S. Wightman, Jerome Glanville, and William Sherman, the brother of Henry Sherman ("Dutch Henry"), a militant pro-slavery activist. Glanville and Harris were taken outside for interrogation and asked whether they had threatened Free State settlers, aided Border Ruffians from Missouri, or participated in the sack of Lawrence. Satisfied with their answers, Brown's men let Glanville and Harris return to the cabin. William Sherman, however, was led to the edge of the creek and hacked to death with swords by Winer, Thompson, and Brown's sons. In the two years prior to the massacre, there had been eight killings in Kansas Territory attributable to slavery politics, and none in the vicinity of the massacre. Brown killed five in a single night, and the massacre was the match to the powder keg that precipitated the bloodiest period in "Bleeding Kansas" history, a three-month period of retaliatory raids and battles in which 29 people died.

In August, a company of over 300 Missourians under the command of General John W. Reid crossed into Kansas and headed towards Osawatomie, intending to destroy the Free State settlements there, and then march on Topeka and Lawrence.

On the morning of August 30, 1856, they shot and killed Brown's son Frederick and his neighbor David Garrison on the outskirts of Osawatomie. Brown, outnumbered more than seven to one, arranged his 38 men behind natural defenses along the road. Firing from cover, they managed to kill at least 20 of Reid's men and wounded 40 more. Reid regrouped, ordering his men to dismount and charge into the woods. Brown's small group scattered and fled across the River. One of Brown's men was killed during the retreat and four were captured. While Brown and his surviving men hid in the woods nearby, the Missourians plundered and burned Osawatomie. Despite his defeat, Brown's bravery and military shrewdness in the face of overwhelming odds brought him national attention and made him a hero to many Northern abolitionists.

1856- The Caning of Charles Sumner

Tempers were building, especially within government where the two sides were forced to word together and make important decisions. A senator named Charles Sumner was concerned about the violence in Kansas and was outspoken against slavery. He stood up in the senate and called slavery "hateful" and "deprived" and "a crime". However, he also made personal attacks against a large plantation and slave owner named Andrew Butler who had recently had a stroke and whose cousin was also a senator present. Allegedly they had previously insulted Sumner for opposing the Fugitive Slave Law and claimed he was promoting interracial marriage. That Senator was representative Preston Brooks and he was furious. He intended to challenge Sumner to a duel, and consulted with a fellow South Carolina Representative on dueling etiquette. The Representative told him that dueling was for gentlemen of equal social standing, and that Sumner was no better than a drunkard. Brooks said that he concluded that since Sumner was no gentleman, he did not merit honorable treatment and it was more appropriate to humiliate Sumner by beating him with a cane in a public setting.

    Brooks entered the Senate chamber with two allies. They waited for the galleries to clear, being particularly concerned that there be no ladies present to witness what Brooks intended to do. He confronted Sumner as he sat writing at his desk in the almost empty Senate chamber. "Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina, and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine," Brooks calmly announced in a low voice. As Sumner began to stand up, Brooks beat Sumner severely on the head before he could reach his feet, using a thick cane with a gold head.

Sumner was knocked down and trapped under the heavy desk, which was bolted to the floor. Brooks continued to strike Sumner until Sumner rose to his feet and ripped the desk from the floor in an effort to get away from Brooks. By this time, Sumner was blinded by his own blood. He staggered up the aisle and, arms outstretched, vainly attempted to defend himself. But then he was an even larger and easier target for Brooks, who continued to beat him across the head, face, and shoulders "to the full extent of [my] power." Brooks did not stop when his cane snapped; he continued thrashing Sumner with the piece which held the gold head. Sumner collapsed unconscious. Brooks grabbed the falling Sumner, held him up by the lapel with one hand, and continued to lash out at him with the cane in the other. Several other Senators and Representatives attempted to help Sumner, but were blocked by his accomplishes, who yelled at the spectators to leave Brooks and Sumner alone. They brandished their own cane and a pistol, and shouted, "Let them be!" and "Let them alone, God damn you, let them alone!"

Eventually Senators were able to intervene and pull Brooks away. The cane Brooks used was broken into several pieces, which he left on the blood-soaked floor of the Senate chamber. 

Opinions after the attack were stark and divisive. Some were outraged by the attack and denounced the violence. Some commended Brooks for the attack and claimed that it was justified. Sumner became a martyr in the North and Brooks a hero in the South. 

New York Evening Post, asked, "Has it come to this, that we must speak with bated breath in the presence of our Southern masters?... Are we to be chastised as they chastise their slaves? Are we too, slaves, slaves for life, a target for their brutal blows, when we do not comport ourselves to please them?" Thousands attended rallies in support of Sumner in Boston, Albany, Cleveland, Detroit, New Haven, New York, and Providence. More than a million copies of Sumner's speech were distributed.

Conversely, Brooks was praised by Southern newspapers. The Richmond Enquirer editorialized that Sumner should be caned "every morning," praising the attack as "good in conception, better in execution, and best of all in consequences" and denounced "these vulgar abolitionists in the Senate" who "have been suffered to run too long without collars. They must be lashed into submission." Southerners sent Brooks hundreds of new canes in endorsement of his assault. One was inscribed "Hit him again." Southern lawmakers made rings out of the pieces recovered from the Senate floor, which they wore on neck chains to show their solidarity with Brooks, who boasted "[The pieces of my cane] are begged for as sacred relics."

 Brooks was arrested for the assault. He was tried in a District of Columbia court, convicted, and fined $300 ($8,640 in today's dollars), but received no prison sentence. A motion for Brooks' expulsion from the House failed, but he resigned on July 15.

1857 - Dred Scott Case

Scott met and married Harriet Robinson, a fellow slave in 1837. While on a steamboat on the Mississippi River Harriet Scott gave birth to their first child, whom they named Eliza after their new master. In 1846, Scott attempted to purchase his and his family's freedom, offering $300, about $8,000 in current value. Their owner refused his offer. Scott and his wife separately filed freedom suits to try to gain their freedom and that of their daughters. The cases were later combined by the courts.

Having failed to purchase his freedom, Scott filed a freedom suit in St. Louis Circuit Court. The Scott children were around the age of ten when the case was originally filed. The Scotts were worried that their daughters might be sold.

The Scotts' cases were first heard by the Missouri circuit court. The first court upheld the precedent of "once free, always free". That is, because the Scotts had been held voluntarily for an extended period by their owner in a free territory, which provided for slaves to be freed under such conditions. Therefore, the court ruled they had gained their freedom. The owner appealed.

In 1852 the Missouri supreme court overruled this decision, on the basis that the state did not have to abide by free states' laws, especially given the anti-slavery fervor of the time. It said that Scott should have filed for freedom in the Wisconsin Territory.

As the case gained national attention prominent abolitionists began paying for Dred's legal fees. 

After each lawyer passionately debated their side of the argument, The Court had ruled that African Americans had no claim to freedom or citizenship. Since they were not citizens, they did not possess the legal standing to bring suit in a federal court. As slaves were private property, Congress did not have the power to regulate slavery in the territories and could not revoke a slave owner's rights based on where he lived. The Constitution protected the property of US Citizens and if slaves are property, the government had no right to take it away. This decision nullified the, up to now, legal standing of 'once free, always free', that once a slave passed into a free state they were free forever. A disregard for this law meant that the state of Missouri was overruling a US government decision. 

I was ruled that because Scott was considered the private property of his owners, he was subject to the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the taking of property from its owner "without due process".

Rather than settling issues, as the judge had hoped, the court's ruling in the Scott case increased tensions between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in both North and South, further pushing the country toward the brink of civil war. The newspaper coverage of the court ruling and the 10-year legal battle raised awareness of slavery in non-slave states. 

Following the ruling, the uproar and anger over the decision from abolitionists was so much that efforts were made to buy the freedom for the Scotts. It was agreed in private and their new owners freed them on May 26, 1857. Scott worked at a St. Louis hotel, but his freedom was short-lived; he died from tuberculosis in September 1858, less than 2 years as a free man. He was survived, however, by his wife and his two daughters. His wife lived for a further 18 years after her husband, as a free woman. 

1858 Raid, Rescue and Railroad 

John brown gathered 13 men that winter. They crossed into Missouri and attacked 3 small plantations. He rescued 11 slaves and killed 1 of the owners. They escaped back to Kansas and hid.

 President Buchanan even offered a $250 reward for John Brown’s capture. Brown mockingly responded by offering $2.50 for the arrest of Buchanan. 

Brown set out with the liberated slaves, marching through a bitter prairie winter, eluding capture along the way. 

Through a combination of stealth and luck, they evaded capture. When possible, they took shelter at stops along the Underground Railroad. But the further east Brown traveled, the more he found people sympathetic to what he’d done. 

On March 9 they traveled by boxcar from West Liberty to Chicago. There, the detective Allan Pinkerton raised over $500 for Brown and arranged for another boxcar to take them to Detroit. 

On March 12, 1859, after eighty-two days and over a thousand miles of hard travel, John Brown saw the rescued group of thirteen (a baby had been born along the way) off on a ferry bound for freedom in Canada.

The Raid on Harper's Ferry - 1859

John Brown had been planning for years an anti-slavery raid that would strike a significant blow against the entire slave system. With every passing year and the escalation between abolitionists and slavers gave him more and more resolve to follow through. He received financial backing from prominent abolitionists and starting trying to recruit men for an attack. 

As he began recruiting supporters for an attack on slaveholders, Brown was joined by Harriet Tubman, "General Tubman," as he called her. Her knowledge of support networks and resources in the border states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware was invaluable to Brown and his planners. John Brown asked Frederick Douglass to join him but he declined. Douglas believed freedom for blacks could be gained eventually by peaceful means and reasoning. He was afraid that violence would set them back.

John Brown's target was the Harper's Ferry Armory. The armory was a large complex of buildings that contained 100,000 muskets and rifles, which Brown planned to seize and use to arm local slaves. They would then head south, drawing off more and more slaves from plantations, and fighting only in self-defense. As Douglass and Brown's family testified, his strategy was essentially to deplete Virginia of its slaves, causing the institution to collapse in one county after another, until the movement spread into the South, wreaking havoc on the economic viability of the pro-slavery states

Brown had only 21 men (16 white and 5 black: three free blacks, one freed slave, and a fugitive slave). They ranged in age from 21 to 49. However, John Brown and his men were tired of waiting and tired of the injustices enacted on enslaved people. So they planned to attack regardless.

Initially, the raid went well, and they met no resistance entering the town. They cut the telegraph wires and easily captured the armory, which was being defended by a single watchman. They next rounded up hostages from nearby farms, including Colonel Lewis Washington, great-grandnephew of George Washington. 

Things started to go wrong when an eastbound train approached the town. After holding the train, Brown inexplicably allowed it to continue on its way. Likely because he didn't have enough men to hold it. At the next station where the telegraph still worked, the conductor sent a telegram to its headquarters in Baltimore. The railroad sent telegrams to President Buchanan. 

News of the raid reached Baltimore early that morning and Washington by late morning. In the meantime, local farmers, shopkeepers, and militia pinned down the raiders in the armory by firing from the heights behind the town. Some of the local men were shot by Brown's men. At noon, a company of militia seized the bridge, blocking the only escape route. Brown then moved his prisoners and remaining raiders into the fire engine house, a small brick building at the armory's entrance. He had the doors and windows barred and loopholes cut through the brick walls. The surrounding forces barraged the engine house, and the men inside fired back with occasional fury. Brown sent his son Watson and another supporter out under a white flag, but the angry crowd shot them. Intermittent shooting then broke out, and Brown's son Oliver was wounded. His son begged his father to kill him and end his suffering, but Brown said "If you must die, die like a man." A few minutes later, Oliver was dead. The exchanges lasted throughout the day.

By the morning of October 18 the engine house was surrounded by a company of U.S. Marines under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee of the United States Army. Army First Lieutenant J. E. B. Stuart approached under a white flag and told the raiders their lives would be spared if they surrendered. Brown, who had now lost two sons, refused, saying, "No, I prefer to die here." Stuart then gave a signal. The Marines used sledgehammers and a makeshift battering ram to break down the engine room door. They cornered Brown and struck him several times, wounding his head. In three minutes Brown and the survivors were captives. 

Altogether, Brown's men killed four people and wounded nine. Ten of Brown's men were killed, including his sons Watson and Oliver. Five escaped, including his son Owen, and seven were captured along with Brown.

The Trial 

A warrant was issued for anyone who had come into contact with John Brown in the days prior to the attack. Many of Brown's supporters had to go into hiding or flee. Frederick Douglass fled into Canada the day before federal troops showed up to arrest him. He then traveled to the UK to give public speeches against slavery in the US. 

The trial began October 27, after a doctor pronounced the still-wounded Brown fit for trial. Brown was charged with murdering four whites and a black, inciting a slave insurrection, and treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia. 

On November 2, after a week-long trial and 45 minutes of deliberation, the Charles Town jury found Brown guilty on all three counts. He was sentenced to be hanged in public on December 2.

The trial attracted reporters who were able to send their articles via the new telegraph. They were reprinted in numerous papers. This was the first trial in the U.S. to be nationally reported.

Under Virginia law, a month had to elapse before the death sentence could be carried out. Brown made it clear repeatedly in his letters and conversations that these were the happiest days of his life. He would be publicly murdered, as he put it, but he was an old man and, he said, near death anyway. Brown was politically shrewd and realized his execution would strike a massive blow against Slave Power, a greater blow than he had made so far or had prospects of making otherwise. His death now had a purpose. In the meantime, the death sentence allowed him to publicize his anti-slavery views through the reporters constantly present in Charles Town. Once he had been convicted, the restriction was lifted, and, glad for the publicity, he talked with reporters and anyone else who wanted to see him. Brown received more letters than he ever had in his life. He wrote replies constantly, hundreds of eloquent letters, often published in newspapers, and expressed regret that he could not answer every one of the hundreds more he received. His words exuded spirituality and conviction. Letters picked up by the Northern press won him more supporters in the North while infuriating many white people in the South.

There were plans to rescue John Brown but the Governor heard about it and the town was filled with various types of troops and militia, hundreds and sometimes thousands of them. Brown's trips from the jail to the courthouse and back, and especially the short trip from the jail to the gallows, were heavily guarded. 

However, Brown said several times that he did not want to be rescued. He refused the assistance of Silas Soule, a friend from Kansas who somehow infiltrated the Jefferson County Jail one day and offered to break him out during the night and flee northward to New York State and possibly Canada. Brown told Silas that, aged 59, he was too old to live a life on the run from the federal authorities as a fugitive. As he wrote his wife and children from jail, he believed that his "blood will do vastly more towards advancing the cause I have earnestly endeavored to promote, than all I have done in my life before." "I am worth inconceivably more to hang than for any other purpose."

On December 1, Brown's wife arrived by train in Charles Town, where she joined him at the county jail for his last meal. She was denied permission to stay the night, prompting Brown to lose his composure and temper for the only time during the ordeal.

The next morning he he read his Bible and wrote a final letter to his wife, which included his will. At 11:00 a.m. he rode, sitting on his coffin in a furniture wagon, from the county jail through a crowd of 2,000 soldiers to a small field a few blocks away, where the gallows were. He was able to make one last speech before his execution.

"Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved (for I admire the truthfulness and candor of the greater portion of the witnesses who have testified in this case), had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.

    This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament. That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me, further, to "remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them." I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done as I have always freely admitted I have done in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit; so let it be done!"
    Brown's willingness to go to the gallows had a moral force of it's own. One article read "these men, in teaching us how to die, have at the same time taught us how to live."

The outpouring of sympathy to John Brown received, particularly from the northern states angered and alienated many southerners. He was considered crazy and mentally unstable for 100 years. It wasn't until 1960s until people didn't have to believe him crazy for dying for black freedom. 

A terrorist? A Hero? Both?

Abraham Lincoln

11 months after the death of John Brown came the 1860 presidential election.

One of the nominees was a man named Abraham Lincoln. He was a tall, quiet man who grew up in a log cabin in Illinois. Although he was a big and strong guy he loved to read. Lincoln was anti-slavery but not necessarily pro-equality. It's interesting at this moment to point out that racism isn't black and white. Racism is a spectrum. 

Slavery great

Slavery necessary evil

Not sure

Slavery is bad but blacks not equal   

Slavery is wrong and blacks are equal 

This spectrum doesn't fully represent the full range of options but only a basic view. Lincoln most likely would be places as anti-slavery but not fully convinced that black people could live beside white people and have the same rights. 

His campaign stance was to prevent the spread of slavery but he didn't believe he constitutionally have the right to abolish slavery. Up to this point slavery had been protected under the constitution due to the fourth amendment and the protection of property. 

Lincoln recognized slavery as an evil practice but respected his office as representative of the people and not a king who can make sole decisions. 

His campaign stance upset people on both sides. Abolitionists didn't think he was hard enough and wanted him to ban Slavery entirely as well as give black people equal rights. One of his plans was to stop the expansion of slavery and to send the freed slaves back to Africa. Most likely the American colony of Liberia. 

The other side thought that he was conspiring against them, presenting himself as someone that wouldn't outlaw slavery but secretly wanted to. If slavery couldn't exist in new territories that would be claimed then the pro-slavery politicians would be outnumbered in congress.  

We get a good understanding of his position from a letter he wrote to his friend Joshua Speed.

Dear Speed: Springfield, Aug: 24, 1855

You know what a poor correspondent I am. Ever since I received your very agreeable letter I have been intending to write you in answer to it. You suggest that in political action now, you and I would differ. I suppose we would; not quite as much, however, as you may think. You know I dislike slavery; and you fully admit the abstract wrong of it. So far there is no cause of difference. But you say that sooner than yield your legal right to the slave---especially at the bidding of those who are not themselves interested, you would see the Union dissolved. I am not aware that any one is bidding you to yield that right; very certainly I am not. I leave that matter entirely to yourself. I also acknowledge your rights and my obligations, under the constitution, in regard to your slaves. I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down, and caught, and carried back to their stripes, and unrewarded toils; but I bite my lip and keep quiet. In 1841 you and I had together a tedious low-water trip, on a Steam Boat from Louisville to St. Louis. You may remember, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio there were, on board, ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons.  That sight was a continual torment to me; and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave-border. It is hardly fair for you to assume, that I have no interest in a thing which has, and continually exercises, the power of making me miserable. You ought rather to appreciate how much the great body of the Northern people do crucify their feelings, in order to maintain their loyalty to the constitution and the Union.

I do oppose the extension of slavery, because my judgment and feelings so prompt me; and I am under no obligation to the contrary. If for this you and I must differ, differ we must. You say if you were President, you would send an army and hang the leaders of the Missouri outrages upon the Kansas elections; still, if Kansas fairly votes herself a slave state, she must be admitted, or the Union must be dissolved. In your assumption that there may be a fair decision of the slavery question in Kansas, I plainly see you and I would differ about the Nebraska-law. I look upon that enactment not as a law, but as violence from the beginning. It was conceived in violence, passed in violence, is maintained in violence, and is being executed in violence. I say it was conceived in violence, because the destruction of the Missouri Compromise, under the circumstances, was nothing less than violence. It is being executed in the precise way which was intended from the first. 

You enquire where I now stand. That is a disputed point. I think

I am a whig; but others say there are no whigs, and that I am an abolitionist. I now do no more than oppose the extension of slavery.

As a nation, we began by declaring that ``all men are created equal.'' We now practically read it ``all men are created equal, except negroes.'' 

A. LINCOLN---

He also gave a campaign speech in 1859.

"I will say then, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters of the negroes, or jurors, or qualifying them to hold office, of having them to marry with white people. I will say in addition, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races, which I suppose, will forever forbid the two races living together upon terms of social and political equality, and inasmuch, as they cannot so live, that while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior and inferior, that I as much as any other man am in favor of the superior position being assigned to the white man."

During his campaign his stances seemed and were diplomatic and unclear. 

A house divided cannot stand speech:  my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand."

I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing or all the other

Lincoln vs Adam's debate- American Elections Wicked Game -- 9th min

The Election 

When the election came along, it was and still is to this day, the most divisive US election in history. Northerners voted either to dissuade the spread of slavery (which had become more and more disliked by northerners for all of the events we've already covered.) Southerners voted to conserve their way of life and keep the black people in their place.

In eleven states in the southern United States ballots for Lincoln were cast only in Virginia, where he received 1,929 votes (1.15 percent of the total). Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the votes Lincoln received were cast in border counties of what would soon become West Virginia – the future state accounted for 1,832 of Lincoln's 1,929 votes. Lincoln received no votes at all in 121 of the state's then-145 counties (including 31 of the 50 that would form West Virginia), he received a single vote in three counties and received ten or fewer votes in nine of the 24 counties where he polled votes.

Some key differences between modern elections and the those of the mid-nineteenth century are that at the time, not only was there was no secret ballot anywhere in the United States, but the state did not print and distribute ballots. In ten southern slave states, no citizen would publicly pledge to vote for Abraham Lincoln, so citizens there had no legal means to vote for the Republican nominee. In most of Virginia, no publisher would print ballots for Lincoln's pledged electors

Lincoln won the election in an electoral college landslide with 180 electoral votes, although he secured less than 40 percent of the popular vote. The North had many more people than the South and therefore control of the Electoral College. Lincoln dominated the Northern states but didn’t carry a single Southern state.

Abraham Lincoln won the election on Nov 6th 1860

Southerners would horrified that Lincoln had won the election. Even though he claimed not to want to abolish slavery completely the vast majority of people didn't trust him. Politicians and people of influence often did own slaves and they were afraid of being outnumbered in the US Government so they tried to scare the working class people. Southerners were told to hate Lincoln and fear the emancipation of black people in the country. They feared that if black people were equal citizens then some of their politicians, mayors and governors might end up being black. (This was still a time where you couldn't be a woman, catholic, gay, Jewish or atheist and hold office.)

This fear got to such a state that a month after Lincoln won and three months before Lincoln would officially become president, South Carolina Declared Secession from the United States.

Before Lincoln took office in March 1861, seven slave states had declared their secession and joined to form the Confederacy and seven more would join before his first year as president was done. 

In the House of Representatives, Pro-Slavery Politicians tried to pass the Corwin Amendment which attempted to make it unconstitutional to ban "domestic institutions" inside an individual state. This was directly protecting slavery and attempted to protect is forever. The outgoing president Buchanan signed it but it was too late and there wasn't enough time for it to pass congress. The southern states had seceded and in doing could not vote on it. Instead it was up to border states. Kentucky, Ohio and Rhode Island had voted for it but by that time the Civil war was in full swing. The amendment was abandoned.

South Carolina was the first and released a declaration of immediate secession. 

Print declaration of secession for each state to pinpoint the reason

Lincoln wrote to Alexander Stephens:

Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a Republican administration would, directly, or indirectly, interfere with their slaves, or with them, about their slaves? If they do, I wish to assure you, as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy, that there is no cause for such fears.

The South would be in no more danger in this respect, than it was in the days of Washington. I suppose, however, this does not meet the case. You think slavery is right and ought to be extended; while we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the rub. It certainly is the only substantial difference between us.

Yours very truly

A. LINCOLN

Abraham Lincoln became President March 4th 1861 

Lincoln took office with seven states in active rebellion and seven more planning to. He claimed not to have an aim to abolish slavery, however, his focus was now firmly on keeping the United States together. 

Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederate states gave this speech, March 21st, 1861.

"Our new government... foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition."

Following South Carolina's lead several weeks earlier, Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama secede from the Union over a period of just three days from January 9-11, 1861. In "A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union," the state of Mississippi explains:

Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery - the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product, which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin.  

1861-1865 American Civil War

South Carolina demanded that the U.S. Army abandon its facilities in Charleston Harbor. Instead of leaving the US Army unit moved into Fort Sumter, a substantial fortress built on an island controlling the entrance of Charleston Harbor. Conditions in the fort deteriorated due to shortages of men, food, and supplies as the Union soldiers rushed to complete the installation of additional guns.

Fort Sumtner was defended by Robert Anderson who was loyal to the Union of the United States. He had taught at the military academy in New York. He had taught many of the soldiers he now fought against. This included P. G. T. Beauregard who now commanded the troops who surrounded Fort Sumtner. 

The resupply of Fort Sumter became the first crisis of the administration of the newly inaugurated U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. The newly formed Confederate Government gave the threat that the Fort needed to be evacuated or they would destroy it. The US Army refused and Beginning at 4:30 a.m. on April 12, the Confederates bombarded the fort from artillery batteries surrounding the harbor. Although the Union garrison returned fire, they were significantly outgunned and, after 34 hours, Major Anderson agreed to evacuate. There were no deaths on either side as a direct result of this engagement, 

President Abraham Lincoln then put out a call for 75,000 volunteers to join the US Army and suppress the rebellion. The Confederacy saw this as an act of war and the US was officially at war with itself. 

Border states of Maryland, Delaware, Missouri and the new West Virginia recognized themselves as neutral border states. They were pro-slavery and against abolition but also against secession and breaking the Union. Maryland's legislature voted overwhelmingly (53–13) to stay in the Union, but also rejected hostilities with its southern neighbors, voting to close Maryland's rail lines to prevent them from being used for war. Feelings were mixed in these border states. Riots broke out in Baltimore between Unionists and Pro-Confederates and 16 people died and hundreds were injured. It's known as the first bloodshed of the civil war.

The Union's plan was to blockade the Confederate States and cut of their supply and trade routes. These included the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River. The UK imported most of its cotton from the Confederate states and as a result their trade was blocked.

Another interesting point is that Generals who had been fighting side by side in the Mexican-American war were now facing off against one another.

Southern Motivation 

Keep black people in their place either to reduce competition for jobs or for racial reasons

Some joined to protect their home states from northern/federal rule

Not all Confederates owned slaves, but most either lived in households that did or aspired to in the future.

Many poor southerners refused to fight the war however, because they felt it was a war fought for the rich slaveowners. 

https://open.spotify.com/track/1ug70qutYkXTfhc6YFxVbY?si=sOwSLo7AQ_GvDA60m48CUw

Northern Motivation

Some men joined for adventure

Some joined to oppose slavery

Many believed that the rich slaveowners held too much power. It was known as slave-power. 

Most wanted to preserve the union and saw the south as traitors. 

Many northerners were also racist and believed that once slavery was abolished there would be more jobs and better pay or the black people would go back to Africa. 

"John Brown's body" was a popular song of the union

First Bull Run - 1861

Lincoln's first plan of action was to send a force of 35,000 troops from DC down to capture the confederate capital of Richmond. They didn't travel far until they came into contact with a Confederate army of 20,000 men. They camped either side of the Bull Run river just north of the town of Manassas. In the morning the Union attacked and people travelled from DC to watch from the hillsides. The Union pushed the Confederates back. The Confederates fought from a defensive position most of the day. The stood firm and their General, Thomas Jackson became known as "Stonewall" Jackson for his immovability.  That afternoon reinforcements arrived for the Confederates and letting out a "Rebel Yell" they charged the center of the Union lines. The Union troops fell into retreat back to DC but the disorganization of the Confederates meant they couldn't take advantage of the victory. The lost proved to the Union that it would not be an easy war.

Lincoln suppresses the Free Press

A new foe he judged nearly as dangerous as armed Rebels: Antiwar, anti-administration, anti-recruitment newspaper editors. Against these foes, the Union government commenced an additional war, which Lincoln eventually came to support almost as ardently as the fight to restore the Union. Months earlier, Lincoln had assured delegates to a Washington peace conference that even in the wake of secession, he still believed a free press “necessary to a free government.” Outright rebellion altered his thinking on the subject, especially after the July battle that was supposed to  end the war in an afternoon. Following Bull Run, the administration turned its attention not only to forging weaponry and raising more troops, but also to quelling home-front newspaper criticism that the president believed was morphing from tolerable dissent into nation-threatening treason.

In the wake of this tightened oversight, some Democratic war opponents tried arguing that constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press must remain absolute no matter what the danger of an armed revolt. Even Lincoln’s friend Edward Baker, in one of his final speeches in the U.S. Senate before accepting his fateful military commission, insisted that neither the eradication of slavery nor the preservation of the Union justified threats to “the liberty of the press.” Critics pointed out that the First Amendment unequivocally guaranteed: “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” And Congress never did. This did not inhibit the administration from determining that in an unprecedented case of rebellion, and under the powers the president had claimed in order to crush it, military necessity superseded constitutional protection, and contingency trumped the organic assurances of freedom of expression within the Bill of Rights.

Based on this argument, the administration began conducting—or, when it occurred spontaneously, tolerating—repressive actions against opposition newspapers. At their most unobjectionable level, the safeguards were initially meant to keep secret military information off the telegraph wires and out of the press. But in other early cases censors also prevented the publication of prosecession sentiments that might encourage border states out of the Union and keep overall motivation for the war high.

Peninsula Campaign 

General McQuellen attempted to invade the thin stretch off Maryland and made headway. General Lee arrived for the confederates and knew McQuellen was an overly cautious man and attacked aggressively causing McQuellen to make repeated tactical retreats. General Lee continued to be a powerful leader in the eastern theater of war.

With the country at war with itself and Confederates winning, Lincoln and his wife faced a personal tragedy and their 12 year old son died of Typhoid Fever.

Capture of New Orleans 1862

In 1862 the Union captured New Orleans which was the mouth of the Mississippi river. This damaged Confederate trade drastically.

The first battle between ironclad War Ships happened on 9 March 1862, as the armored Monitor was deployed to protect the Union's wooden fleet from the ironclad ram Virginia and other Confederate warships. In this engagement, the second day of the Battle of Hampton Roads, the two ironclads repeatedly tried to ram one another while shells bounced off their armor. The battle attracted attention worldwide, making it clear that the wooden warship was now out of date, with the ironclads destroying them easily.

Battle of Shiloh - 1862

General Grant launched an attack from Kentucky into Tennessee. It was a fierce battle. General Grant was the opposite of McQuellen and was not cautious and took risks. He knew that the Union outnumbered the Confederates so he threw his men into dangerous engagements. He won this battle but with great losses and he became known as Grant the Butcher. 

Battle of Antietam - 1862

https://youtu.be/HjKKoLHwwB8

It was the bloodiest day in American history, with a combined tally of 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing. General Lee and the Confederates attempted to invade Maryland. The overly cautious McQuellen was there to meet him and despite heavy losses, managed to force the Confederates into retreat. McQuellen, being cautious, didn't want to chase them and risk losing more men and risk a potential loss. Lincoln ordered them to chase the retreating Confederates but McQuellen refused. Lincoln then removed McQuellen from his position as General in response. 

Emancipation proclamation 1863

During the war slaves were escaping to the north and the northern soldiers were helping them escape. They were enemy property and resources that would help the north. Union soldiers saw no obligation to return them. However, these escaped slaves and their new found freedom was against US Laws since the Fugitive Slave Act was technically still legal especially when Lincoln wanted to reunify the country. Union Generals were breaking the law by not returned the thousands of slaves.

    In addition, the UK was considering supporting the Confederates because of the cotton they supplied them. Foreign intervention was becoming the only likely way for the Confederates to win. However, anti-slavery sentiment was stronger in the UK and seemed like a clash of ideological stances to many. Lincoln thought that if he was stronger on the issue of slavery he would guarantee that the UK wouldn't intervein on the side of the Confederates. 

So Lincoln released this statement -

"That on the first day of January in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom."

      He had waited for a few Union victories before announcing the controversial bill so that moral was higher than average. The bill itself didn't free slaves in the Union States but only freed slaves in Confederate States. Slaves in neutral states were 

On January 1, 1863, the Proclamation changed the legal status under federal law of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the secessionist Confederate states from enslaved to free. As soon as a slave escaped the control of the Confederate government, either by running away across Union lines or through the advance of federal troops, the person was permanently free. 

Lincoln called the war “a John Brown raid, on a gigantic scale.”

That same month Lincoln appointed the first US ambassadors to the first modern Black countries of Haiti and Liberia. 

The 54th Massachusetts 

After the emancipation proclamation the Union Army began recruiting Black soldiers. Prominent abolitionists were active in recruitment efforts, including Frederick Douglass, whose two sons were among the first to enlist. Massachusetts Governor John Albion Andrew, who had long pressured the U.S. Department of War to begin recruiting African-Americans, placed a high priority on the formation of the 54th Massachusetts.

While southerners were keeping 1/3 of their fighting force at home to watch over the slaves and preventing slave uprisings. The north began enlisting blacks.

Confederates knew they needed more troops. So, in a contradiction of values, they offered slaves freedom if they fought. Many Confederates were angered by this and deserted. Many slaves saw this as a better chance than trying to escape to the north through a war zone.

Watch "Glory"

Death of Stonewall Jackson

The evening after a battle, as Jackson and his staff were returning to camp on May 2, they were mistaken for a Union cavalry force by a regiment who shouted, "Halt, who goes there?", but fired before evaluating the reply. Frantic shouts by Jackson's staff identifying the party were. In all, Jackson was hit by three bullets, two in the left arm and one in the right hand. Several other men in his staff were killed, in addition to many horses. Darkness and confusion prevented Jackson from getting immediate care. He was dropped from his stretcher while being evacuated because of incoming artillery rounds. Because of his injuries, Jackson's left arm had to be amputated. He contracted pneumonia and died 3 days later. 

Gettysburg - 1863

General Lee was driving north through Virginia and entered the free state of Pennsylvania. He was heading to DC to capture the Union capital. Furthest North the Confederates had marched. If they had won they could've got to Philadelphia next and mass panic would've overtaken. 

Watch battle scenes in the film, "Gettysburg"

1863 Draft Riot

In March 1863 the Enrollment Act passed which allowed the Union Army to enroll abled-bodied men into the military via a draft. The Army wanted to ensure it had the numbers needed to win the war. When the draft was released the working class people were upset because they didn't choose to fight the war, most didn't care about slavery, black people were excluded from the draft because they weren't considered citizens and rich people could pay for a substitute and never had to fight. The working class felt cheated and angry.  The Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863 alarmed much of the white working class in New York, who feared that freed slaves would migrate to the city and add further competition to the labor market. There had already been tensions between black and white workers since the 1850s, particularly at the docks, with free blacks and immigrants competing for low-wage jobs in the city.

An angry crowd attacked the draft office, the crowd threw large paving stones through windows, burst through the doors, and set the building ablaze. Police drew their clubs and revolvers and charged the crowd but were overpowered. The police were badly outnumbered and unable to quell the riots. The Bull's Head hotel on 44th Street, which refused to provide alcohol to the mob, was burned.  The New York Tribune was attacked, being looted and burned; not until police arrived and extinguished the flames, dispersing the crowd. Later in the afternoon, authorities shot and killed a man as a crowd attacked the armory at Second Avenue and 21st Street. The mob broke all the windows with paving stones ripped from the street. The mob beat, tortured and/or killed numerous black people.

The Colored Orphan Asylum at 43rd Street and Fifth Avenue, a "symbol of white charity to blacks and of black upward mobility" that provided shelter for 233 children, was attacked by a mob at around 4 p.m. A mob of several thousand, including many women and children, looted the building of its food and supplies. However, the police were able to secure the orphanage for enough time to allow the orphans to escape before the building burned down. Throughout the areas of rioting, mobs attacked and killed numerous black people and destroyed their known homes and businesses, such as James McCune Smith's pharmacy at 93 West Broadway, believed to be the first owned by a black man in the United States.

Vicksburg - 1863

July 1863, the Union troops had been making their way down the Mississippi River from Illinois and Missouri. They had captured New Orleans. The troops planned to capture the whole Mississippi and cut the Confederate States in half. As the Union troops approached one another the middle point was Vicksburg.

Vicksburg was the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River; therefore, capturing it completed the second part of the Northern strategy, the Anaconda Plan. When two major assaults against the Confederate fortifications, on May 19 and 22, were repulsed with heavy casualties, Grant decided to besiege the city beginning on May 25. After holding out for more than forty days, with their supplies nearly gone, the garrison surrendered on July 4. The successful ending of the Vicksburg campaign significantly degraded the ability of the Confederacy to maintain its war effort. 

West Virginia was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, and was a key border state during the war. It was the only state to form by separating from a Confederate state.

Frederick Douglass visits the White House, August 1863

Douglass had traveled to Washington to complain about unequal treatment of African American soldiers in the Union Army. Expecting to have to wait a long time for his audience with the president, Douglass was surprised to hear his name called quickly. Some of the white applicants waiting to be interviewed were angered that a black man was seen before them, and one uttered a racist epithet loud enough for Douglass to hear (Oakes, p. 77). However, Douglass was immediately put at ease by Lincoln. "I at once felt myself in the presence of an honest man," Douglass later recalled, "one whom I could love, honor, and trust without reserve or doubt". During their second meeting, almost exactly one year later, Lincoln's secretary interrupted them twice to inform Lincoln that William Buckingham, the Governor of Connecticut and a close friend of Lincoln's, was waiting to see him. Lincoln earned Douglass' lasting respect by his response: "Tell Governor Buckingham to wait, for I want to have a long talk with my friend Frederick Douglass"

Gettysburg Address

Watch the speech performed by Daniel Day-Lewis

The Gettysburg Address is a speech that U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered during the American Civil War at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on the afternoon of November 19, 1863, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg.

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

—Abraham Lincoln
We often think of famous figures as stationary beings, we view them with specific values. When Lincolns words seem contradictory it could be that he held inconsistent view but if you map those views out over time it's clear he is human like the rest of us and his views can change over time. After meeting Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth and hearing the success of the Black Regiments in the Union army it's more than reasonable to believe that Lincoln had changed his views of Black people's inferiority to the white man. After his 1860 presidential campaign was trying to send black people back to Africa, through his experiences as president it was clear he wanted to give them equal rights as white Americans. 

1864

The next year was fought as a war of attrition. The Confederates could no longer mount themselves as a threat to the north. They gave up on trying to invade the north and instead fought to resist the northern Union invasion. 

A lot of people question that if Lincoln was so against slavery why didn't he free all the slaves in the USA as soon as he became president. A letter he wrote in 1864 gives us insight. 

"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel. And yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. I could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an oath to get power, and break the oath in using the power. I understood, too, that in ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade me to practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I had publicly declared this many times, and in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery. I did understand however, that my oath to preserve the constitution to the best of my ability, imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every indispensable means, that government -- that nation -- of which that constitution was the organic law." 

Election of 1864

While being in a civil war, Lincoln had to run for reelection. His opponent was McQuellen the top general he had fire a year earlier. For much of 1864, Lincoln himself believed he had little chance of being re-elected. Confederate forces had triumphed in several recent battles. However, the opposition party was split between representatives who wanted the war to end immediately and those who wanted to see it through. Two months before the election the Union army scored a huge victory in capturing the southern city of Atlanta. After this win, Confederate surrender looked inventible. 

Lincoln Wins!

 President Abraham Lincoln of the National Union Party easily defeated the Democratic nominee, former General George B. McClellan, by a wide margin of 212–21 in the electoral college, with 55% of the popular vote.

In his second swearing in he gave this speech:

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." - Lincoln 1865 

1865 and surrender

The Civil war was wining down. Initially, Lee did not intend to surrender but planned to regroup at the village of Appomattox Court House, where supplies were to be waiting and then continue the war. Grant chased Lee and got in front of him so that when Lee's army reached Appomattox Court House, they were surrounded. After an initial battle, Lee decided that the fight was now hopeless, and surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865, at the McLean House. In an untraditional gesture and as a sign of Grant's respect and anticipation of peacefully restoring Confederate states to the Union, Lee was permitted to keep his sword and his horse, Traveler. His men were paroled, and a chain of Confederate surrenders began.

General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered nearly 90,000 men  near present-day Durham, North Carolina. It proved to be the largest surrender of Confederate forces. On May 4, all remaining Confederate forces in Alabama and Mississippi surrendered. President Johnson officially declared an end to the insurrection on May 9, 1865; Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy was captured the following day.  On June 23, Cherokee leader Stand Watie became the last Confederate general to surrender his forces. The final Confederate surrender was by the Shenandoah on November 6, 1865, bringing all hostilities of the four year war to a close.

With Union victory meant that the Confederate States were reintroduced to the USA. As a result the Emancipation Proclamation was enforced across the south.

The war claimed the lives of between 600,000 to 1 million soldiers. Between 400,000 and 600,000 died of disease rather than being killed by the enemy.

Walt Whitman, who fought in the war said, "The whole darn War business is 999 parts diarrhea for one part glory."

Why the Union Won?

The Union did have more citizens which was one of the reasons Lincoln won the election of 1840. 22 million vs 9 million - 3.5 million were slaves. North had 90% of the manufacturing and 32x more guns than the south. North had double the railroads however the South proved to have better generals.

The 13th Amendment 

December 1865, Radical politicians had been pushing for black equality for years. This time is was becoming mainstream and realistic. The Senate passed the amendment on April 8, 1864, by a vote of 38 to 6. The amendment finally passed by a vote of 119 to 56, narrowly reaching the required two-thirds majority. The House exploded into celebration, with some members openly weeping. Black onlookers, who had only been allowed to attend Congressional sessions since the previous year, cheered from the galleries.

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

33 out of 36 States approved the Amendment within 5 years of being asked. It took Delaware 35 years, Kentucky 110 years and Mississippi 148 years. Slavery was still illegal in these states but they didn't officially approve the request for this period. 

Account of Booker T Washington

Aged 9, Booker T Washington would later become a prominent figure for African American rights. He recounts his memories of the end of the war. 

Finally the war closed, and the day of freedom came. It was a momentous and eventful day to all upon our plantation. We had been expecting it. Freedom was in the air, and had been for months. Deserting soldiers returning to their homes were to be seen every day. Others who had been discharged, or whose regiments had been paroled, were constantly passing near our place. The "grape-vine telegraph" was kept busy night and day. The news and mutterings of great events were swiftly carried from one plantation to another. In the fear of "Yankee" invasions, the silverware and other valuables were taken from the "big house," buried in the woods, and guarded by trusted slaves. Woe be to any one who would have attempted to disturb the buried treasure. The slaves would give the Yankee soldiers food, drink, clothing--anything but that which had been specifically intrusted to their care and honour. As the great day drew nearer, there was more singing in the slave quarters than usual. It was bolder, had more ring, and lasted later into the night. Most of the verses of the plantation songs had some reference to freedom. True, they had sung those same verses before, but they had been careful to explain that the "freedom" in these songs referred to the next world, and had no connection with life in this world. Now they gradually threw off the mask, and were not afraid to let it be known that the "freedom" in their songs meant freedom of the body in this world. The night before the eventful day, word was sent to the slave quarters to the effect that something unusual was going to take place at the "big house" the next morning. There was little, if any, sleep that night. All as excitement and expectancy. Early the next morning word was sent to all the slaves, old and young, to gather at the house. In company with my mother, brother, and sister, and a large number of other slaves, I went to the master's house. All of our master's family were either standing or seated on the veranda of the house, where they could see what was to take place and hear what was said. There was a feeling of deep interest, or perhaps sadness, on their faces, but not bitterness. As I now recall the impression they made upon me, they did not at the moment seem to be sad because of the loss of property, but rather because of parting with those whom they had reared and who were in many ways very close to them. The most distinct thing that I now recall in connection with the scene was that some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United States officer, I presume) made a little speech and then read a rather long paper--the Emancipation Proclamation, I think. After the reading we were told that we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but fearing that she would never live to see.

Consequences of the War

The first consequence was obviously the quick but bloody end to slavery. Without victory it's likely slavery would've carried on for 40-100 years more before it would've ended. Although right before the war the Corwin Act almost enshrined it forever. 

Another consequence was the strengthening of the American Military. New technology had been introduced and military tactics had been refined. Such as the Armored ships. 

If the war was lost the USA and the Confederate States of America could've been two separate countries with passports required to travel between them.

After the Union victory Americans developed more of a national identity instead of a State Identity. People stopped referring to themselves Carolinians or Virginians and instead as Americans. People referred to the country as a whole. Example: The United States are a nice place to live became The United States is a nice place to live. 

Arlington cemetery was founded. The land was originally purchased by the step-grandson of George Washington who had a daughter who married General Lee of the Confederate Army. The USA confiscated the land because he was an enemy of the Union and buried fallen soldiers on that land. Later, general Lee's daughter would sue the government and get the land awarded back to her but with so many graves on the land she immediately sold it back to the government for millions of dollars. 

The Lost Cause

As the years went on after the Civil War and the consensus became that slavery was evil, people in the south struggled to come to terms with their part in the defense of slavery. Their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents fought to protect the enslavement of an ethnic group and this made many uncomfortable. People in the south began talking of the war in terms of 'states rights' vs 'big government'. It was more comfortable for them to tell themselves that the war was really about their individual States right to govern itself. Many people referred to the war as the 'War of Northern Aggression'. However, history proves this false. In 1861, each state released a statement on why they were laving the USA and most used slavery as the reason. The first state to secede was south Carolina and the word "Slave" appears in their secession document 18 times.  

A lot of alternative southern sympathetic history talks about the harmful tariff of 1826 as the real reason or a preluding cause of the war. However, this tariff came to a compromised agreement in 1833 without secession or threats of war. 

The association helped fund the building of confederate statues of which most were erected during the 1910-1960's civil rights era, more than 50 years after the Civil War. In 1926 the helped fund a KKK statue who they saw at the time as a band of heroes and hometown policing. 

A powerful modern group is call the United Daughters of the Confederacy. They promote this alternative viewing of history and attempts to have the Confederate Generals and Soldiers remembered as heroes. It misrepresents history but also creates a further push back from the general public. The soldiers for the Confederacy were men, men with flaws, men who thought they were doing the right thing. They shouldn't be remembered as a horde of racists or revered as saints. Both sides result in an extreme view of history. The fact is that these people held social stereotypes and discrimination out of cultural corruption and shared societal values. If we see them as people and consider that they could've been your ancestors or even you, if you were born in Alabama or Mississippi in the 1800's that public opinion might also shape your beliefs about slavery. This is an important lesson to learn because it's helps us self reflect and consider what