5/9/2011

CHAPTER 14: The Nation Divided Slavery and the

[The Antebellum (Before the war) Period]
Mexican-American War
Main Topic: • United States in 1848:
NORTH & SOUTH DISAGREE ABOUT • 15 slave states
• 15 free states,

SLAVERY • The Mexican-American

war threatened to
throw off the balance.
• What to do about new
land from Texas?
BECAUSE OF SLAVERY:
• Missouri Compromise
• The U.S. Compromises About New States
did not cover this issue.
• Politics & The Election of 1860 Divides the Country
• Violence Begins to Happen

The Wilmot Proviso

• Proposed by David Wilmot
(1846) • Wilmot Proviso debate led to a new political party.
– Pennsylvania Congressman • Free Soil Party (1848)
• Proposed Law: – GOAL: Wanted land gained in the Mexican-American war to be
“free soil” where slavery was banned.
Congress bans slavery in all
territories that might become – They chose Martin Van Buren to run for President.
• Lost Badly
part of the US from Mexico.
– Made up of Antislavery Whigs and Democrats.
• It never passed.
• Southerners believed this was a
direct attack on their way of life.
• Very controversial!

Election of 1848
• Democrats wanted
THE CALIFORNIA DEBATE:
popular sovereignty.
– Popular Sovereignty:
people in the territory or
state would vote directly
on issues, rather than
having their elected
representatives decide.
• Presidential Nominees: PROBLEMS!
– Free Soil: Martin Van Buren
• This would upset balance of free and slave states .
– Whig: Zachary Taylor
(WINNER!) • Missouri Compromise would split the state in half.
– Democrats: Lewis Cass • Southern leaders threaten to secede IF California
becomes a free state.

1
 5/9/2011

THE CALIFORNIA DEBATE: OPINIONS

NORTH
• Wants to end
sectionalism
• Preserve the UNION
“I wish to speak today, not as a
Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern
man, but as an American…I speak
today…for the restorations to the
country of that quiet and that harmony
which makes the blessings of this Union
so rich, and so dear to us all.”
-Daniel Webster, March 7, 1850
SOUTH
• Protection of States’
Right to Choose
(Popular Sovereignty)
OR
• SECESSION
“If something is not done to arrest it, the
South will be forced to choose between
abolition and secession…If you are
unwilling we should part in peace, tell us
so; and we shall know what to do when
you reduce the question to submission or
resistance.”
-John C. Calhoun, March 4, 1850
• Henry Clay’s Proposal
• For the North:
– California admitted to the Union as a free state .
– Banned slave trade in Washington DC.
• For the South:
– Popular Sovereignty in the Mexican succession
area.
– Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (South)
• Legal to arrest any person accused of being a runaway slave.
• Northerners must assist Southerners
• Northerners were ANGRY & thought it was unfair.

FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT IN ACTION

Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

• Stephen Douglas tries to compromise
between North & South
• Formed 2 New Territories:
– Kansas
– Nebraska
• Southerners objected:
– States would enter as free states
(Because of Missouri Compromise)
– Popular Sovereignty would determine
slavery in the state
(BLEW UP Missouri Compromise)
• Passed by both houses, signed into law.

2
 5/9/2011

Rush to Kansas (1854)

• Northerners & Southerners go to Kansas
within weeks of the law being passed. Why?
• Missourians illegally voted in Kansas to
select territorial legislature:
– Kansas=3000 voters
– Actual votes cast=8000
• 39 legislators elected, 36 supported slavery
• Anti-slavery settlers held a second election.
• 2 governments in Kansas.

Bleeding Kansas End of the Whigs & Rise of the Republicans

• Violence in Kansas over the
elections.
• Pro-Slavery Sherriff shot and
returns with 800 men
• John Brown (Antislavery):
– Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas:
Murdered 5 pro-slavery men
and boys
• Violence in Senate
– Sumner (SC Senator) denounced
slavery in Kansas & Senator
Butler
– Butler’s nephew, Preston Brooks
beat Sumner with a cane in the
Senate
• Whig Party Split:
– Whig: Pro-Slavery
• Weakened by the deaths of Henry Clay & Webster
– Republican Party: Anti-Slavery
• Goal: To stop the spread of slavery into the western
territories
• Attracted: Northern Democrats & Free-Soil Republicans
• Becomes powerful force: 105 of 245 candidates in House
REMEMBER: Whig Party (1836-1852)
ORIGINS: National Republicans split into 2 political parties:
• National Republicans (Pro-Andrew Jackson)
• Whigs (Anti Andrew Jackson)
POWERFUL: 4 Presidents: Harrison, Tyler, Taylor, Filmore

Uncle Tom’s Cabin: The Reaction

Uncle Tom’s Cabin • NORTH:
– Bestseller in the North
• By: Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852) – Shocked people and readers began to
• She wanted to write: view slavery as a moral problem and
“something that will make the whole not just a political conflict.
nation feel what an accursed thing
slavery is.” • SOUTH:
• A novel about Uncle Tom, a kind – Outraged by the book.
man who is enslaved and abused – Claimed that the book was propaganda
by his cruel master, Simon Legree. • Propaganda: false or misleading
information that is spread to further a
cause.
– Believed the novel was not accurate.

3
 5/9/2011

Dred Scott Decision - FACTS: Dred Scott Decision - FACTS:

• Dred Scott was a slave from Missouri. (MO) • Scott and his owner moved to Wisconsin for four years.

Dred Scott Dred Scott

Dred Scott Decision - FACTS: Dred Scott Decision - FACTS:

• Scott’s owner died after returning to Missouri. * Scott sued for his freedom. He claimed that he should be a
free man since he lived in a free territory (WI) for four years.

Dred Scott Dred Scott

SUPREME COURT RESULTS:

DECISIONS: • Dred Scott was not given his freedom.
• The Missouri Compromise was found to be unconstitutional.
Q: Was Scott a U.S.
citizen with the right to Open to
sue? slavery
Open to
A: NO through
slavery
popular
Q: Did living in a free through
sovereignty
territory make Scott a popular
(Compromise
free man? sovereignty
of 1850)
A: NO (KS-NE
Act)
Q: Did Congress have
the right to outlaw
slavery in any territory? Missouri Compromise line is declared
A: NO unconstitutional (Dred Scott Decision)

4
5/9/2011

5
 5/9/2011

LINCOLN vs. DOUGLAS

Stephen A. Douglas the “Little Rock Star”

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858) House Divided

• Abe Lincoln v Stephen Douglas for
the United States Senate from
Illinois “A House divided against itself cannot stand. I do not
• Lincoln accepts as a Republican believe this government can endure, permanently, half
and gives a stirring speech in favor slave and half free. I do not expect the house to fall—but
of the Union known as “The House I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all
Divided Speech.” one thing or all the other.”
• Lincoln never stated he wanted to – Abraham Lincoln, June 16, 1858
ban slavery, but most Southerners
thought that he would.
• Neither believed in racial equality.
Lincoln thought slavery was Question for you:
morally wrong and Douglas WHAT DOES THIS STATEMENT MEAN?
tolerated slavery as a right of
whites to choose their lifestyle.

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858) John Brown’s Raid (1859)

• Lincoln and Douglas went
across IL and debated against
each other
• Douglas supported popular
sovereignty
• Lincoln was against the
expansion of slavery-he
believed slavery would die
out on its own eventually
• Douglas won the Senate
seat, but in two years they
would battle again for the
Presidency
• John Brown went from
Kansas back to New
England
• Hatched a plot to raise
an army and free slaves.
• He and his followers
gained control of
Harpers Ferry where the
US Army stored guns
• Federal troops overtook
him though and killed
ten of his followers.
• Brown was found guilty
of murder and treason
and was sentenced to
death by hanging
• The North mourned/The
South was angry

6
 5/9/2011

Comparison of John Brown • Democratic Party (Divided):

– Northern Democrats: Senator Stephen A. Douglas
Northern Depiction Southern Depiction • Popular Sovereignty
– Southern Democrats : John C. Breckinridge
• For slavery in the new territories Electoral Vote Count:
• Constitutional Union Party Lincoln: 180
– John Bell Breckinridge: 72
Bell: 39
• Protect the Institution of Slavery Douglas: 12
• Newly Formed Republican Party
– Abraham Lincoln, an Illinois lawyer
• Wanted to keep slavery from spreading
• Southern states:
– Did not even allow Lincoln’s name to appear on their ballots
– Threatened to secede (leave) the United States if Lincoln became
president
• November 1860 – Abraham Lincoln wins the election

Abraham Lincoln won the election without winning a

single electoral vote from a southern state.

Lincoln’s Inaugural Address Southern Secession!

• December 20, 1860: South
Carolina secedes from the
“In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, United States
and not in mine, is the momentous issue of ..war. The • Why? Southerners
government will not assail (attack) you…We are not Believed:
enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. – That they would no longer have
Though passion may have strained, it must not break a voice in government.
– A president with no Southern
our bonds of affection.” votes should not be allowed in
– Abraham Lincoln, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861. office
Question for you: – The Republican Party would SECEDE:
ruin the southern way of life.
WHAT DO THESE WORDS Withdraw formally from
TELL YOU ABOUT
• Secessionists argued that: membership in a federal union,
States had voluntarily joined an alliance, or a political or
LINCOLN’S INTENTIONS the Union they could also religious organization.
WITH THE SOUTH? voluntarily leave it.

7

Confederate States of America
• After South Carolina 6 more states followed (11 total)
• February 1861:
– These states formed the Confederate States of America
– Elected Jefferson Davis their president
Lincoln’s Perspective After Secession
• President Lincoln:
– Believes that succession is wrong.
– Commits to stopping the spread
of slavery, but not ending it.
– Ignores the role that slavery
played in starting the war.
– Emphasizes his duty to enforce
the laws of the United States.
– Believes his job is to preserve the
Union not solve the slavery issue.
WHAT IS THE NORTH GONNA DO?
5/9/2011
Northern Perspectives After Secession
When President Lincoln takes office in 1861
many northerners are divided over how the
union should respond:
– Should they appease southern wishes?
– Should the let the southern states succeed?
– Should they attempt to force the Confederacy to
return?
The First Shots: Fort Sumter
• After seceding states took over all federal property in
the South.
• Fort Sumter: Fort in the harbor of Charleston, South
Carolina
– March 1861: Unions were still stationed in many Southern
ports
– Confederate guns were trained on the fort which was in need
of supplies; President Lincoln decided to send the necessary
supplies to the fort, but no soldiers.
– April 12, 1861: Confederates, under command of General
Pierre Beauregard, began to bombard Fort Sumter and the
fort surrendered the next day