WWW-VL: COMING OF THE CIVIL WAR, 1850-1860
The Pre-Civil War Years in United States History

• The Administration of Millard Fillmore 1850-1853
  • 1850
  • The Nebraska Question
    by Theodore Parker (page images at archive.org)
  • Travels in the United States, Etc., During 1849 and 1850
    by Emmeline Stuart-Wortley (page images at google books)
  • Webster's Seventh of March Speech and the Secession Movement, 1850
    by Herbert Darling Foster (Gutenberg text)
  • 1851
    • The Traveller's and Tourist's guide Through the United States of America, Canada, etc. (1851) by Wellington Williams (page images at MOA)
  • 1852
    • U.S. Presidential Election 1852, Dave Leip's Atlas
• The Administration of Franklin Pierce 1853-1857, from POTUS
  • The Life of Franklin Pierce
    by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Ohio State University Press)
  • A Review of Pierce's Administration, by Anna Ella Carroll (page images at MOA)
  • 1853
    • 1853 - Franklin Pierce, Inaugural Address, AmDocs
    • Expansion into the Pacific
      • Commodore Matthew Perry Sails an American Fleet into Tokyo Harbor
      • The Opening of Japan to the West [useful links on Japanese influence on Western Art]
      • Expansion in the Pacific
      • "Commodore Perry's Expedition to Japan" [MOA Cornell]
    • The Homes of the New World: Impressions of America
      (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1853), by Fredrika Bremer, trans. by Mary Howitt (HTML at Wisconsin)
    • Gadsden Purchase Treaty : December 30, 1853, from Yale Avalon
  • 1854
    • Boston Slave Riot, and Trial of Anthony Burns (page images at MOA)
    • The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin
      (Boston: Jewett, 1854) by Harriet Beecher Stowe frame-dependent HTML with commentary at Virginia
  • 1855
    • The Speech of Chief Seattle
    • The Authenticity of the Speech of Chief Seattle David Wu [.pdf file]
    • Transatlantic Wanderings: or, A Last Look at the United States (London: Geo. Routledge and Co., 1855) by John W. Oldmixon (page images in Germany)
    • 1855. Burning of the Steamship City of Newark
  • 1856
    • The Englishwoman in America (London: J. Murray, 1856) by Isabella Lucy Bishop (page images at canadiana.org)
    • The Kansas Struggle, of 1856, in Congress & in the Presidential Campaign by William Goodell (page images at MOA)
    • The Presidential Election of 1856
      • Political Cartoon of the Democratic Party Platform
      • The Presidential Election of 1856
      • The Election of 1856 [map from Furman]
      • Map of the Election of 1856
      • Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections
    • 1856 - Frederick Law Olmsted, A Journey in the Seaboard States
• Presidency of James Buchanan 1857-1861
  • 1857
    • Inaugural Address of James Buchanan, 4 March 1857
    • The Panic of 1857
    • Letters for the People, on the Present Crisis
      by Frederick Starr (page images at MOA)
    • North America: Its Agriculture and Climate
      (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1857), by Robert Russell (page images in Germany)
    • The Dred Scott Decision 1857
    • Dred Scott. "A Man With No Rights" ca.1800-1858
    • Supreme Court Decision in Dred Scott vs Sanford
    • Testimony of the Canadian Fugitives
    • An Early Play About John Brown, from "The Kansas Historical Quarterly"
  • 1858
    • 1858 The Laying of the Atlantic Cable, from the Smithsonian
    • The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Illinois, 1858
      • 21 August, Ottawa [from National Park Service]
      • 27 August, Freeport [from National Park Service]
      • 15 September, Jonesboro [from National Park Service]
      • 18 September, Charleston [from National Park Service]
      • 7 October, Galesburg [from National Park Service]
      • 13 October, Quincy [from National Park Service]
      • 15 October, Alton [from National Park Service]
    • Speeches of the Hon. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, Delivered During the Summer of 1858 by Jefferson Davis (page images at MOA)
    • The Great Fraud Upon the Public Credulity in the Organization of the Republican Party Upon the Ruins of the "Whig Party" (page images at MOA)
    • Crusader and Feminist: Letters of Jane Grey Swisshelm, 1858-1865 by Jane Grey Cannon Swisshelm, ed. by Arthur J. Larsen (HTML and page images at LOC)
  • Timelines
    • Expansion, Slavery, and Civil War Timeline
    • American Literature and Events
    • African-American History 1850-1880
• THE COMING OF THE WAR
  • Antecedents and Causes
    • Causes of the Civil War
    • War and Emancipation, by Henry Ward Beecher (page images at MOA)
    • The Causes of the American Civil War, by John Lothrop Motley (page images at MOA)
    • The War Not For Emancipation, by Garrett Davis (page images at MOA)
    • The War: Its Causes and Consequences, by C. C. S. Farrar (page images at MOA)
  • Abolition and Slavery
    • The Nature of Slavery in America
      • A Collection of Narratives by Former Slaves==>
      • The American Slave Code in Theory and Practice, by William Goodell (page images at MOA)
      • WWW-VL: USA History: On-Line Books On Slavery
    • Abolitionists and Their Arguments
      • The Anti-Slavery Crusade: A Chronicle of the Gathering Storm, by Jesse Macy (Gutenberg text)
      • Abolition, from The African-American Mosaic
      • Conflict of Abolition and Slavery
      • The American Anti-Slavery Society's Declaration of Sentiments (1833)
      • Elijah Parish Lovejoy, (1802-1837)
      • On Civil Disobedience, by Henry David Thoreau (1846)
      • Wendell Phillips, (1811-1884)
      • William Lloyd Garrison, (1805-1879)
      • Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles, by Rev. Parker Pillsbury [1883]
      • Uncle Tom's Cabin: or Life Among the Lowly, by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852)
      • The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin (Boston: Jewett, 1854) by Harriet Beecher Stowe [frame-dependent HTML with commentary at Virginia]
      • Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture [Multi-media presentation]
      • Southern Slavery Reduces Northern Wages, by George M. Weston (page images at MOA)
      • "Slavery in Massachusetts," Henry David Thoreau (1854)
    • Southern Counter-Arguments
      • The Pro-Slavery Argument, As Maintained by the Most Distinguished Writers of the Southern states (page images at MOA)
      • Cotton is King, by David Christy (page images at MOA)
  • The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
    • Proceedings of the United States Senate, on the Fugitive Slave Bill, the Abolition of the Slave-Trade in the District of Columbia, and the Imprisonment of Free Colored Seamen in the Southern Ports by United States Senate (page images at MOA)
    • The Fugitive Slave Act, from the Avalon Project
    • The Fugitive Slave Bill: Its History and Unconstitutionality, Lewis Tappan (New York: William Harned, 1850)
    • The Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act
    • The Compromise of 1850
    • Map of the Territories Covered by the Missouri Comromise of 1850
    • Stephen A. Douglas (1813-1861)
    • Speech of Hon. Stephen A. Douglas on the "measures of adjustment", delivered in the City hall, Chicago,
  • The Kansas-Nebraska Act
    • Speech on the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, Abraham Lincoln, Peoria IL, 16 October 1854
    • Background to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
    • Text of the Kansas-Nebraska Act
    • The Massachusetts Personal Liberty Act [1855]
  • "Bleeding Kansas"
    • Antecedents
      • Slavery and Westward Expansion, by Eric Foner
      • Dred Scott Digital Project [MS Word]
      • Causes of the War: "Bleeding Kansas" and the Dred Scott Decision
      • "The Civil War Began In Kansas Eighty Years Ago, by Harold C. Place [1936]
      • Political Contention and Compromise
      • Compromises and Hot Issues
      • Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854
      • A Kansas Timeline
      • The Kansas Territory
      • The 1855 Kansas Census and Voters' List
      • Kansas. Prelude to the War for Union, by Leverett Wilson Spring [1885]
      • Report of the Committee of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society
      • Emigrant Aid Society Settlers List
    • The 'Troubles'
      • Territorial History by William G. Cutler, in History of the State of Kansas, 1883.
      • Willing to Die for Freedom: A Look Back at Kansas Territory, 1854-1861 KSHS
      • Bleeding Kansas "Competition For Virgin Territory" 1854-1861
      • The Administration of Governor Geary, by John H. Gihon
      • Bushwhackers & Jayhawkers: Uncivil Missouri & Kansas
      • Guerilla Warfare in the Ozarks
      • "The Crime Against Kansas: The Apologies for the Crime: The True Remedy," a speech to the U.S. Senate by Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, 18 May 1856.
      • John Brown and the Pottawatomie Killings 24 May 1856
      • General Jim Lane
      • Kansas: Its Interior and Exterior Life by Sarah Robinson [1856]
      • Report of the special committee appointed to investigate the troubles in Kansas, with the views of the minority of said committee [1856]
    • Witnesses
      • Autobiography of Mary F. Beeson
      • A Letter From Edward Bridgman 25 May 1856
      • Letters of A Kansas Pioneer. Thomas Clarke Wells 1855-1860
      • Diary, Edwin Tucker [1857-1859]
    • The Significance
      • What Did Kansas Mean? by James Horton
  • A Sidelight. The Guano Wars and the Filibusturers
    • The U.S. Guano Act of 1856
      • Navassa Island
        • Navassa Island: History
        • The Navassa Island Story, by Wolfgang Schippke
        • Historical basis for both Haitian and U.S claims to Navassa, by Bob Corbett
        • Note on the Legal History of Navassa Island, by David P. Billington, Jr.
        • The Guano Trade. An ICE Case Study
        • The Guano Trade. A TED Case Study
      • The Filibusterers
        • Filibustering with William Walker, by Fanny Judah
        • Costa Rica in 1856: Defeating William Walker While Creating a National Identity, by Lisa Tirmenstein
        • Final: How Costa Rica saved all of Central America from Being Enslaved, by Lisa Tirmenstein
  • An Irrepressible Conflict
    • A House Divided, by Abraham Lincoln (17 June 1858)
    • On the Irrepressible Conflict, by William Henry Seward (25 October 1858)
  • John Brown 9 May 1800-1859
    • Sources for John Brown
    • John Brown. Citizen of Kent, Ohio
    • John Brown of Ossawatomie
    • The Pottawatomie Massacre 24 May 1856
    • John Brown and the Pottawatomie Killings 24 May 1856
    • Brown's Raid into Missouri 20 December 1858
    • Causes of the Civil War: John Brown's Raid [on Harper's Ferry]
    • John Brown and the Harper's Ferry Raid
    • John Brown Page of the Valley of the Shadow
    • The Harper's Ferry Raid 16 October 1859. Maps and Illustrations
    • Harper's Ferry. John Brown's Fort
    • Harper's Ferry. Stephen B. Oates [RealVideo]
    • Report [of] the Select Committee of the Senate Appointed to Inquire into the Late Invasion, by the United States Senate Select Committee on the Harper's Ferry Invasion [page images at MOA]
    • John Brown's Address to the Court
    • "A Plea for Captain John Brown," by Henry David Thoreau 30 April 1859
    • Cooper Union Address, by Abraham Lincoln 27 February 1860
    • Contemporary Editorials on John Brown
    • Report [of] the Select Committee of the Senate Appointed to Inquire into the Late Invasion by United States Senate Select Committee on the Harper's Ferry Invasion (page images at MOA)
    • Champions of Human Liberty. How Shall We Honor Them?
    • "Was John Brown Crazy?"
    • John Brown's Holy War [PBS]
    • "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave"
    • John Brown Historical Association of Illinois
  • Anti-Slavery Sentiment
    • Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture
    • 1859 Land Grant Bills Defeated by Southern Politicans
    • Abolitionists Opposing Slavery and Tobacco
  • The Election of 1860
    • Democratic Party (Douglas Faction) Platform
    • Democratic Party (Breckenridge Faction) Platform
    • Republican Party Platform
    • Constitutional Union (Bell-Everett) Party Platform
    • Contemporary Campaign Literature
      • A Defence of Virginia, and Through Her, of the South, in Recent and Pending Contests Against the Sectional Party by Robert Lewis Dabney (page images at MOA)
      • A Political Text-Book for 1860 by Horace Greeley (page images at MOA)
      • The Political Text-Book, or Encyclopedia (1860 edition) by Michael W. Cluskey (page images at MOA)
      • A Voter's Version of the Life and Character of Stephen Arnold Douglas by Robert Bruce Warden (page images at MOA)
      • Anticipations of the Future, to Serve as Lessons for the Present Time by Edmund Ruffin (page images at MOA)
      • The Election in NovemberBy James Russell Lowell, in The Atlantic, October 1860
      • "The Election of 1860," by James Russell Lowell October 1860
      • U.S. Presidential Election 1860, Dave Leip's Atlas
    • County Map of the results of the Election of 1860
    • Robert Toombs's Speech to the Georgia Legislature, Nov. 13, 1860
    • Speech of Alexander H. Stephens to the Georgia Legislature Nov. 14, 1860
    • The Crittenden Compromise, 18 December 1860, AmDocs
    • South Carolina Secedes "The First To Act" December 20, 1860
    • Report of the "Committee of Thirteen 31 December 1860
    • Virginia Gov. John Letcher's Conditions for Settlement January 1861
    • Abraham Lincoln Begins His Presidency
      • Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1861
      • The Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Library of Congress
      • Abraham Lincoln in the French Press
      • Chronology of the Secession Crisis
      • Anti-Secession Resolutions of the New York State Legislature 11 January 1861
      • Resolutions of the Legislature of the State of Tennesse, 28 January 1861 [in support of the Crittenden Compromise]
      • Proposals of the Washington Peace Conference 4-27 February 1861
      • Ordinances of Secession
      • "To Separate Without Our Consent," Stephen A. Douglas to the United States Senate, 3 January 1861
      • South Carolina's Address to the Slaveholding States
      • Address of George Williamson to the Texas Secession Convention
      • Speech of E.S. Dargan to the Alabama Secession Convention
      • First Message of Governor Isham Harris to the Tennessee Assembly
      • Second Message of Governor Isham Harris to the Tennessee Assembly
      • The "Cornerstone Speech," Alexander H. Stevens, Savannah GA 21 March 1861
      • Constitution of the Confederate States of America, March 11, 1861, Yale Avalon
      • The Battle of Fort Sumter 12-13 April 1861
    • The Beginning of the War
      • Lincoln's War Address
• Topical
  • Era of The Birth of Free Banking: 1836-1863, Fordham Law School [.pdf file]