Post on 27-Mar-2015
Essential Question
What were the primary tensions over slavery?
The Land of Cotton
North v. South
• North – dependent on industry
• South – dependent on agriculture
Cotton
• Rapidly spread throughout the South as the most important crop
• Spread the institution of slavery and demand for slave labor
Cotton Plantation
Slave Labor
• 1820 to 1850
• Increased from 1.5 million to 4 million
Issue of States’ Rights
• Tariff of 1828 on manufactured goods from England
• South Carolina called it: “Tariff of Abominations”
Nullification Crisis
• South Carolina threatened to secede (withdraw) from the Union
• John C. Calhoun – vice president
Nullification Crisis
• Argument – Union is a voluntary association of states
• States have the right to declare a federal law null and void
Quotes
• President Jackson: “Our federal Union – it must be preserved.”
• Vice-President Calhoun: “The Union – next to our liberty, most dear.”
Nullification Crisis
• SC adopted an ordinance of nullification declaring tariffs unconstitutional
Nullification Crisis
• Congress passed the Force Bill
• Authorized President Jackson to use force to enforce the acts of Congress
The Abolitionist Movement
Early Abolition Movement
• Abolition = an immediate end to slavery in the South
• Very divisive reform movement
William Lloyd Garrison
• Boston
• Antislavery newsletter – The Liberator
American Antislavery Society
• Called for emancipation = freeing of all slaves
• Slavery is immoral
Sarah and Angelina Grimke
• Sisters from South Carolina
• Moved north to work against slavery
Frederick Douglass
• Escaped from slavery in Maryland
• Well-known speaker against slavery
Sojourner Truth
• Gained freedom in 1827 in NY
• Antislavery speeches that drew large crowds
Southern Response
• Considered slavery vital to their way of life
• Depended on agriculture, cotton
Nat Turner Rebellion
• August 1831
• Nat Turner organized a slave revolt in which 160 people were killed
Slave Codes
• Strict state laws
• No property ownership
• No freedom of movement
• No reading and writing
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• 1852
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Writing of enslaved Tom and a violent overseer
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• Changed Northern ideas about slavery and African Americans
• Southerners tried to have the novel banned
The Underground Railroad
• Informal, organized system that helped slaves escape
• Conductors led slaves along the route to freedom
Harriet Tubman
• Runaway who returned to the South several times to assist slaves