The Causes of the US Civil War: 3D Gallery

The Causes of the US Civil War

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Conditions of Slaves

Generally, most slaves were treated bad and brutal. Whipping and sexual abuse were common. Most slaves had to make their own food, but they usually worked in the fields all day so they would have very little time to cook. Some owners put the slaves on a diet of fatty meat and cornbread. They were usually given clothes such as shoes and pants by their owner. The housing of the slaves was very bad. Some owners gave their slaves a small house to live in, others did not give them anything so they had to build their own houses. The living conditions were cramped with around 10 people living in one hut.

John Brown

John Brown was an abolitionist who led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry during the Bleeding Kansas crisis. He believed that an armed attack would be the only to stop slavery in the United States. He thought that once he attacked the armory, the slaves would rise up and help him. However, they did not rise up and instead, the white people fought against him. Within 36 hours, the uprising was stopped. John Brown was hanged because of treason. He was the first person convicted of treason in the History of the United States.

Dred Scott

Dred Scott was an enslaved African American man who tried to sue for the freedom of him and his family. Scott claimed that they should be free because they lived in Illinois, which was a free state. However, he was unsuccessful and they were given to Taylor Blow, who set them free.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S. Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century and the second best-selling book of that century.

Different Views of the North and the South

In the Southern states, slavery was legal while in the Northern states it was not. The economy of Southern states mostly depended on slaves and that's why it was legal. Every worker was paid in the Northern states, unlike their Southern counterparts.

Lincoln's Election

Lincoln ran on a political platform opposed to the expansion of slavery in the territories, so the Southern states were not happy about this.

Fugitive Slave Act

The Southern states declared this law because slaves were escaping to the Northern states to seek their freedom. It required that all escaped slaves, upon capture, be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate. Abolitionists nicknamed it the "Bloodhound Law", for the dogs that were used to track down runaway slaves.

The Missouri Compromise

In an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, the Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. Three years later the Missouri Compromise was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision, which ruled that Congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery in the territories.

Bleeding Kansas

Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War was a series of violent civil confrontations in the United States between 1854 and 1861 which emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas. In the end, Kansas admitted to the Union as a free state.

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The Causes of the US Civil War