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1 The 1850s: Lots and Lots of Things Go Badly All at Once Name: Ryan’s Master Copy Date: February 3, 2010 2 Dred Scott John Brown Part I: The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1954 Lincoln and Douglas Annotations 3 Background The Wilmot Proviso has divided the Country, 1846 (No Slavery in Mexican Acquisitions) Supporters either like it b/c they’re abolitionists or b/c they’re “free soilers” like Wilmot Opponents don’t like it b/c they want more land to build Cotton plantations, but also because they see the proviso as an Abolitionist plot to end slavery altogether The Compromise of 1850 by Henry Clay, JC Calhoun, and Daniel Webster appears to solve the problem by balancing new states (California = Free, Texas = Slave, by deferring decision on the territories until later in Utah and New Mexico, and by ending the Slave Trade in Washington DC while also adding a stricter Fugitive Slave Law Meanwhile, Zachary Taylor is elected president on the grounds that he has no opinions about anything, and the Fugitive Slave Act makes people angry in the North Also making people angry: Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852 Anyway, it’s at this point that Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas and his huge head decide it’s a good idea to build a Transcontinental Railroad from CA to IL. No Southern legislators will support it, because they think it’ll mean at least 2 new Free States when Kansas and Nebraska are organized (b/c Northwest Ordinance and Missouri Compromise). So Douglas comes up with a new plan. What it Did Organized Kansas and Nebraska into territories on their way to statehood Allowed them to vote by Popular Sovereignty on whether or not to allow Slavery Effectively cancels the Missouri Compromise and Northwest Ordinance Some Results The Whig party disintegrates because Southern Whigs support (Democrat) Stephen Douglas Abolitionists like Frederick Douglass get very, very angry. William Lloyd Garrison actually gives a speech in Framingham, MA where he burns a copy of the Constitution and proclaims “So perish all compromises with Tyranny! And let the people say Amen!” to which the people said “Amen”. 4 Part I Continued: Bleeding Kansas Annotations 5 Slavery in Kansas and Nebraska Basically, there wasn’t slavery – residents were former Missouri residents who wanted their own land. “I came to Kansas to live in a free state and I don’t want Niggers a-trampin’ over my grave.” “Popular Sovereignty”, Border Ruffians, and Free-Soilers The attitude of the Planters and much of the South towards what freely electing what to do is best summed up by Missouri Senator David Atchinson, who said “It is our duty to extend the institutions of Missouri (slavery) over the Territory at whatever sacrifice of blood or treasure,” and to “kill every God-damned abolitionist in the district.” Rumors spread of hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts abolitionists coming to take female slaves as concubines and rig the vote. Atchinson, reportedly very drunk, led a group of armed militants to the polls himself. These people got the nickname “Border Ruffians” The result was a rush of angry Missourians into Kansas and violent intimidation at the polls. Slavery won, but 2x more votes were cast than there were registered voters. Hmm… The new, totally illegitimate government set up shop in Lecompton, while the Free Soil/Abolitionists created their own government in Lawrence The Federal Government did nothing but send a committee to investigate. Meanwhile, Planters and Abolitionists started raising $$ to arm young men to go fight it out in Kansas. Henry Ward Beecher buys Bibles and rifles…others sell slaves to buy weapons. Pottawatomie Creek and John Brown In 1856, a mob from Lecompton attacks Lawrence, surrounds the town so everybody has to watch, arrests the Governor, blows up a hotel with cannonballs, destroys their printing press, burns down the Governor’s house. 1 proslavery fatality b/c the house fell on him. In response to that, and the Sumner Caning (more later) John Brown, aka the World’s Scariest Man, takes his sons to find some of the ringleaders and they kill 5 people with broadswords. After that, it’s on; Brown leads an army of abolitionists in several successful battles against proslavery forces. Around 200 people are killed during summer 1856. Finally, in 1861, Kansas passes a constitution and enters the Union as a Free State (but the constitutional battle is also fraught). By this time, Brown is dead. 6 Part II: The Dred Scott Case, 1857 Annotations 7 Dred Scott v. Sanford In 1846, Dred Scott and his wife sued for freedom in Missouri, because their master brought them to a free state and therefore, they thought, they ought to be free. The case took awhile to get to the Supreme court, but in 1857, the decision came down. The Decision – 3 Parts, Written by Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice (Catholic, Maryland) 1) A black man is a “being of an inferior order” with “no rights which white men are obligated to respect” 2) The Missouri Compromise is unconstitutional b/c Congress can’t ban slavery because slaves are property 3) Therefore, Dred Scott and his wife are still slaves What it Meant In general, the North can’t not have Slavery, because if bringing one slave doesn’t set him free, bringing hundreds of slaves wouldn’t set any of them free, either. The language of the decision means that the North couldn’t even ban black people unless those people weren’t slaves. In specific, it meant that there was no way for the people in Kansas to vote down Slavery, so they simply refused to become a state at all until 1861, by which time Lincoln was in the habit of simply ignoring Taney. 8 Part III: Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas Annotations 9 The Republican Party The Whig party falls apart b/c of Kansas/Nebraska An “American” party is created specifically to pass laws against Irish and German Catholics in the North (Also called the Know-Nothings b/c that’s what they said when outsiders asked them about their beliefs so as not to tip off the Pope. Seriously.) A new “Republican” party is created, combines “Free-Soil” supporters, Abolitionists, Social Reformers, and eventually anti-immigrant castoffs after the Know-Nothings lose too much face for their secret plotting and violent attacks on immigrants Republican vision was derisive towards the South. Considered them lazy, uneducated, immoral [imagine how Puritans would react to the South and tone it down a little] Southerners call them “black Republicans” whose goal is to destroy the genteel, cultured, paternalistic, slow-paced Southern lifestyle [well, the Planters thought that…] The Current State of the Abolitionist Movement Douglass and Garrison aren’t speaking b/c Constitutional split and split over the use of violence. Douglass promises the women’s movement that he won’t accept the right to vote unless women can also vote. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her people vehemently support the Abolitionist cause. The Current State of the Federal Government The problem is best summed up by the Preston-Sumner incident with the Cane Sumner, MA Senator gave a 3-hour speech against the Fugitive Slave Act that called Stephen Douglas “noisesome and squat”, and that the KNA’s co-sponsor Andrew Butler (SC) “has chosen a mistress to whom he has made his vows, and who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight. I mean the harlot, Slavery.” Preston Brooks, Butler’s cousin, came in the next day and beat him unconscious with a gold-tipped cane while another SC rep pointed a gun around the room yelling “leave them be!” No charges were ever filed. People in the South sent Brooks more canes b/c he broke his over Sumner’s unconscious body. Brooks died of croup the next year. Ha. President Buchannan (NMwSP) is a Democrat and a tool of the proslavery people 10 Part III Continued: Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas Annotations 11 Abraham Lincoln’s House Divided Speech, 1858 The Republican party is led by Senator William Seward, a Senator from New York But Abraham Lincoln, a relatively unknown, inexperienced guy, gets a fire started with a speech at the Republican National Convention in 1858 – The House Divided Speech “A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand” – he means you can’t have this split over slavery. The country has to be all one thing or all the other. The Slave Power Conspiracy is real. It’s obvious that, given the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision, there are forces trying to legalize slavery everywhere. Abolitionist Republicans now love Lincoln the most, though all Democrats now hate him 1858 Lincoln – Douglas Debate and Illinois Senate Campaign Lincoln and Douglas have a series of 7 Debates across Illinois in their Senate run. Douglas wins, but the debate makes national news because it’s so exciting. They had to speak for 90 minutes each. Debate was mostly about Slavery. Douglas took the position that Lincoln was a crazy abolitionist. Lincoln took the position that slavery is wrong, and should be put on a course of extinction, by which he meant limited rather than outlawed. Both men argued that whites are superior to blacks – Lincoln’s position was that Slavery is wrong anyway, and Douglas’ was that it shouldn’t be up to the Federal Government, either way. Really, Douglas’ position was that he wanted his Railroad, dammit! Douglas wins the election, but Lincoln establishes the Republicans as the only counter to the Slave Power, which is now a real fear in the North. Who is Abraham Lincoln (Part I)? Does Lincoln say racist things because he needs to, or because he means them? Does Lincoln say he won’t abolish Slavery because he doesn’t want to, or because he thinks he can’t? If he is a racist, can he still be a hero? And what should we think about Stephen Douglas? 12 Part IV: More Fun With John Brown Or The Assault on Harper’s Ferry, 1859 Annotations 13 What happened at Harper’s Ferry John Brown led a group of 22 men to attack an arsenal in Virginia. The plan was to start a massive slave uprising and free all the slaves. Instead, all of Brown’s men got caught, 11 died, and nobody rebelled Brown was put on trial for treason and convicted What happened at John Brown’s Trial It can’t be ignored that Brown was kind of a crazy person. He denied doing anything wrong and said that nobody would complain if he’d done what he did on behalf of the powerful instead of the oppressed. Just before he was hung, he wrote “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done.” Reactions Abolitionists love him. Thoreau calls him an “angel”. Douglass says he proved that slavery must be “met with its own weapons”. Lincoln thinks he’s a nut. The South freaks out both because of the raid and the possibility of revolts and because so many Northerners think Brown is a hero (is he?). Suspected abolitionists are rounded up and evicted, sometimes even beaten or whipped. Sidebar Hinton Rowan Helper’s book, The Impending Crisis of the South comes out that same year, 1859. It basically makes the argument, from a southern point of view, that Slavery is oppressive to everyone except the Planters. This does not go over well. 14 Part V: The Election of 1860 Annotations 15 The Candidates and Their Positions Abraham Lincoln, Republican, stop the spread of Slavery + Social Reform + Free Land John Bell, Constitutional Union Party, prevent secession however possible Stephen A. Douglas, Northern Democrat, Popular Sovereignty John C. Breckenridge, Southern Democrat, Expand Slavery Why This Election was So Odd No Republican even attempted to campaign in the South, and there were no ballots for Lincoln there Highest voter turnout in US History (81%, only topped at 82% by the election in 1876 at the end of Reconstruction) How Abraham Lincoln Won He wins every single Free State, which is where most of the people live. Gets 40% of the vote (plurality) and 180 Electoral Votes Stephen A. Douglas only wins Missouri…hahahahaha 16 Part VI: Secession Annotations 17 Who Seceded, When, and Why The South freaks out, assuming Lincoln is going to end slavery immediately, even though he’s repeatedly said he won’t. For the Planters, it makes no difference. If Slavery can’t expand, it will have to end as a system, and they know it. South Carolina, where slaves outnumber the white population, secedes first. Then all of the lower South secedes (TX, LA, AL, MI, FL, GA) Legality of Secession Not really clear. The only precedent is Andrew Jackson’s “treason” theory, but obviously Lincoln isn’t going to ask Chief Justice Taney for a ruling. Response Many Southerners oppose secession b/c they don’t care about slavery, or because they feel loyal to the US, or because they fear war. The Planters feel like they have to fight, though, and they’re the ones with all the power in the South, so that’s that. Also, lots of whites in the South are either fooled by various exaggerations i.e. Northerners are plotting to arm the slaves to go kill all the whites or simply want to defend the racial hierarchy that they see as benefitting them. Many Northerners oppose the war, too, either because they don’t feel like the South affects them (which isn’t true at all from an economic standpoint) or because they oppose war generally, or because they think the South is more trouble than it’s worth. But the Republicans can’t compromise on slavery’s expansion, and they can’t let the South go with all that cheap cotton, either, so…. 18 Key Quotes: Lincoln From the “House Divided” Speech, 1858 We are now far into the fifth year since apolicy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Lincoln, on Civil Rights for Blacks 1858 I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And in as much as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race Key Quotes: Confederacy Senator Albert Gallatin Brown of Mississippi On the Future of Slavery, 1858 I want Cuba. I want Tamaulipas, Potosi, and one or two other Mexican states. And a footing in Central America will powerfully aid us in acquiring those other States. Yes, I want these Countries for the spread of slavery. I would spread the blessings of slavery, like the religion of our Divine Master, to the uttermost ends of the earth. A Virginia Newspaper, On Why Secession is Necessary 1861 How anyone after reading the editorials of many of the leading papers published at the North, can vote against secession, or even not vote at all, I cannot imagine. Is it not the threatened policy of the North to invade our State and take from us by brute force, our lands, our houses, and all that we possess, and divide it among themselves? Their cry is "booty and beauty," which means, in plain English, as I understand it, to steal our lands from us, and ravish our females. Any one that doubts can get the newspapers and read for themselves. Georgia State Legislature, Explaining Secession under Republican Rule The prohibition of slavery in the Territories, hostility to it everywhere, the equality of the black and white races, disregard of all constitutional guarantees in its favor, were boldly proclaimed by its leaders and applauded by its followers. With these principles on their banners and these utterances on their lips the majority of the people of the North demand that we shall receive them as our rulers. To avoid these evils we resume the powers which our fathers delegated to the Government of the United States, and henceforth will seek new safeguards for our liberty, equality, security, and tranquillity. 19 Key Quotes: Lincoln II Key Quotes: Hinton Helper 20 On his purpose in waging the Civil War, or On Emancipation 1861 I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. On the evil of Slavery, 1858 I desire no concealment of my opinions in regard to the institution of slavery. I look upon it as a great evil, and deeply lament that we have derived it from the parent government, and from our ancestors. I wish every slave in the United States was in the country of his ancestors. But here they are, and the question is, how can they best be dealt with? On the “economic necessity” argument The North is the Mecca of our merchants, and to it they must and do make two pilgrimages per annum—one in the spring and one in the fall. All our commercial, mechanical, manufactural, and literary supplies come from there. We want Bibles, brooms, buckets and books and we go to the North. We want pens, ink, paper, wafer and envelopes, and we go to the North. We want furniture, crockery, glassware and pianos, and we go to the North. We want toys, primers, school books, fashionable apparel, machinery, medicines tombstones, and a thousand other things, and we go to the North for them all. Instead of keeping our money in circulation at home by patronizing our own mechanics, manufacturers, and laborers, we send it all away to the North, and there it remains; it never falls into our hands again. Slavery, and nothing but slavery, has retarded the progress and prosperity of our portion of the Union and made us a tributary state to the North! On Southern Whites The lords of the lash are not only absolute masters of the blacks, who are bought and sold, and driven about like so many cattle, but they are also the oracles and arbiters of all non-slaveholding whites, whose freedom is merely nominal, and whose unparalleled illiteracy and degradation is purposely and fiendishly perpetuated. How little the "poor white trash," the great majority of the Southern people, know of the real condition of the country is, indeed, sadly astonishing. The truth is, they know nothing of public measures, and little of private affairs, except what their imperious masters, the slave-drivers, condescend to tell, and that is but precious little, and even that little, always garbled and one-sided, is never told except in public harangues; for the haughty cavaliers of shackles and handcuffs will not degrade themselves by holding private converse with those who have neither dimes nor hereditary rights in human flesh. 21 Key Quotes: F. Douglass Key Quotes: JC Calhoun Frederick Douglass on the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850 The only way to make the Fugitive Slave Law a dead letter is to make half a dozen or more dead kidnappers. A half dozen more dead kidnappers carried down South would cool the ardor of Southern gentlemen, and keep their rapacity in check. That is perfectly right as long as the colored man has no protection. The colored men's rights are less than those of a jackass. No man can take away a jackass without submitting the matter to twelve men in any part of this country. A black man may be carried away without any reference to a jury. It is only necessary to claim him, and that some villain should swear to his identity. There is more protection there for a horse, for a donkey, or anything, rather than a colored man—who is, therefore, justified in the eye of God, in maintaining his right with his arm. Address to the Southern People May 6, 1850 Calhoun Explains Why Secession May be Necessary In the contest now going on, the constitutional equality of fifteen States is put in question. Some sixteen hundred millions worth of negro property is involved, directly; and, indirectly, though not less surely, an incalculable amount of property in other forms. But to say this, is to state less than half the doom that hangs over you. Your social forms and institutions, which separate the European and the African races into distinct classes, and assign to each a different sphere in society, are threatened with overthrow. Whether the negro is to occupy the same social rank with the white man, and enjoy equally with him the rights, privileges, and immunities of citizenship, in short, all the honors and dignities of society, is a question of greater moment than any mere question of property can be. On the Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854 The hell-black scheme for extending slavery over Nebraska, where thirty-four years ago it was solemnly protected from slavery forever, has triumphed. The audacious villainy of the slave power, and the contemptible pusillanimity of the North, have begotten this monster. Let the old parties go to destruction; whither they have nearly sunk the nation. Let their names be blotted out, and their memory rot; and henceforth let there be only a free party, and a slave party. The banner of God and liberty, and the bloody flag of slavery and chains shall then swing out from our respective battlements. On Henry Clay Henry Clay is a bad man, but by God I love him. On John Brown Did John Brown fail? Ask Henry A. Wise, in whose house less than two years after, a school for the emancipated slaves was taught. If John Brown did not end the war that ended slavery, he did at least begin the war that ended slavery. 22 Key Quotes: Sojourner Truth Key Quotes: Miscellaneous 23 Sojourner Truth (1797-1883): Ain't I A Woman? Delivered 1851 Women's Convention, Akron, Ohio Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about? On the Effect of the Fugitive Slave Law in Boston, Anonymous We went to bed conservative Whigs and woke up stark, raving abolitionists! Charles Lines, a Connecticut Settler, on Bleeding Kansas (Lines had just seen a friend tortured by proslavery Border Ruffians) How monstrous all these things appear to a thinking man. Wrong That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted heaped upon wrong, the most sacred rights of free citizens despised over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into and trampled in the dust, and all for the purpose of fastening upon carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, this young Territory a gigantic, wholesale wrong (slavery), frowned and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as upon and condemned by the whole civilized world. much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman? Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full? Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him. If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them. Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say. John Brown, on his Behavior I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament. That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me, further, to "remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them." I endeavored to act up to that instruction. If it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit; so let it be done!