The Disunion of the States

Who was to blame? What caused such a crucial decision? What were southerners thinking? The disunion of the southern states from the Union in 1860 and 1861 was the cause of the start of a bloody Civil War that lasted four years, the cause of over one-half million deaths, untold misery and destruction, and long-lasting racial and sectional hatreds resulted . A majority of people have heard about the Civil War and the southern states breaking away, but does everyone know the cause of secession? The election of Lincoln, sectional hostility, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Wilmot Proviso, the Compromise of 1850, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, John Brown’s raid, and the Dred Scott decision were all factors that led up to the secession of the southern states from the Union in 1860 and 1861.

The causes of the Civil War were many, but one of the first that attracted many people’s attention was the Wilmot Proviso. This was a proposal made by David Wilmot in 1846, who proposed that Congress ban slavery in all territories gained as a result of the Mexican-American War. This proposal never became a law, but it aroused great concern in the South. Many supporters of slavery viewed it as an attack on slavery. This was just the beginning of many conflicts between the North and the South. After the discovery of gold in California, thousands of people rushed to the West in the quest for looking for gold, which is known as the California Gold Rush. California had enough people to eventually become a state. Both the North and the South realized that the admission of California would upset the balance between the slave and the free states. Southern states threatened to secede if California was admitted as a free state. Northerners argued that the State should be a free state since most of it was within the Missouri Compromise line. To settle the arguments, Henry Clay proposed the Compromise of 1850. This Compromise allowed for California to be admitted into the Union as a free state, the slavery issue in Utah and New Mexico was to be settled by popular sovereignty, slave trade was banned in the the nation's capital, Washington, D.C, and a strict Fugitive Slave Law was passed.

The next issue that came up was the novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, which was published in 1852, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.This novel was a fictitious story about a slave who was abused by his owner. Southerners were outraged since they felt the novel was propaganda and was spreading false information. They claimed that they treated their slaves with care. The North was also stunned by this novel, but from a different perspective. Many northerners that weren’t interested in slavery, now began gaining awareness and did not agree with the brutality of how masters were treating the slaves. Some northerners even went to the extent of becoming abolitionists. To increase the tension, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854. This act was proposed by Stephen Douglas, a law that states slavery in Kansas and Nebraska will be settled by popular sovereignty. This act also made the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. Northerners felt betrayed by the act, but this act gave the southerners new hope of more slave states entering the Union.

The following controversy was the Dred Scott decision. This was said to be the worst decision made in the history of the Supreme Court. Dred Scott was an enslaved person who was once owned by a U.S. Army doctor. They lived for a time in Illinois and Wisconsin Territory where slavery was illegal. After leaving the army, the doctor settled with Scott in Missouri. He sued for his freedom and lost. The decision was made by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. He said that Scott didn’t have the right to sue because slaves were not citizens and that Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in any territory, thus proving the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. Republicans were clearly against this decision as stated in Document 1,“...we deny the authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, or of any individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States.” They were against anyone with slaves living in any free state of territory that was undecided. However, southerners were clearly in favor of the decision, as stated in the second part of Document 1,“...all citizens of the United States have an equal right to settle with their Territory, without their rights, either of person or property, being...impaired….”. The consecutive complications kept continuing.

The next event or disaster was John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, Virginia in 1859. Brown raids a arsenal in order to start a slave revolt. The slaves were a no-show and in the process, Brown murdered five southerners from