slides

• Missouri Compromise (1820)

  • Stated that the Slave/Free state balance had to be maintained
  • For every slave state, you would need a free state
  • For every free state, you would need a slave state
  • Led to the admission of Missouri (Slave) and Maine (Free) as new states
  • Also declared that slavery would not exist above 36° 30' N
  • Remained the rule of 30 Years
• The Mexican War changes everything

  • The U.S. takes huge pieces of land that are to be made into states
  • When these states apply for statehood, there is no balance
• Positions on slavery in new territories

  • Rep. Wilmot (W – PA): "No slavery in any lands conquered from Mexico"
  • Sen. Calhoun (D – SC): "Congress cannot say whether slavery will exist there or not"
• Free Soil Party


  • Many Whigs who were anti-slavery (and some secretly members of the abolition movement) form the "Free Soil" Party
  • "Free Soil, Free Speech, and Free Men"
  • Appealed to many in the North
  • Ran Martin Van Buren as their presidential candidate in 1848, but he lost to Zachary Taylor (Whig)
• California wants to be a state

  • The United States wants to make it a state
  • California's constitution outlawed slavery
  • There is no area in the South ready to join as a slave state to balance it out
• Clay abandons the Missouri Compromise
• Candidates in the 1848 election: Taylor (Whig) and Cass (D) did not take a position on the issue of slavery
• They endorsed the Wilmot Proviso, and nominated Martin Van Buren in 1848
• Slavery coming to the forefront of US politics
• Compromise of 1850

  • California is admitted as a Free State
  • Slavery is forbidden in California
  • New Mexico Territory has no restrictions on slavery
  • Texas-New Mexico border dispute settled in favor of New Mexico
  • The Slave Trade is banned in Washington D.C
  • Slavery still allowed there, but no selling slaves in the capital
  • Fugitive Slave Laws strengthened
• Reactions to Clay's plan

  • Calhoun believes that Congress doesn't have the power to do any of this
  • Northerners are outraged at the strengthening of the Fugitive Slave Act
  • President Fillmore didn't care- He wanted some sort of deal
  • Sen. Douglas(D – IL) Divided the proposal up into 5 different votes
• The Compromise of 1850 puts off the inevitable (at this point) civil war
• The Compromise of 1850 solves absolutely nothing
• The country is as divided as ever- if not more so
• Congress thinks that they have solved the problem, and decide to do very little on the issue of slavery and states' rights for the 10 most crucial years in American history
• California lies both North and South of the Missouri Compromise line
• Territories in the South had not organized enough to be ready for statehood
• Fugitive Slave Act

  • Required all citizens to help catch runaway slaves
  • Anyone who aided a runaway could be fined or imprisoned
  • Slaveholders stepped-up their efforts to catch runaways
  • Would sometimes catch free African-Americans and force them into slavery
• Reactions to the Fugitive Slave Act

  • Northerners were outraged
  • Angry that they had to help catch runaways
  • Angry that they could be jailed for aiding runaways
  • Abolitionists tracked bounty hunters
  • Signs were posted that warned African-Americans of their presence
  • Most Northern juries refused to convict people brought to trial for helping runaways
• Northerners were against the Fugitive Slave Act not because they were against slavery, but because it was an instance of the South exerting its power over the North LEGALLY through Congressional approval
• Kansas-Nebraska Act

  • Congress (Douglas) decides to let the Americans in the Kansas and Nebraska Territories decide for themselves
  • The territories are to vote for themselves whether to allow slavery
  • Thousands of pro-slavery Southerners enter the territory, vote, then go back home
  • There are thousands more that vote than actually live in the territory
  • The vote is obviously not considered valid
  • Pro-slavery and anti-slavery governments are established in Kansas
  • Kansas erupts into civil war
• John Brown

  • A NORTHERNER AND FAILED BUSINESSMAN
  • HAD FAILED OVER A DOZEN TIMES IN MORE THAN FIVE STATES
  • LOST FOUR OF HIS CHILDREN TO DISEASE
  • BELIEVED HE WAS PUT ON EARTH TO DESTROY SLAVERY
  • BELIEVED THAT VIOLENT SLAVE REBELLION WAS THE ONLY WAY TO END SLAVERY
  • FOUGHT IN KANSAS AND THEN LATER REAPPEARS AT HARPER'S FERRY, VIRGINIA
• The Kansas-Nebraska Act did not mandate whether a state was Slave or Free, and instead proposed Popular Sovereignty to let the people living in the territory to vote for what they wanted, which was a disaster
• Attack on Senator Sumner

  • SEN. CHARLES SUMNER (W/R – MA) GAVE A STRONG SPEECH AGAINST SLAVERY AND THE VIOLENCE IN KANSAS
  • THE NEXT DAY HE WAS SAVAGELY ATTACKED AND BEATEN INTO A COMA BY REP. PRESTON BROOKS (D – SC) BREAKING HIS CANE OVER SUMNER'S HEAD
  • SUMNER SUFFERED FROM SLOW AND SLURRED SPEECH THE REST OF HIS LIFE
  • BROOKS WAS NEVER CHARGED IN THE ATTACK AND DID NOT LOSE HIS SEAT IN CONGRESS
  • HIS SUPPORTERS SENT HIM NEW CANES
• The attack on Senator Sumner is clear evidence that the rift between North and South is becoming more openly violent, and that the South is in favor of attacking Northerners who are hostile to slavery, believing that those Northerners who would infringe on their states' rights should pay for it in blood
• What was the problem with California becoming a state?

  There is no area in the South ready to join as a slave slate to balence it out.
• Wilmot Proviso: 1848 - Congress could not pass a bill that would reduce the amount of land available for sale
• What was the WIlmot Proviso?

  Congress could not pass a bill that would reduce the amount of land available for sale