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I. The United States: Slavery and War
mid-19th
- a. Mid-19th: American national unity threatened by slavery
- i. Both N and S grew in population with different development
- 1. Cotton econmy and social structure of South based on exploiting enslaved black Africans and descendants
- a. 1810: 178k bales of cotton= $10 milà 1860: 4.5 mil bales= $249 mil
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93% of cotton produced by slaves
- i. 93% of cotton produced by slaves
- 1. 4 million Afro-American slaves in 1860
- a. Cotton and slavery relatedà South defensive about keeping themà rise of abolitionist mvovemtn in North that challenge dthe southern orderà civil war
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1850s
- a. 1850s: slavery caused Whi Party to become defunct and Democrats to split along N-S lines
- i. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which allowed slavery in the Kansas and Nebraska territories to be determined by popular sovereignty, created a firestorm in the northà creation of a new sectional party
- 1. Republicans united by anti-slavery principles and driven by fear tha t”slave power” of south would attempt to spread the slae system throughout the country
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Compromise
- a. Compromise not reachedà Abraham Lincoln electedà the die was cast
- i. Lincoln carried only 2/ 1109 counties in South; the Reublicans weren’t even on ballot in 10 southern states
- ii. December 20, 1860, A SC convention voted to repeal the state’s ratification of the US Constitutionà 6 more southern states did sameà Confederate States of Americaà April= n. vs. s.
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Civil War
- i. Bloody struggle with more than 600k soldiers dead
- ii. Over 4 years, the Union states of the North mobilized their superior assets and wore down Confederate forces of the South
- iii. War had effect of radicalizing public opinion in the north
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War to save union--> war against slavery
- 1. Jan 1, 1863: Emancipation Proclamaiton made most of nation’s slaves free
- a. Effective Union blockade of South, combined with shortage of fighting men, made Confederates desperate by end of 1864
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Final Push
i. Final push of Union troops under General U. S. Grant forced G. R. E. Lee’s Confederate Army to surrender on Apr 9, 1865
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