Civil War

Class Date: October 8th

Location: Your couch! See your weekly e-mail for Zoom link!

“James” by Percival Everett

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond. Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

“Jubilee” by Margaret Walker

This novel tells the true story of Vyry, the child of a white plantation owner and one of his black slaves. Vyry bears witness to the South’s antebellum opulence and to its brutality, its wartime ruin, and the promises of Reconstruction. Weaving her own family’s oral history with thirty years of research, Margaret Walker’s novel brings the everyday experiences of slaves to light. Jubilee churns with the hunger, the hymns, the struggles, and the very breath of American history.

This week we are looking at the Civil War, its causes, fights, and some aftermath. Though, if it takes Ken Burns 10+ hours to cover the war in a documentary series, I certainly don’t think I can cover it all in just over an hour and a half! So we’ll do our best to hit ‘the high points’ and go from there. Our timeline this week is a reminder of some relevant events leading up to the war to help us understand it better:

• 1790 - Enslaved population is just over 690,000

According to the 1790 census, 697,681 people in the new country were held in forced bondage. That population will swell to almost 4 million by 1860, 3.5 million of whom live in the Southern states that will ultimately secede. 

• 1799 - Eli Whitney invents the American System of Manufacturing

Though he is best known as the inventor of the cotton gin, the invention of which fueled the southern economy and tied it even more heavily to enslaved labor, Eli Whitney applied his techniques of production to things beyond his invented machine. Observing a fear of a war with France, he turned to mass producing arms. The Manufacturing System used semi-skilled labor, machine tools, and jigs to make interchangeable, standard parts to aid assembly line labor. The system first manufactured 10,000 muskets for the US Government. To read more about Whitney, click here: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/whitney_hi.html

• January 1, 1808 -  Abolishment of slave importation

In an effort to curb slavery, Congress abolishes the international importation of enslaved people. In 1807, Great Britain had abolished the slave trade altogether. As Northern states in the U.S. began to end slavery, instead of ending in the South, the practice only solidified as cotton production exploded. Though enslaved people cannot be imported from overseas, a bustling trade continues within the United States as Northern states sell their enslaved people to Southern plantation owners.

• 1820 - Missouri Compromise

Sponsored by Henry Clay, the compromise allows slavery in the Missouri territory, but not in any other territories west of the Mississippi River and north of the southern line of latitude of Missouri (36 degrees and 30 minutes). In order to maintain a balance of free and slavery-allowing states in the Senate, the Compromise added Missouri as a state in 1821.

• 1831 - Nat Turner’s Revolt

Enslaved man, Nat Turner, led the only effective slave rebellion in the United States. He saw himself as anointed by God to lead his people from slavery, so he and some followers killed his owners, then set off to capture an armory and recruit more people. The group swelled to around 75 people and killed approximately 60 white slave owners over the span of 2 days before the state militia arrived and overwhelmed the group. Approximately 100 enslaved people were killed in the struggle. Nat Turner escaped, but was captured after 6 weeks and was hanged.

Fear ripped throughout the Southern states, and many legislatures strengthened their codes to limit education, movement, and gathering for enslaved people.

• 1846 - 1848 - The Wilmot Proviso

David Wilmot proposed a piece of legislation at the end of the Mexican-American War to outlaw slavery in territory acquired as a result of war. This included most of the Southwest and California. He fought for his proviso for 2 years, including it on existing bills and even attempted to attach it to the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hildago.

• 1848 - Gold is discovered in California

James Marshall discovers gold near Sutter’s Fort (or John Sutter’s sawmill) in California. The next year begins the great gold rush, and migration, to California. 

• 1849 - Harriet Tubman escapes slavery

Harriet freed herself by running away but continued to go back down into slave states, leading people out of slavery along the Underground Railroad. She became the most famous ‘conductor’ and proudly stated that she ‘never lost a passenger’. She returned South 13 times, eventually freeing some 70 people from bondage.

The National Parks system just recently added more Underground Railroad locations to their registry. For more information on this new addition, check out this article: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/amid-racial-reckoning-national-park-service-recognizes-underground/story?id=77267638

• 1850 - Fugitive Slave Act passed

Prior to the Act, enslaved people who crossed into Northern ‘free’ states were considered free. Angry that their free laborers were escaping to freedom, Southern proponents of slavery pushed for legal help in tracking down and re-kidnapping people. The Act made aiding those attempting to escape enslavement a crime punishable by fines and imprisonment. It also made it easier for ‘slave catchers’ to kidnap free Black people to enslave them. 

• 1850 - Compromise of 1850

As tensions continued to mount over the issue of slavery, Congress struggled to find ways to keep the Union together. The Compromise was intended to hold the Union together, which it did for another few years. Congress agreed to the following provisions:

• California was admitted to the Union as a free state

• The territories of New Mexico and Utah were given to option of legalizing slavery

• The New Mexico/Texas border was fixed

• A stronger Fugitive Slave Law was enacted to return escaped fugitives to slavery

• The District of Columbia ended the trade of enslaved people but they did continue legal slavery. 

• 1852 - Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published

U.S. Abolitionist and writer publishes her novel examining slavery, which sells 300,000 copies in the first year. The novel profoundly affected attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in general. 

• June 29, 1852 - Henry Clay died

A giant among American political leaders, Henry Clay had put together many of the compromises that held the Union together, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. Clay’s focus on compromise and economic expansion left a legacy of American politics that rippled for generations. His loss was felt by many as the nation continued to navigate the choppy waters surrounding slavery. 

• 1854 - The Kansas Nebraska Act

Legislation guided by Senator Stephen Douglas repeal the Missouri Compromise. The repeal led to violence in Kansas, named ‘Bleeding Kansas’ by the newspapers. The passage of the act inspired Abraham Lincoln to involve himself in politics, setting the stage for his White House run. 

• 1856 - The first railroad train crosses the Mississippi River

Crowds gathered and bands played in Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa, as a train crossed the first railroad bridge to span the Mississippi River. The bridge would actually foreshadow many political adversaries in the months to come: Jefferson Davis attempted to halt construction of the bridge in Illinois, arguing that a more southern route through St. Louis would be more beneficial. Davis failed to stop construction, but shortly after the bridge was completed, a steamboat owner crashed his steamboat into a bridge piling, setting his boat and the bridge on fire. Though the crash was almost certainly deliberate, as steamboat owners fought railroad expansion, the steamboat owners sued the railroad for damages. The railroads brought in railroad attorney Abraham Lincoln to successfully argue that the bridge did not impede boat traffic and railroad bridges were needed to settle the West. 

• May 22, 1856 - Brooks attacks Sumner

South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks took his cane to the head of Senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Sumner gave a speech against slavery and attacking pro-slavery violence in Kansas. Sumner was severely injured in the attack, taking 3 years to recover. Brooks became a Souther hero for his violent defense of slavery and pro-slavery violence.

• 1857 - Dred Scott decision

A landmark slavery case, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that an enslaved person did not become free once transported into a free state. Furthermore, the Court ruled that slavery could not be banned by Congress in the territories and that Black people were not eligible for citizenship. This dealt a devastating blow to the plight of Black people throughout the country, but further galvanized the anti-slavery movement. 

• 1858 - The Lincoln-Douglas debates

Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas engage in a series of debates, some of which included the subject of human enslavement. The debates caught the attention of the country and tensions only continued to mount.

• 1859 - John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry

Abolitionist John Brown, after seeking help from ‘General’ Harriet Tubman, leads a raid on the federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry. The hope was that the attack would inspire a revolt among enslaved people, furthering the country along the path to war. Many abolitionists felt that war was necessary to end the scourge of slavery. 

That is where our timeline leaves us for this week! Check below for additional reading resources and tune in this week to hear how these often unsung women steered the course of history!

To read more about this period, here are some great books to get you started:

For Kids:

For Adults:

https://www.thoughtco.com/the-compromise-of-1850-1773985

https://www.thoughtco.com/timeline-1800s-4161075

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Uncle-Toms-Cabin

https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/clay-henry

https://www.britannica.com/event/Gadsden-Purchase

https://www.northernpublicradio.org/education/2021-04-19/this-week-in-illinois-history-first-railroad-crosses-mississippi-river-april-22-1856

https://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1850.html