Civil War in Art

The essential question asked to us this week was, How were the results of the Election of 1860 representative of the deep divisions over slavery? This answer has many aspects one being that when Lincoln became president the southern states who were not in favor of his presidency felt the urge to leave the union. We looked at many pieces of art from the civil war which also helped show the election of 1860 and secession. Check out the art in my group's Educreations video!

Union vs Confederacy

      We have been learning about the events leading up to the civil war in class recently.After viewing many documents and statistics it became evident that the North would win the war. Though the south had many advantages such as trained military personnel, a large slave population for fighting, and a good income due to trade, the advantages the North had out weighed those of the South. For this reason I set up my info graphic based on Northern advantages. My project displays a variety of interesting important data to prove that the North was truly on top during the Civil War.

Elephant in the Room

Slavery, an uneasy topic for many, has proven to be the elephant in the room for 19th century politics. By creating a timeline of events that led up to the civil war in class this week we learned a lot about how slavery was the elephant in the room. This means that slavery was a major issue that people avoided having discussions about. Though Politicians in the 19th century did have meetings like the one at which the Compromise of 1850 was declared, people tried to avoid talking about slavery. They took action for whichever side they supported, either anti or pro slavery. Events such as Bleeding Kanas, The Canning of Charles Sumner, and John Brown's Raid all ended in violence simply because slavery was the elephant in the room and no one wanted to talk about it.

Henry Clay

In 1850 California requested to join the union as free state. Henry Clay anticipated the anticipated the controversy that would be caused by having an uneven number of slave and free states so he proposed the compromise of 1850. This compromise was made up of 5 agreements that would temporarily keep peace between both parties. Part one declared that in exchange for $10 million Texas had to give up Santa Fe. In part two it was decided that New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada were to be organized without mention of slavery. Whether the territories would be free or not was to be determined by the majority in the population when those areas applied for state hood. People supporting pro slavery were especially happy with this because all they had to do was move pro slavery families on to this new land.  Part three wasn't as appealing to them though. The third part stated that slave trade was abolished in Washington D.C. Slavery was still permitted. Pro slavery groups had nothing to worry about. Parts four and five were in their favor. Part four made it so that California was a free state and part five tells us that the fugitive slave act was passed. This act made it so that slaves were brought in front of magistrates instead of having a fair trial. It also stated that is you saw a runaway slave, in accordance with the law, you had to turn them in. The compromise of 1850 is seen as a catalyst to many events following that all lead up to the civil war.

Slavery, being the elephant in the room, caused the violent actions were refer to as Bleeding Kansas. This is a few events grouped together in a broader unit. Some of these events include the burning of Lawrence and the massacre at Pottawatomie Creek. Lawrence Kansas, home to a popular newspaper, was burned on May 21, 1856 by a pro slavery mob. There goal was to prohibit the spread of anti slavery by word. Three days later, John Brown massacred many men at Pottawatomie Creek. All this violence was a result of people not wanting to sit down and discuss the obvious issue at hand.

The Canning of Charles Sumner is the next violent outbreak that occurred. Charles Sumner was the senator of Massachusetts and a leading republican with a powerful voice for anti slavery. In his fiery speech, "The Crime Against Kansas" he made direct remarks towards about South Carolina's senator, Andrew Butler. Butler's nephew, Preston Brooks was upset that Sumner bashed his uncle so he brutally beat Sumner with his cane. Cane never fully recovered, and Brooks received praise from the south for his actions.

John Brown's raid was another extremely violent event that happened during the 19th century.  October 16, 1859 Brown and 21 other men, a mixed of whites and blacks, raided the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry. John Brown was quickly injured and captures. He was later hanged on December 2.

Bleeding Kansas, The canning of Charles Sumner, and John Brown's raid are all evidence that slavery was the elephant in the room for American politics in the early 19th century. If people had been more willing to discuss the evident issue of slavery, many violent acts could've been avoided.



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