Causes of the Civil War Primary Sources
Historical documents. What clues can you gather about the time, place, players, and culture?
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South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun's "Slavery a Positive Good" speech, delivered before the U.S. Senate in February 1837.
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View the full text of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, one of the most controversial laws passed before the outbreak of the Civil War.
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A letter from Abraham Lincoln to a friend in which the political leader speaks about the controversial 1850 Fugitive Slave Law.
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Excepts from Edmund Ruffin's proslavery essay, The Political Economy of Slavery; or, The Institution Considered in Regard to Its Influence on Public Wealth and the General Welfare, first published in 1853.
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Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner's "Crime Against Kansas" speech, delivered in May 1856 during the Bloody Kansas crisis.
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"Cotton is King," Senator James Henry Hammond's speech before the U.S. Senate on 4 March 1858.
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The life, trial, and execution of John Brown, summarized by a New York publisher in 1859.
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The Crittenden Compromise, a last-ditch effort to resolve the secession crisis, as presented on December 18th, 1860.
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The "Cornerstone Speech" delivered by Georgia Congressman Alexander Stephens—later Vice President of the Confederate States of America—in Savannah, Georgia on March 21st, 1861.
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Abraham Lincoln's presidential campaign speech at the Cooper Institute in New York City, February 27th, 1860.