Introduction

US History – The Sectional Crisis, 1848-61

In this course, Dr Kevin Waite (University of Durham) explores the Sectional Crisis of 1848-61, the period of rising tensions between the free states of the American North and the slave states of the American South, which eventually led to the outbreak of Civil War in 1861. We begin by providing a broad introduction to the course, before moving on to examine how the acquisition of Mexican territory after the Mexican-American War (1846-48) triggered a political controversy between the North and South. In the third module, we think about the impact of the discovery of gold in California in 1849 and the Compromise of 1850, before turning in the fourth module to the series of violent confrontations in the mid-1850s that came to be known as Bleeding Kansas. In the fifth module, we trace the rise of the anti-slavery Republican Party, before turning in the sixth module to the raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia by radical abolitionist John Brown in 1859 and the activities of the Abolitionist movement more generally. Finally, in the seventh module, we think about the years leading to the outbreak of war itself, focusing in particular on the secession of 11 Southern states and the creation of a new, slave-owning Confederate States of America.

Introduction

In this module, we provide a broad introduction to the issues we will covering in this course, focusing in particular on how the division of the United States between free states and slave states led to Civil War in the 1860s.