The Debate Over Slavery
Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln
The Dred Scott ruling
The South: tremendous economy, had strategic advantages: it controlled the mouth of the Mississippi and had better generals.
The North benefited from the railroad system, heavy immigration and a much more balanced economy. The population of the North was 22 million compared with only 9 million in the South, 3.5 million of whom were slaves; control of the United States Navy; was politically successful in keeping border slave states -- Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and the to-be-formed West Virginia -- from joining the Confederacy to fight against the North.
Secession
In 1860, the South threatened to secede (break away) from the United States if the Republican Abraham Lincoln were elected president.
By the end of January 1861, six other southern states imitated South Carolina and declared their independence from the United States. They were Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. "We are divorced, North and South, because we have hated each other so."
"Confiscation Acts"
1861 - authorized the Union to seize any property, including slaves, which were being used to aid the South in its "insurrection" against the North
The Second Confiscation Act was next passed in 1862, taking the additional step of ordering freedom for any slaves belonging to slave-owners engaged in "treason" against the United States.
