😔 The South's view
Brown showed that some Northerners would use violence against slavery. Many Southerners believed the North was plotting rebellion.
Slavery, the South and the Causes of Secession, 1850-61 » John Brown, Lincoln's Election and Fort Sumter
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section B, Breadth study B1, Key topic 3
- Why John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859 frightened the South
- How Lincoln's debates with Douglas and his election in 1860 pushed Southern states to secede
- How the Confederacy was formed and how Fort Sumter began the war
- How to weigh up the causes of secession from 1820 to 1861
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Unlock This CourseJohn Brown and Harpers Ferry, 1859
By 1859 many Southerners already feared the North. John Brown made that fear much worse. Brown was a white abolitionist who believed slavery could only be ended by force. Remember, he had led the killing of five pro-slavery settlers in Kansas in 1856.
Key terms:
- Abolitionist: a person who wanted slavery ended.
- Secession: a state formally leaving the Union.
- Confederacy: the Confederate States of America, the new country formed by the seceding Southern states.
On 16 October 1859 Brown and about twenty followers, Black and white, seized the federal arsenal (a store of weapons) at Harpers Ferry in Virginia. He hoped to arm enslaved people and start a rebellion. It failed. No uprising came, and US Marines led by Colonel Robert E. Lee of the US Army captured Brown on 18 October. He was tried in Virginia for treason (acting against the state) and hanged on 2 December 1859.
📝 The North's view
Most Northern leaders condemned the raid, but some Northerners praised Brown as a hero who died for freedom. Southerners took this praise as proof of Northern hatred.
Lincoln and the election of 1860
Abraham Lincoln was a Republican from Illinois. In 1858 he stood for the Senate against Stephen Douglas, the Democrat who had pushed through the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The two held seven public debates. Lincoln said that "a house divided against itself cannot stand" and that the nation could not stay half slave and half free. He did not call for slavery to be ended where it already existed, but he wanted it stopped from spreading into new territories. Douglas won that Senate seat, but the debates made Lincoln famous across the country.
In the election of November 1860 the Democrats split in two, with Douglas standing for the North and John Breckinridge for the South. A fourth candidate, John Bell, also stood. Lincoln won with only about 40 per cent of the popular vote, but Presidents are chosen by electoral votes won state by state, and he won enough of them to become President. His name was not even on the ballot in most Southern states. Southern leaders saw a President chosen by the North alone, from a party that wanted to stop slavery spreading. They feared slavery, and the cotton economy built on it, had no future in the Union.
Secession and the Confederacy
South Carolina led the way. On 20 December 1860 it became the first state to secede. By 1 February 1861 six more states had followed: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. In February 1861 delegates met at Montgomery, Alabama, and formed the Confederate States of America, with Jefferson Davis as President. Lincoln took office on 4 March 1861. He said he would not attack the South, but he would hold on to federal property.
Fort Sumter, April 1861
Fort Sumter stood on an island in Charleston harbour in South Carolina. It was still held by Union troops under Major Robert Anderson. Supplies were running low. Lincoln told South Carolina he was sending food, not soldiers or weapons. The Confederates would not accept a Union fort in their harbour. At about 4.30 am on 12 April 1861 Confederate guns under General Beauregard opened fire. Anderson surrendered on 13 April. After Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion, four more states joined the Confederacy: Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina. The war had begun.
Weighing up the causes, 1820 to 1861
Secession did not have one cause. It built up over forty years.
- Long-term: the Missouri Compromise of 1820 first showed how slavery could split Congress, and the economies of North and South were growing apart.
- Medium-term: the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, Bleeding Kansas and the Dred Scott case of 1857 turned the quarrel over slavery in the territories into a bitter fight.
- Immediate: John Brown, Lincoln's election, secession and Fort Sumter.
Change and continuity: the issue of slavery and the argument over states' rights ran through the whole period. What changed was that compromise stopped working. In 1820 and 1850 politicians found deals. By 1860 the South would rather leave the Union than accept a Republican President.
Common mistakes
- Saying Lincoln wanted to end slavery in 1860. He wanted to stop it spreading, and the South feared where that would lead.
- Saying the war began at Harpers Ferry. John Brown's raid raised fear, but the first shots of the war were fired at Fort Sumter.
- Writing a narrative of events with no explanation of why each one mattered.
Exam-style question
This is a Paper 2 Section B (c) question. Cover the whole period, weigh the factors and reach a judgement.
How significant was the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 in causing the secession of the Southern states in the years 1820-61? [16 marks]
You may use the following in your answer:
- the Missouri Compromise (1820)
- John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry (1859)
You must also use information of your own.
Model answer
Lincoln's election was highly significant, because it was the trigger for secession. He won in November 1860 with only about 40 per cent of the popular vote, and none of it from the Deep South. South Carolina left the Union on 20 December 1860, only six weeks after the vote, and six more states followed by February 1861. Lincoln led the Republican Party, which wanted to stop slavery spreading. His name was not even on the ballot in most Southern states, so the South felt it had lost power in the Union for good. Without his victory, secession would probably not have come when it did.
However, the election was the last step in a long chain. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 drew the 36°30′ line across the Louisiana Purchase, and it showed that slavery could divide Congress. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 then made that line void, and the Dred Scott case of 1857 said Congress could not ban slavery in the territories. These events convinced the South that compromise was no longer enough and the North that the "Slave Power" was spreading. Lincoln won as the candidate of a party born in that quarrel.
John Brown's raid in 1859 added to the fear. Brown failed and was hanged on 2 December 1859, but Southerners were alarmed that some Northerners called him a hero. Newspapers in the South warned of more raids. This made them believe a Republican President could not be trusted to protect them.
The economy also mattered. Cotton made up over half of US exports by 1860 and the South relied on about four million enslaved people, so it saw any threat to slavery as a threat to its whole way of life. The North, with its factories and free labour, had grown away from the South.
Overall, the election of Lincoln was the immediate cause of secession, but not the underlying one. The disputes over slavery in the territories, the economic gap and Brown's raid had already made the South fearful. Lincoln's victory was the final step that led them to act, so it was significant as the trigger but not the main cause on its own.
What lifts it to the top level: it covers the whole period, weighs the election against other causes using points beyond the bullets, and ends with a judgement that separates trigger from underlying cause.
Exam tip
On "how significant" questions, argue about the named factor first, then compare it with other causes, and finish with a judgement that gives a reason, such as "trigger, not underlying cause".
Recap
- John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry (October 1859) failed, but it deepened Southern fear of the North.
- Lincoln, who opposed the spread of slavery, won the 1860 election with about 40 per cent of the vote and no Southern backing.
- South Carolina seceded on 20 December 1860 and the Confederacy was formed in February 1861.
- The attack on Fort Sumter on 12 April 1861 began the Civil War.
- Causes ran from 1820 to 1861: long-term, medium-term and immediate.