Gettysburg Address

    Many people know the Gettysburg address. However, most people only know, "Four score and seven years ago". The rest of the speech is very important. It talks about how America was created so that people could be free and equal, but now everyone is fighting. Lincoln was worried that the once prosperous country would now not succeed because of the disagreement.

    Lincoln truly believed in this idea of living, and didn’t want the idea of freedom to die because everyone worked so hard to achieve it. Lincoln had a very tough job to try to sew the divided nation back together, and he definitely did a neat job… I don’t see any loose ends! 

Emancipation Proclamation

    The Emancipation Proclamation was in effect because of the Battle of Antietam. The “win” that the Union received (viewed as inconclusive to everyone else), gave Abraham Lincoln the courage to create the Emancipation Proclamation. Originally, Lincoln gave the south an ultimatum- join the union, or your slaves will become free. This sounds like a good thing, but the last thing the south wanted was for their slaves to be free. It was their main source of labor for their main cash crop (cotton). After all, the south was fighting in the Civil War to keep slavery. The south obviously didn’t rejoin the Union, so slaves in southern (rebel) states, were free! The document stated that, “All persons held as slaves within rebellious states are, and henceforward shall be free”. The slaves were ecstatic- it was like Christmas morning when you are 4 times 100. In fact, many slaves joined the Union to fight against the Confederates. This was very liberating, because the slaves could finally have revenge on their evil masters. After the freedom of slaves, the character of the war changed because it added a moral force.  

*Emancipation Proclamation*

                                                                                                                     

*Slaves in the war*

The Battle of Antietam

    The Battle of Antietam, also known as Sharpsburg, had three battles that took place each day within the Battle of Antietam. The first of those three battles was the bloodiest day in Civil War History. It had 22,000 combined casualties (people being kidnapped, killed, wounded, running away, etc). The original strategy for the Confederates was to stay behind, and defend. But, General Robert E. Lee thought otherwise and advanced into Maryland. Following the departure of Confederate troops, General George McClellan arrived to where the Confederates originally were, and found something extremely helpful- the battle plan. Wrapped up in cigarettes was the Confederate’s battle plan, showing the Confederate’s every move. It was not left on purpose to trick the Union, it just didn’t catch on fire and burn completely like the Confederates thought it would. Besides the fact that McClellan had the Confederate’s every strategy, he also had many more troops that Robert E. Lee had. Not to mention that when fighting, the Potomac River would be behind the Confederates, therefore making it easy for the Union soldiers to back them into the river and win the battle. Another factor that sealed the Union’s fate of winning was that European powers had no intention of helping the south, which is a horrible loss for the Confederates because if the Europeans did help, the southern soldiers wouldn’t have to worry about food, or other necessities. Also, the Confederates were on Union turf, so it would be easier for the North to win. The Union basically had all of the test answers for a very hard exam, and was sure to get a 100. Despite all assumptions that the Union would win by a landslide, the war was actually inconclusive. However, the Union and Abraham Lincoln considered it a Victory. 


    Alexander Gardner was a famous Civil War photographer from Scotland. He emigrated to the United States in 1856 (after numerous trips previously to this country), and decided he wanted to be a photographer. He then worked with his inspiration, Mathew Brady. He learned many tricks of the trade, and soon was quite popular because of the demand for self portraits of soldiers. Seeing that they were going to fight in the Civil War, the possibility of the soldiers not returning was high, and family members wanted a last picture of them just in case. Gardner witnessed Civil War battles, and decided that he wanted to document all of them, creating the profession he is now known for. 

  

                                                             *Alexander Gardner* 
*Battle of Antietam Photograph by Alexander Gardner*










http://inthepastlane.com/2012/09/16/the-battle-of-antietam-photography-and-the-visualization-of-modern-war-this-week-sept-16-2012/

http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/alexander-gardner.html

Secession in GA and Alexander Stephens’s Role

    In 1861, Georgia held a Secession Convention. This was basically a meeting for everyone to converse about the topic of secession. It was almost like a parent-teacher conference, except the child’s problem was much more serious than just talking during class. The state was unsure about secession due to the recent election of Abraham Lincoln. They didn’t want to be a part of what Lincoln was planning for the country (therefore they wanted to secede), but they were hesitant to believe that was the right move. There were two sides- Secessionists and Cooperationists. Secessionists wanted to leave the Union immediately, but Cooperationists were more apprehensive about the issue. One very important Cooperationist was Alexander Stephens, who would later become the Vice President of the Confederacy. He also presented the Georgia Platform, and was a main part of the passage of the Compromise of 1850. However, the Cooperationists did not have their way, because on January 19, 1861 Georgia secedes. 

 *Alexander Stephens*

www.occidentaldissent.com 

***Do not go to this website. It has a poor reputation.

Election of 1860

    In 1860, Abraham Lincoln won the Presidential Election. One of the main reasons he won the election was because of the split in the Democratic Party. The divide caused less votes for the Democrat nominee, causing the Republican, Abraham Lincoln, to win. His goal was to unify the north and south, and stop the separatism taking place because he knew if it kept going on, things would not be pretty. In fact, he did not mention the fact of abolishing slavery in the beginning of his presidential career until later for he didn’t want states to secede, and it would be harder to receive votes. He compared the situation of the U.S to a house- “A house divided against itself cannot stand”. Abraham is fully correct by saying this. Another metaphor for the delicate time period full of opinions could be building a house of cards. At this moment in history, everything is very fragile, and one wrong thing could set everyone off (one wrong hand movement could cause the whole house of cards to tumble down). However, some people were not happy with the idea of unity and protested, which was Lincoln’s worst fear. Especially by seceding…

 

*Abraham Lincoln*

http://history1800s.about.com/od/presidentialcampaigns/ss/bestinaugurals_5.htm

Kansas-Nebraska Act and Dred Scott Case

    After all of the hustle and bustle mentioned in the previous blog entry, things ended up going back to the beginning, defeating the purpose of all of the compromises in the first place. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was introduced in 1854. It originally was introduced to organize the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, but basically repealed the Compromise of 1820 in the end. The Compromise of 1820 was having “slave state, free state, slave state, free state…” and so on and so on. This meant back to square one. This also meant that no one could agree. Think of it this way- it’s like a classroom with all 30 students yelling to try to get an idea across. Chaos right?

    Another thing that caused quite the commotion was Dred Scott. He was a slave that sued for his freedom in the 1850s. The final ruling (after numerous court cases) in 1857 was that Dred, along with all other slaves in the United States, could never become citizens of the U.S. The even more astounding thing was that not only could slaves not become citizens, but also that any African American could not become free, even if they were already free.

 

*Dred Scott*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred_Scott

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2932.html

States Rights, Nullification, Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, Georgia Platform

   The Missouri Compromise was created in 1820. At that time, the topic of slavery was very tender. So much so, that states were declared Free States or Slave States.  Missouri entered as a Slave State, however Maine entered as a Free State. Afterwards, any state below Missouri, Missouri’s compromise line rather, were Slave States. Any state above, would be a Free State. 
   Later, the United States creates a tariff on imported goods. This is because America’s economy wasn’t doing great, and the US wanted to keep businesses local, to make more profit. People liked the idea and understood it. However, the south did not like it. Most people who liked the idea were in the north, which had tons of high-tech machines and prospering businesses that could support the new plan. The south on the other hand did not have all of these necessities, because that area of the country was mostly large farms and plantations. South Carolina’s John C. Calhoun decided that the south would not follow the tariff. Arguments commenced about what John did, and whether or not it was fair. Finally, it was decided that there would be a compromise- there would be reduced rates on the tariff. That way, southerners could still receive imports (however they would still be taxed), and northerners could choose if they wanted to purchase imports. Even though the two sides met in the middle on this issue, the southerners weren’t 100% happy. They decided they wanted states’ rights. This meant the states had the right to make their own decisions, not follow what the government decided for the whole country. 
    Everything had been going swimmingly with the Missouri Compromise until 1850. That is when California decided they wanted to become a state. With gold booming, and settlers coming left and right to taste the profits, it was time to become a part of the United Sates. California decided that they wanted to be a Free State, except the next state to be added (which was California) had to be a Slave State. California would not surrender to becoming a Slave State, therefore another state had to be added. This is then what happened:

• Texas could become a part of the United States if the U.S would take on all of their debt
• Next, all territory that was under the Texas name was created into these states: New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada
• Slavery was then abolished in Washington D.C
• Afterwards, California became a Free State

  

   Following the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. It stated that citizens were required to help slave catchers, denied jury trials for slaves, the claim process was easier, and there were more federal officials for enforcement. Because this was passed, more slaves in the north fled to Canada. Also, people who were undecided in opinion about slavery had one now- to be against it. Although, Georgia agreed with the Fugitive Slave Act, and the Georgia Platform was then created. It meant that Georgia would agree with the Fugitive Slave Act as long as runaway slaves that fled to the north would be returned to the south as promised. 

 

* The Bold Black line is the Missouri Compromise Line *




http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/tucker/strusky_m/webquests/VUS6_madisonmonroe/MissouriCompromise.html

Slavery as a Cause

   When slavery was created, mostly everyone agreed with it. However, as time went on more people became disgusted by it. This is understandable- the whipping and abuse of actual humans, treated people worse than animals, working people past their limit, selling human beings, and not giving slaves the right to be educated or have any other self right would cause people to want to change this tragedy.  In the 1800s, people couldn’t take it any longer and were ready to fight. At this point, there were a lot of people fighting for different things. Some people were fighting to keep slavery and the slave trade. Other people were fighting to stop the slave trade, and then some people were fighting to keep slavery all together. People who disagreed with slavery were called abolitionists. They wanted freedom for everyone (they believed in equal rights), they were very religious, and very determined. Basically, the confrontation between the two opinions of people was like working with a partner on a project, and they want to do the exact opposite of you-but on a much larger scale. Slavery caused the whole country to be divided… literally.

   In December of 1833, William Lloyd Garrison (left) and Arthur and Lewis Tappan (right), started the American Anti-Slavery Society. This society (like it’s name) was against slavery. These three men are some of the most famous abolitionists in U.S history.

                                              

http://www.biography.com/people/william-lloyd-garrison-9307251

Google search: Arthur and Lewis Tappan

http://www.slideshare.net/MissWilber/top-ten-abolitionists