Slavery Divides the Nation, 1820–1861

Unit 11-A

Events Leading to the U.S. Civil War• Kentucky andNorthwest

Ordinance• Virginia Resolutions• Missouri Compromise• Tariff of 1828• Nat Turner's slave rebellion• The Amistad• Prigg v. Pennsylvania• Texas Annexation• Mexican–American War• Wilmot Proviso• Manifest Destiny• Underground Railroad• Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

• Compromise of 1850• Uncle Tom's Cabin• Kansas–Nebraska Act• Bleeding Kansas• Sumner-Brooks affair• Dred Scott v. Sandford• Brown's raid on Harper's

Ferry• 1860 presidential election• Secession of Southern

States• Star of the West• Corwin Amendment

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Slavery in the Territories

What were factors or reasons that contributed to sectionalism?

- feelings about slavery as a economic issue

- degree of industry in different areas of the country

- different uses of land in different areas of the country

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Chronological Order

• Missouri Compromise 1819

• Nullification Crisis 1832

• Compromise of 1850

• Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854

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The Missouri CompromiseIn 1819, there were 11 free states and 11 slave

states.

Representation in the Senate was evenly balanced between the North and the South.

Missouri wanted to join the Union as a slave state. That would give the South a majority in the Senate.

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The Missouri Compromise

Henry Clay proposed the Missouri Compromise. – Missouri would join the Union as a slave

state.– Maine would join the Union as a free state. – Congress drew an imaginary line across the

southern border of Missouri at latitude 36º30´N. Slavery would be permitted in the Louisiana Purchase south of that line.

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The Issue of Slavery in the West

The ProblemAs a result of the Mexican War, the United States acquired a vast amount of land.

The Missouri Compromise applied only to the Louisiana Purchase, not the new western lands.

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The ArgumentNorth: Congressman David Wilmot of Pennsylvania called for a law to ban slavery in any territories won from Mexico. This proposal was known as the Wilmot Proviso.

South:Southern leaders said Congress had no right to ban slavery in the West.

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THE OUTCOME

The house passed the Wilmot Proviso, but the Senate defeated it.

The argument continued. 9

The Issue of Slavery in the West

Abolitionists

Slavery should be banned throughout the country.

It is morally wrong.

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Southern SlaveholdersSlavery should be allowed in any

territory.

Slaves who escape to the North should be returned.

Slavery is a source of labor and a economic issue

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Other Views•The Missouri Compromise line should be extended all across the Mexican Cession. •Any state south of the line could allow slavery. •States carved out of the Mexican Cession should decide the slavery issue by popular sovereignty; that is, voters in a new territory should decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery.

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The Founding of the Free-Soil Party

In 1848, slavery became an important election issue for the first time.– Many northern Democrats and Whigs opposed the

spread of slavery. – They did not speak up because they did not want to

lose southern votes. Also, they feared the slavery issue would split the nation.

– In 1848, antislavery members of both parties formed the Free-Soil party. Only a few members were abolitionists. The party’s main goal was to keep slavery out of the western territories. 13

Prior to the Civil War, U.S. tariffs contributed to the causes of sectionalism

- Northern states favored the tariffs

- Southern states opposed the tariffs

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Nullification Crisis

1. A sectional crisis during the Presidency of Andrew Jackson

2. Created by South Carolina’s 1832 Ordinance of Nullification:

A- declared the power of the state

B- rejected federal tariffs of 1828 and 1832

C- argued they were unconstitutional and therefore null and void

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3- Tariff of 1828, known as :Tariff of Abominations” enacted by President John Quincy Adams

4- South Carolina repealed its Nullification Ordinance on March 11,1833

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The Compromise of 1850

• A series of five (5) bills

• Intended to stave off sectional strife

• To keep spread of slavery to territories in balance

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5 Bills1. California was entered as a free state

2. New Mexico and Utah were each allowed to use popular sovereignty to decide the issue of slavery

3. The Republic of Texas gave up lands it claimed in present day New Mexico and received $10 million to pay its debt to Mexico

4. The slave trade was abolished in District of Columbia

5. The Fugitive Slave Act was enacted18

The Slavery Debate Erupts Again

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The Slavery Debate Erupts Again

• In 1849, there were 15 slave states and 15 free states. California asked to enter the Union as a free state.

• If California entered the Union as a free state, the North would have a majority in the Senate. The South feared that Oregon, Utah, and New Mexico would also soon join the Union as free states.

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The Slavery Debate Erupts Again

• Some southerners worried that they would be outvoted in the Senate. They said southern states should secede, or remove themselves, from the United States.

• Northerners said that California should be allowed to enter the Union as a free state because most of the territory lay north of the Missouri Compromise line.

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Henry Clay of KentuckyHe pleaded for the North and South to reach

an agreement and warned that the nation could break apart.

Senator Jordon Underwood said about Clay after his death, “He reduced sectional conflict through legislation that balanced the concerns of the issue of slavery”.

He was the “Great Compromiser”

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John C. Calhoun of South Carolina

• He refused to compromise and insisted that slavery be allowed in the western territories.

• He demanded that fugitive, or runaway, slaves be returned to their owners as lost “property.”

• He said that if the North did not agree to these demands, the South would use force to leave the Union.

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When John C. Calhoun became vice-president, he gave an address (speech) in 1831 where he claims that state governments have the right to reject federal law

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Daniel Webster of Massachusetts

• He felt that slavery was evil, but the breakup of the United States would be worse.

• He warned against civil war, a war between people of the same country.

• He thought that northerners should be forced to return fugitive slaves.

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Uncle Tom’s Cabin

What is Uncle Tom’s Cabin?

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a novel called Uncle Tom’s Cabin to show the evils of slavery and the injustice of the Fugitive Slave Act. The book tells the story of Uncle Tom, an enslaved African American noted for his kindness and piety.

How did people react to Uncle Tom’s Cabin?

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Northerners

Northerners could no longer view slavery as a political problem for Congress to settle.

More and more northerners now saw slavery as a moral problem facing every American.

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Southerners

Southerners claimed that the book did not give a true picture of a slave’s life.

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The Crisis Deepens

• What was the goal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act?

• Why did violence erupt in Kansas and in the Senate?

• What impact did the Dred Scott case have on the nation?

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How did both the Missouri Compromise and Compromise of 1850 contribute to differences between free and enslaved African Americans

The institution of slavery was allowed in some new states while other states allowed freedom for African Americans

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The Kansas-Nebraska Act

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The Problem

The Compromise of 1850 dealt mainly with the Mexican Cession, and not with the lands that were part of the Louisiana Purchase.

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Provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Nebraska Territory was to be divided into two territories— Kansas and Nebraska.

• The settlers in each territory would decide the issue of slavery by popular sovereignty.

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The Argument for the Act

• Many people thought the act was fair because the Compromise of 1850 had applied popular sovereignty in New Mexico and Utah.

• Southerners hoped slave owners from Missouri would move into Kansas and make Kansas a slave state.

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The Argument Against the Act

• The Missouri Compromise already banned slavery in Kansas and Nebraska. In effect, the Kansas-Nebraska Act would overturn the Missouri Compromise.

• Northerners protested by challenging the Fugitive Slave Act.

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Violence Erupts in Kansas

• Kansas settlers were to settle the slavery issue by popular sovereignty. Proslavery and antislavery settlers fought for control of Kansas. Abolitionists brought in settlers from New England. Proslavery settlers also moved into Kansas, and proslavery bands from Missouri —Border Ruffians —often rode across the border into Kansas.

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Violence Erupts in Kansas

• . In 1855, Kansas held elections. Border Ruffians voted illegally, helping to elect a proslavery legislature. Antislavery settlers refused to accept the legislature and elected their own governor and legislature. Kansas had two governments.

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Violence Erupts in Kansas

• Abolitionist John Brown led a band to the town of Pottawatomie Creek and killed five proslavery settlers there.

• The killings at Pottawatomie Creek led to more violence. Both sides engaged in guerrilla warfare, or the use of hit-and-run tactics. Newspapers started calling the territory “Bleeding Kansas.”

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Violence Erupts in the Senate• Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was the

leading abolitionist senator. In one speech he denounced the proslavery legislature of Kansas and viciously criticized his southern foes, especially Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina.

• A few days later Butler’s nephew, Congressman Preston Brooks, marched into the Senate chamber and with his cane beat Sumner until he was unconscious.

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The Dred Scott CaseDred Scott filed a lawsuit, that is, a legal case brought to settle a dispute between people or groups. Dred Scott had been enslaved in Missouri. He moved with his owner to Illinois and then to the Wisconsin Territory, where slavery was not allowed. Scott with his owner returned to Missouri. When his owner died, Scott claimed that because he had lived in a free territory, he had become a free man. The case reached the Supreme Court as Dred Scott v. Sandford. 40

The Dred Scott Case

What did the Supreme Court decide?

• Scott could not file a lawsuit because, as an enslaved person, he was not a citizen.

• Slaves were considered to be property.

• Congress did not have the power to outlaw slavery in any territory. This decision meant the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.

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Impact of Dred Scott Case• White Southerners- were overjoyed. The

decision meant that slavery was legal in all territories.

• African American northerners- condemned the ruling and asked whites to join their efforts to end slavery.

• White Northerners- were shocked. They had hoped that if slavery were kept to the South, it would eventually just die out. Now, slavery could spread.

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How did economic opportunities for free African Americans differ from enslaved ones in the early 1800s?

Free African Americans could own some property and had some rights while the enslaved had no rights.

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The Republican Party Emerges

• Why did the Republican party come into being in the mid-1850s?

• What events lay behind the rapid emergence of Abraham Lincoln as a Republican leader?

• How did Americans react to John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry?

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The Republican Party Emerges

Who formed the Republican Party?

• A group of Free-Soilers, northern Democrats, and antislavery Whigs

Why did they form a new party?

• They believed that neither the Whigs nor the Democrats would take a strong enough stand against slavery.

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The Republican Party Emerges

What was the goal of the party?

• Its main goal was to keep slavery out of the western territories. A few Republicans hoped to end slavery in the South as well.

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How Abraham Lincoln Became Leader

of the Republican Party

• Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky. Later, he lived in Indiana and Illinois.

• Lincoln opened a store in Illinois. He studied law and entered politics.

• He served eight years in the state legislature and one term in Congress.

• He opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, so he ran for the Senate in 1858.

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How Abraham Lincoln Became Leader

of the Republican Party

• During the Senate campaign, he debated Stephen Douglas seven times.– Lincoln: Slavery is wrong. African

Americans are entitled to all the natural rights in the Declaration of Independence, so slavery should not extend to the territories. However, it can remain in the states where it already exists.

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– Douglas: The slavery question should be settled by popular sovereignty.

• Douglas narrowly won the election. However, during the campaign, Lincoln became known throughout the country.

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The Impact of John Brown’s Raid• In 1859, John Brown led followers,

including five African Americans, to Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He planned to raid a federal arsenal, or gun warehouse.

• Brown took over the arsenal. He expected that would inspire a slave uprising, but none took place.

• Troops killed ten raiders and captured Brown. He was tried for murder and treason, or actions against one’s country.

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The Impact of John Brown’s Raid• Brown gave a moving defense of his

actions. Nevertheless he was found guilty and sentenced to death. John Brown was hanged.

• To many northerners, John Brown became a martyr because he was willing to give up his life for his beliefs.

• White southerners were outraged at the northern response. Many southerners became convinced that the North wanted to destroy slavery and the South along with it.

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A Nation Divides

• How did the election of 1860 reflect sectional divisions?

• How did the South react to the election results?

• How did the Civil War begin in 1861?

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The Election of 1860

The Democratic party split into two groups:

Northern Democrat and Southern Democrat.– Northern Democrats nominated

Stephen Douglas.

– Southern Democrats nominated John Breckinridge.

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The Election of 1860

Some Americans tried to heal the split by forming a new party, the Constitutional Union party.– The Constitutional Union party

nominated John Bell.

– The Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln

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How the South Reacted to the Election of 1860

• Many southerners thought that Lincoln’s election meant the South no longer had a voice in national government.

• They believed the President and Congress were against them.

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How the South Reacted to the Election of 1860

• Senator John Crittenden of Kentucky introduced a bill to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific.

• He proposed an amendment to the Constitution that would guarantee slavery south of the compromise line forever.

• His proposals received little support.

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How the South Reacted to the Election of 1860

• Other southerners believed secession was their only choice.

• On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede.

• By late February 1861, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas had followed.

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How the South Reacted to the Election of 1860

• At a convention in Montgomery, Alabama, the seven states formed a new nation, The Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis became its president.

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How the Civil War Began

• When Lincoln took office, he warned that no state could lawfully leave the Union.

• Jefferson Davis had already ordered Confederate forces to begin seizing federal forts in the South.

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• President Lincoln had to make a decision.

• Should he let Confederates take over federal property and look like he was admitting that states had a right to leave the Union?

• Or should he send troops to hold the forts and risk a war?

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• By April 1861, the Union held only four forts in the South. Food supplies at one—Fort Sumter in South Carolina—were running low. Lincoln notified the governor of South Carolina that he was going to ship food to Fort Sumter. He said he would not send troops or weapons.

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• The Confederates demanded that Fort Sumter surrender to them.

• The Union commander refused to give in.

• The Confederates opened fire.

• The Union troops ran out of ammunition and had to surrender.

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Economic differences prior to the Civil War were that the North was more industrial while the South was mostly agricultural

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