[00:02] 1819. The newly-born United States of America
sat in a state of delicate balance. 11:11.
[00:13] 11 free states, 11 slave states. From the
outside looking in, it appeared to be perfect
[00:23] harmony. Equal states, equal representation,
equal influence in federal affairs. But this
[00:32] was only from the outside looking in. In reality,
there was no focus on balance for the Americans.
[00:41] Instead, all that mattered now, was expansion…
[00:47] Manifest Destiny - that was the reason why
the United States government was hellbent
[00:53] on snagging more and more territory. Although
the phrase wouldn’t be coined until the
[00:58] mid-1800s, the belief held by many Americans
that it was the nation’s destiny to expand
[01:04] westward as far as can be, drove the U.S.
to do just that.
[01:10] Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia,
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South
[01:18] Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York,
North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Kentucky,
[01:27] Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi,
Illinois, and Alabama. That was the whole
[01:35] of the United States thus far as of 1819,
but only a year later, this would change.
[01:43] In 1818, the Missouri Territory, previously
obtained as part of the Louisiana Purchase,
[01:50] began its push for statehood. The following
year, the district of Maine would be allowed
[01:56] to break off from Massachusetts and do the
same. It didn’t take long for this to cause
[02:01] a conundrum for the contemporary U.S., however,
because the addition of two more states had
[02:06] the potential to upset the numerical balance
between slave states and free states. On the
[02:13] one hand, Northerners and pro-abolitionists
in Congress argued that the addition of Missouri
[02:19] - which seemed to quickly lean toward wanting
to become a slave state - would expand slavery
[02:26] and thus bring them further away from their
goals.
[02:30] The Southerners, though, were obviously in
favor of adding another slave state and thus
[02:36] argued that any new candidate for statehood
should have the right to decide for themselves,
[02:41] just as the first 13 colonies, which side
of the fence they want to fall on. The debate
[02:48] in both the House of Representatives and the
Senate would continue into 1819, at which
[02:54] point Maine was now brought into the mix as
Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House at the
[03:00] time, suggested that Missouri should be added
to the union as a slave state, but that Maine
[03:07] should also be added, contrarily as a free
state.
[03:12] This proposal was subsequently debated into
yet another year, when in 1820, the Senate
[03:18] added to the bill, requiring that any other
territories north of the 36º 30’ latitude
[03:24] line that had been agreed upon below Missouri’s
lower border could only enter the union as
[03:32] free states. With everyone finally in some
level of agreement, the Missouri Compromise
[03:38] was signed into law.
[03:40] This triggered a tit-for-tat war of adding
one new slave state for every new free state
[03:47] and vice versa, starting with Arkansas in
1836, Michigan the next year, and Florida
[03:54] in 1845. And since Florida was a slave state,
it was assumed that the next territory to
[04:01] enter the union and statehood would be another
free state - but things became complicated
[04:08] when Texas had a demanding request for the
United States: annex us, now.
[04:15] The history of Texas had been a rollercoaster
thus far, and yet it was only now preparing
[04:21] for its biggest climb yet. Texas, up until
recently a part of Mexico after being freed
[04:27] from the grip of the Spaniards, wanted to
join a different nation - the U.S.A. The Texans’
[04:34] pleas were initially ignored by the U.S. government,
which wasn’t in much favor of annexing the
[04:39] nearby territory.
[04:41] With growing pressure from Britain for Texas
to be an independent nation and America’s
[04:46] undeniable thirst for expansion, opinions
would soon change nevertheless and Texas would,
[04:53] in fact, join the union on December 29, 1845.
Here was the issue though: Texas wanted to
[05:02] be a slave state, which would offset the balance
the Northerners had tried so hard to keep.
[05:10] Furthermore, Texas had made claims to territories
that put it in direct conflict with its former
[05:16] host of Mexico.
[05:18] And with Texas newly a part of the United
States, those presumptuous claims were now
[05:23] the responsibility of the U.S. - something
that Mexico didn’t take lightly.
[05:31] Recently elected President James K. Polk,
however, didn’t care one bit what the Mexicans
[05:37] thought. Instead, he was an aggressive supporter
of Manifest Destiny and quickly upon his inauguration
[05:44] hoped to seize the contested territories.
Thus, Polk at first attempted to purchase
[05:50] his desired lands.
[05:52] He sent American diplomat John Slidell to
offer the administration in Mexico City $30
[05:58] million in exchange for California, New Mexico,
and disputed territories along the Texas border.
[06:07] The Mexicans, aghast and unshakeably against
such an idea, declined to even meet with Slidell,
[06:13] which angered Polk. The Manifest Destiny supporter
would not be swayed by this rejection and
[06:20] instead decided that, if diplomacy wouldn’t
work, he would reel his neighbors into a war
[06:26] he knew the United States would win. As a
result, in the early weeks of 1846, the president
[06:33] sent American troops to the Texas border to
egg the Mexicans on - and it worked. It only
[06:40] took a few months for Mexican soldiers to
fire on the Americans and give Polk the excuse
[06:46] to declare war…
[06:48] With the Mexican-American War underway, debates
continued within the United States pertaining
[06:54] to the slave state vs. free state debacle.
With the free states now outnumbered, the
[07:00] Northerners felt that Polk, being a Southerner
himself, was actually committing his land
[07:06] grab in order to further bolster the slave
state advantage, which boosted North-to-South
[07:11] tensions. Still, the war raged on with now-famed
generals like Ulysses S. Grant and Robert
[07:19] E. Lee showing their prowess and adding to
their resumes while the Americans inched closer
[07:26] to Mexico's capital. The city was eventually
taken and warfare halted, leading to the long-awaited
[07:33] Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo - which now forced
Mexico to cede not only the contested territories
[07:40] in California and New Mexico but also lands
of modern-day Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Oklahoma,
[07:48] Colorado, and Wyoming. Polk had gotten his
way and more, but it wasn’t all sunshine
[07:56] and rainbows. New land meant more to fight
over back home.//
[08:02] Over the next few years, Iowa, Wisconsin,
and California would all give their bids for
[08:08] statehood, eventually bringing about the Compromise
of 1850. This series of bills would address
[08:15] a multitude of things, though mostly focused
on the institution of slavery within the union.
[08:22] In short, it determined that California would
join the Union as a free state but was required
[08:28] to send one pro-slavery senator to the Senate
in order to maintain the readjusted balance.
[08:35] From now on, however, slave or free states
from the remaining territories gained from
[08:41] Mexico would be decided as such by popular
sovereignty.
[08:46] This went alright at first, as would the admission
to statehood of Minnesota in 1858 and Oregon
[08:54] in 1859, but predictably, there was simultaneously
another reason for tensions to rise.
[09:03] As part of the new establishment of popular
sovereignty, Senator Stephen Douglas suggested
[09:09] applying the strategy to a proposed newly
organized Nebraska territory that would at
[09:15] once repeal the Missouri Compromise slave-state
border and split the Nebraska territory in
[09:22] two. Now, despite a struggle to actually pass
the new bill that would become known as the
[09:27] Kansas-Nebraska Act, the populations of both
territories were left to vote on whether they
[09:33] wished to permit slavery or not. The consequence
of this, and maybe unpredictably so, was that
[09:40] settlers began flooding to both Nebraska and
Kansas - settlers from both sides of the slavery
[09:48] debate. This slippery slope ushered in a tragic
era known as Bleeding Kansas, which would
[09:55] eventually see Kansas enter the union in 1861,
surprisingly, as a free state. This would
[10:03] be the final state admitted to the union before
the start of the Civil War…
[10:10] Why did things get to this point? How could
such a young nation have fallen into battle
[10:15] with itself so fast? Why were the North and
South so opposed to each other?
[10:22] The issue of slavery and thus the North vs.
South contention can be blamed on vastly different
[10:28] cultural aspects of the two halves of America.
For the North, slavery was not really needed
[10:35] as the upper states had quickly become industrialized
and thus didn’t have to rely on as much
[10:42] manpower.
[10:43] This gave Northern citizens the opportunity
to unbiasedly consider the moral standing
[10:48] of the entire institution of slavery, prompting
many to call it into question. Supported by
[10:55] the ideas of European immigrants who had come
from nations that had already outlawed slavery,
[11:01] these Northerners began to turn toward abolitionism.
This was in total opposition to their fellow
[11:07] Americans down south, of course, but this
was because the South had failed to industrialize
[11:13] as the North had.
[11:15] Instead, Southerners were more economically
dependent on free labor for plantations and
[11:21] the like, which meant that their personal
finances and way of life could be entirely
[11:26] affected by the banning of slavery - thus
making it hard for a Southerner to even give
[11:32] the moral aspect a second thought - though
some did and still supported the institution.
[11:38] And with the invention of the cotton gin,
the matter only became more solidified - the
[11:44] South needed slavery. The problem then arose
as the North wondered if Southerners wanted
[11:51] to extend slavery even further, whereas the
latter worried that the former was going to
[11:57] take the slaves they already had. Both, ironically,
would be right. The North and South were miles
[12:05] away from reconciling this difference.
[12:08] Debatably, there was also the issue of federal
vs. state rights, although this factor is
[12:14] hard to blame entirely. Not only did the later-formed
Confederacy have a shockingly large bureaucratic
[12:21] system for a collection of states who were
opposed to overbearing federal governments,
[12:26] but there had also been previous opportunities,
such as during the Nullification Crisis a
[12:32] few decades prior, for the South to go to
war with the North or at least raise more
[12:37] of a ruckus if state rights were the core
issue. Still, it is true that many people
[12:43] at the time, particularly in the south, had
more loyalty to their state than country as
[12:49] a whole, and state vs. federal disconnect
likely played somewhat of a role in tensions,
[12:56] even if second fiddle to the slavery argument.
[12:59] The fanning of the flames, however, came from
a string of amplifying events. The Fugitive
[13:05] Slave Act, for example, had been part of the
Compromise of 1850 and galvanized abolitionists
[13:13] as it had made the federal government responsible
for finding, returning, and penalizing escaped
[13:20] slaves and anyone who aided them - even if
they made it to a free state.
[13:26] With the Northerners deeply troubled by this
development, politically active citizens of
[13:31] the upper United States would soon form their
own opposition party to the pro-slavery Democrats
[13:37] - the Republican Party.
[13:39] This new entity would also become host to
the controversial Abraham Lincoln shortly
[13:46] after its birth.
[13:48] Lincoln had previously served on the U.S.
House of Representatives in 1846 before joining
[13:54] the Republicans and running for Senate a decade
later. Although he lost the Senate race to
[13:59] Stephen Douglas, the series of speeches and
debates that proceeded the election had both
[14:04] catapulted him to popularity in the North
while earning him a fair share of enemies
[14:09] in the South. His mere existence as a political
entity, thus, stirred the pot and increased
[14:15] tensions. But then, so did Bleeding Kansas.
[14:20] Guerilla warfare is one way that this period,
from 1855 through 1859, has been described.
[14:28] While Nebraska was somewhat hit by the flood
of both pro and anti-slavery settlers hoping
[14:34] to sway the coming vote, it was Kansas that
was truly beaten. Pro-slavery residents of
[14:40] neighboring states used legal loopholes to
cross the border and vote in Kansas’s territorial
[14:47] elections, setting off a domino effect that
would lead to a split government and all-out
[14:53] violence.
[14:54] Historians estimate that anywhere from 50
to 200 Americans died as a consequence in
[15:00] the 4 years span, something akin to pouring
a couple of gallons of gasoline on the growing
[15:05] fire burning toward Civil War.
[15:09] Charles Sumner’s congressional speech about
Kansas would further heighten the situation.
[15:14] A Republican Northerner, Sumner had actually
memorized every last word in his impassioned
[15:20] speech titled “The Crime Against Kansas”
in which he lambasted the entire institution
[15:26] of slavery and even took direct jabs at pro-slavery
senators.
[15:31] This instance serves as a clear example of
the current level of tensions in the union
[15:36] and Congress, as South Carolina Representatives
Preston Brooks and Laurence Keitt reacted
[15:42] to the damning speech by physically assaulting
Charles Sumner with a cane, beating him so
[15:47] severely that he would need 3 full years of
leave to recover. And this was only a year
[15:54] before one of the most controversial and anger-fueling
incidents of the entire lead-up to the civil
[16:00] war.
[16:02] It was the Dred Scott Case that soon put the
move toward all-out military conflict between
[16:08] the North and South into hyperdrive. The case
revolved around a slave-since-birth by the
[16:14] name of Dred Scott. After the death of his
original owner in 1832, Scott had been purchased
[16:21] by a man named John Emerson, and upon his
death, Scott and his family would then be
[16:26] transfered into the ownership of Emerson’s
wife, Irene. Previously, Scott and his family
[16:32] had been brought along for travels across
multiple free states and territories, although
[16:38] at no point had they attempted to run or sue
for their freedom. Instead, once Irene took
[16:44] ownership, Scott attempted to buy their freedom
off of her. Irene was obstinate and insisted
[16:51] on keeping her slaves around, which led Dred
and his wife Harriet to, finally, go the route
[16:58] of a lawsuit.
[16:59] They each filed on the basis of two Missouri
statutes, as they were currently living with
[17:04] Irene in St. Louis. One stated that any slave
taken to a free state would thus be free and
[17:11] could not be returned to enslavement even
if they left the free state, while the other
[17:17] allowed for anyone to file a suit for wrongful
enslavement.
[17:21] The Scott couple was given logistical support
from abolitionists, fellow churchgoers, and
[17:27] ironically, the family of their previous owner.
[17:31] This allowed them to actually take their case
to court, which was first shot down in 1847
[17:36] on a technicality but was given the option
of a retrial. The next trial would come in
[17:42] January of 1850 and this time, the Scotts
actually won their freedom. Irene, however,
[17:50] quickly appealed the decision to the Missouri
Supreme Court. Two years later, the court
[17:56] sided once more with Irene, thus re-enslaving
the Scott family.
[18:02] Unwilling to give up now, Scott filed a federal
lawsuit with the United States Circuit Court
[18:08] for the District of Missouri the following
year.
[18:11] Before the case could be decided upon again,
Irene would transfer the Scotts over to her
[18:17] brother, John Sandford, hence the name of
the new case: Dred Scott vs. Sandford. In
[18:23] the spring of 1854, the federal court ruled
in favor of Sandford, thus prompting Scott
[18:30] to appeal yet again, now to the United States
Supreme Court.
[18:34] This final trial would start on February 11,
1856, with a growing list of abolitionist
[18:40] and even politician supporters in favor of
the Scotts. Nevertheless, less than a month
[18:47] later, a decision was made, and once more,
Dred Scott had lost.
[18:54] And not only this, but the judge most notably
credited for the final ruling, a Southerner
[18:59] named Roger Taney, asserted that no African
American even had the right to sue for anything
[19:04] in the federal court, because they lacked
the ability to be United States citizens.
[19:11] While the Scotts would already have their
freedom by now thanks to Irene's new abolitionist
[19:17] husband and the help of their old owner’s
family, the case itself was the final straw
[19:23] for many abolitionists…
[19:25] John Brown has gone down in history as one
of America’s most infamous abolitionists,
[19:32] and on October 16, 1859, he would prove exactly
why. He warned an armory watchman as he and
[19:40] a group of fellow abolitionists launched what
would be an ambitious but ultimately failed
[19:45] raid on Harper’s Ferry. After taking several
hostages from the town and capturing the U.S.
[19:52] Armory and Arsenal, the raiders would be stalled
by a local militia as General Robert E. Lee
[19:57] made his way into the town to wrap things
up.
[20:01] Brown and his men had aimed to spark a local
slave rebellion, but instead, many of the
[20:06] raiders were killed once Lee and his Marines
arrived, with Brown himself being captured
[20:12] and later hanged for his acts of treason against
the state of Virginia. John Brown had failed
[20:19] and he had died, but his animosity for the
South was shared by far too many for the tide
[20:25] to be turned by this point.
[20:27] With the election of anti-slavery Northerner
Abraham Lincoln in 1860 to the presidency,
[20:33] enough was enough…
[20:35] Immediately after the future “Emancipator”
was elected to office, the South Carolina
[20:40] General Assembly called for a convention to
consider secession. Much to the pleasure of
[20:46] the locals, South Carolina thus voted unanimously
to leave the United States of America. Days
[20:52] later they issued a document justifying their
decision to secede, and making one dramatically
[20:59] important point in the process: “A geographical
line has been drawn across the Union”.
[21:06] And it truly had. 10 more Southern states
would follow suit and join the newly founded
[21:12] Confederate States of America, led by their
chosen president, Jefferson Davis. The Union
[21:20] president, Abraham Lincoln, refused to recognize
the Confederacy as legitimate, insisting that
[21:25] he wished to take no one's slaves and simply
wanted to keep the Union together. This meant
[21:31] nill to the Southerners, who were rapidly
attempting to create a unified nation out
[21:36] of a handful of states who had all made a
big fuss about state autonomy. And not just
[21:42] that, but the South was at a major disadvantage
for the impending war.
[21:48] Precise numbers are debated, but it can be
estimated that at the time of the mass secession
[21:53] and formation of the Confederacy, the Union
boasted a population of roughly 22 million,
[21:59] in comparison to the South’s approximate
9 million. Of those numbers, the Union would
[22:06] eventually enlist around 2 million soldiers
whilst the Confederates could only tally about
[22:12] 900,000. Furthermore, the Northerners had
something close to 20,000 miles worth of railroads,
[22:20] which was double what the Confederate states
could claim, thus giving the Union a better
[22:25] advantage for moving troops and supplies in
wartime.
[22:29] And while its often argued that the Confederate
generals, such as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall
[22:35] Jackson, James Longstreet, Nathan Bedford
Forrest, and Patrick Cleburne gave the South
[22:40] a tactical military edge on their upstairs
neighbors, the North was surely ahead in other
[22:46] ways; like the fact that they produced around
90% of goods in the former United States at
[22:51] the time.
[22:52] But still, the Union was losing its grip on
the South. It only had limited holdings left
[22:58] in Confederate states, and it was about to
lose another…
[23:03] Fort Sumter was the last Union stronghold
in South Carolina, and “strong” is being
[23:09] generous. It was outmanned and undersupplied,
to say the least, and with Southerners now
[23:15] cracking down on Union property within their
borders, it was surrounded. The Confederates
[23:20] attempted to force the little remaining Union
forces at the fort to surrender. The latter
[23:26] refused, and the Confederates opened fire.
The Civil War had begun…