Download US Chapter 8 Quick Notes

US History Chapter 8 Quick Notes
SECTION 1: SLAVERY & WESTERN EXPANSION
The spread of slavery into new western territory was the dominant issue of the 1850s. The admission of
new free or slave states would upset the balance of the Missouri Compromise. Further, white Southerners
demanded new laws to help them recapture slaves who had escaped into free states & territory.
THE WILMOT PROVISO
In August 1846 David Wilmot, a Pennsylvania Democrat, proposed for a war bill an amendment called the
WILMOT PROVISO that said “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist” in land the USA
gained from Mexico. This proviso outraged Southerners who believed slavery was threatened. Northern
Dems and Whigs still passed the Proviso in the House, though the Senate refused to vote on it, as the
South felt they were being ignored.
POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY
POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY is the idea proposed by Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan that citizens of each
new territory should be allowed to decide for themselves whether they wanted to be slave or free. This
concept appealed to many in Congress since it removed the issue of slavery from national politics, and it
appeared to be democratic by heeding what the people wanted.
Abolitionists argued it denied Africans their freedom, but most Northerners supported it because they
thought the new lands would be settled by Northerners who would in turn ban slavery.
THE FREE SOIL PARTY EMERGES
For the 1848 election the Whig Party selected soldier Zachary Taylor. The party was split in the Orth.
Many, called Conscience Whigs, opposed slavery and opposed Taylor because he owned slaves ad wanted
to expand the institution into the west. Other Northern Whigs, called Cotton Whigs’, voted with Southern
Whigs for Taylor because they relied on the South for cotton.
As a result of Taylor’s nomination most Conscience Whigs quite the party and joined anti-slavery
Democrats and the abolitionist Liberty Party to form the FREE SOIL PARTY, whose main issue was to
oppose slavery in the “free soil” of Western territories. Some Free Soilers wanted to end slavery while
others just wanted to limit access to the western territories to white farmers. Allowing slavery meant it
would be harder for free men to find work. Their slogan was “Free soil, free speech, free labor, and free
men.”
On Election Day the Free Soilers split the vote for the Democrats, which provided Taylor, a Whig, enough
electoral votes to win. Oops!
THE FORTY-NINERS HEAD TO CALIFORNIA
In 1849 gold was struck in California and thousands headed west to get rich. By the end of the year over
80,000 FORTY NINERS had arrived and increased the population so much that California could apply for
statehood. Would it be free or slave?!?
President Taylor owned slaves, but didn’t think slavery’s SURVIVAL depended on western expansion. He
encouraged California to be free, though the issue of slavery was resurrected.
THE GREAT DEBATE BEGINS
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US History Chapter 8 Quick Notes
The Southern slave states feared they would be in the minority of the Senate if California joined as a free
state. Concerned about limited slavery and states’ rights, Southerners began to openly discuss
SECESSION (leaving the Union).
CLAY’S PROPOSAL
In 1850 Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky tried to forge a compromise to let California join the Union. Clay
was nicknamed ‘The Great Compromise’ because he had promoted the Missouri Compromise in 1820,
and resolved the issue of nullification in 1833. This time he proposed eight (8) resolutions to resolve the
California crisis. He offered concessions to both the North and South to garner as much support as
possible. These included a variety of approaches to slavery, including outlawing the slave trade, outlawing
slavery and letting it continue in some regions.
Clay’s proposals triggered a massive debate. A compromise would need the approval of Senator John C.
Calhoun, a great defender of Southern rights. He was seriously ill and wrote a speech that was read aloud
to the Senate as he looked on.
CALHOUN’S RESPONSE
Calhoun argued that Northern agitation against slavery threatened to destroy the South, and didn’t think
Clay’s compromise would save the Union. The South wanted its rights to have all fugitive slaves returned,
and wanted a balance of power between the sections. Calhoun wrote that if the Southern states couldn’t
live safely in the Union, then secession was the only honorable solution. Three days later Senator Daniel
Webster of Massachusetts responded, arguing that all sections needed to put national unity above
sectional loyalties. Webster supported Clay’s compromise to preserve the Union, saying, “There can be no
such thing as a peaceable secession.”
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850
President Taylor opposed Clay’s bill of compromise and Congress didn’t pass it. however, Taylor died
unexpectedly and his Vice President, Millard Fillmore, took office and supported it. by the end of that
summer Calhoun had also died, Webster was Secretary of State, and Clay retired exhausted from the
Senate. Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois took charge to resolve the crisis. By the fall Congress passed the
entire resolution and President Fillmore signed it into law. He called the compromise the “final settlement”
between the North and South. This COMPROMISE OF 1850 briefly eased the tensions over slavery,
though hope for a permanent solution faded.
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT
The FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT OF 1850 (FSA) was created by Henry Clay to appeal to So8uthern
slaveholders, but it actually created intense outrage and hostility toward slavery among many Northerners
who had up to that time been indifferent (didn’t care).
NORTHERN RESISTANCE GROWS
Under the FSA a person only had to claim an African was an escaped slave to have them arrested. The
African would be brought before a federal commissioner and was not allowed to testify in their own
defense. The court just needed the word or testimony of a white person. Further, federal commissioners
had an economic interest in this  judges ruling in favor of the slaveholder earned $10, while those ruling
in favor of the Africans only received $5. (this is the modern difference between $142 vs. $283).
Federal marshals were ordered to assist slavecatchers and to deputize citizens to catch fugitives. A citizen
who refused to help catch fugitives would be jailed. Newspapers accounts of the unjust treatment of
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US History Chapter 8 Quick Notes
Africans infuriated Northerners. One paper claimed, “Almost no colored man is safe in our streets.” People
were also angry that citizens were forced to assist in these captures. This drove many to active defiance.
Frederick Douglass emphasized these rules and asked his audiences if they would give the runaways over
to the “pursuing bloodhounds.” The crowds would roar back, “NO!!”
THE UDNERGROUND RAILROAD
In 1849 Henry David Thoreau wrote in his essay “Civil Disobedience” that one should disobey unjust laws
on moral grounds: “Unjust laws exist. Shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend
them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them all at once?” Many people
disobeyed the Fugitive Slave Act.
Another front in the war on slavery was the UNDERGROUND RAILROAD (UR). It wasn’t comprised of
actual trains on tracks, but was an informal, yet well-organized system, that legendarily helped thousands
of slaves escape during the 1840s and ‘50s. ‘Conductors’ transported runaways to the North in secret,
providing them with food, shelter and money for a fresh start in the North or Canada.
Dedicated people made dangerous trips into the South to find slaves. The most famous conductor was
Harriet Tubman, who was a runaway herself. In spite of a large reward for her capture, she still risked her
life nineteen times, freeing over 200. She always carried a pistol and threatened to shoot slaves who
chickened out, or were discovered or threatened. She said, “You’ll be free or die. There was one of two
things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other, for no man should
take me alive.”
People created secret symbols to communicate, such as a hand lifted palm outwards or tugging on the
ear in a particular way. These were essential to operate the railroad effectively. With thousands of Africans
escaping the South the UR deepened southern mistrust of Northern intentions.
UNCLE TOM’S CABIN
Inspired by the FSA and UR, Harriet Beecher Stowe had heard tales of escaped slaves and witnessed the
destructiveness of slavery in Kentucky. She wrote the novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” about the enslaved hero
Tom and the villanous overseer Simon Legree. This changed the way most Northerners perceived Africans
and slavery. Africans were depicted as real people in a horrendous situation. 300,000 copies were sold in
1852 alone, and stage play versions throughout the North spread the message and gained more attention
ad popularity. Southerners tried to ban the book and say it was deceitful, but over one million copies were
sold to many people who changed their minds about the reality of slavery.
THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT
With the opening of Oregon and the admission of California, Americans thought a transcontinental
railroad was needed to join the Eastern and Western halves of the country. The train would reduce the
travel time from several grueling weeks to a four easy days. The railroad had broad appeal, but naturally
debates arose over whether there should be a predominantly Northern or Southern route.
REPEALING THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE
Stephen A. Douglas didn’t want to divide the country or permit more slavery, but he also wanted to open
the west to more settlement. His efforts to reach new deals failed and Congress passed the KANSASNEBRASKA ACT in May 1854, permitting Nebraska to be free and Kansas to be slave. This abandoned the
Missouri Compromise.
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US History Chapter 8 Quick Notes
“BLEEDING KANSAS”
Kansas became the first battleground regarding slavery. Hundreds of armed anti-slavery Northerners
flocked there. Missouri’s pro-slavery Senator David Atchison called on people from his home state to act,
and in spring 1855 thousands of “border ruffians” stormed into Kansas to vote illegally. Separate
governments were formed by March 1856. In May more border ruffians attacked the town of Lawrence,
wrecking newspaper presses, plundering shops and homes, and burning a hotel and the home of the freestate governor. By year’s end 200 people had died and $2 million of property had been destroyed.
THE CANING OF CHARLES SUMNER
In May 1856 Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner was a serious abolitionist and blasted the South,
especially South Carolina’s Anderson Butler for their slavery. A few days later Butler’s cousin beat Sumner
viciously with a cane on the floor of the Senate, saying he was defending Southern honor.
Southerners considered the cousin to be a hero. Northerners were enraged, mocked the violent
Southerners and their brutish conception of honor, and resolved to resist the “barbarism of slavery.”
SECTION 2: THE CRISIS DEEPENS
The Whig, Free Soil and Democratic parties all splintered over how to handle the issue of power and
slavery. Many abolitionists, angered over the Kansas-Nebraska Act, left and formed the Republican Party.
They wanted to revive Thomas Jefferson’s spirit of the American Revolution. The Democratic and the
bigoted anti-immigration & anti-Catholic Know Nothings, saw a surge (growth in power and influence)
THE ELECTION OF 1856
Democrat James Buchanan won because his opponents split the ballot. Would he keep the Union
together?
THE DRED SCOTT DECISION
Buchanan wanted to let the Supreme Court decide on slavery in the territories. Dred Scott was a slave who
had been brought to free land before returning to slave Missouri; he sued saying that his time in freedom
meant he was free. In the spring of 1857 the Court declared that Scott was still a slave, and Chief Justice
Roger B. Taney opined Africans weren’t citizens and thus couldn’t sue. Further, it was unconstitutional to
prohibit slavery in the territories.
Democrats loved this decision, Republicans loathed it. Africans had contempt for the US government.
THE EMERGENCE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Republicans needed a candidate who could win every single Northern state. In 1858 Illinois Republicans
chose Lincoln to run for Senate against Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln said, “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.”
Douglas was famous for his speaking skills, and Lincoln challenged him to a series of public debates to
spread his cause and attract supporters.
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US History Chapter 8 Quick Notes
Lincoln was not strictly an abolitionist, but thought slavery was amoral wrong and wanted to stop its
spread into the western territories. Douglas believed in popular sovereignty and Lincoln criticized him for
equating slavery and freedom, and advised people should elect Republicans who would slice out the
cancer of slavery. Lincoln lost, but had established Republican principles, and proven himself to be clear,
insightful, forceful and eloquent.
JOHN BROWN’S RAID
John Brown was a fervent abolitionist who said, “God had forged him on a purpose to break the jaws of
the wicked.” In 1859 he organized a popular assault on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in modern
West Virginia. He intended to use the weapons they seized to free and arm slaves and begin an
insurrection against slaveholders.
Nineteen people attacked on October 16, but faced a team of Marines led by Robert E. Lee. Brown was
captured after 36 hours and sentenced to death.
Brown told the court, “I believe that to have interfered as I have done, as I have always freely admitted I
have done in behalf of [God’s] despised poor, I did no wrong, but right. Now if it is deemed necessary that
I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice and mingle my blood…with the blood of
millions in this slave country where rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel and unjust enactments, I say,
let it be done!”
On December 2, his execution day, he wrote “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this
guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”
Northerners viewed Brown as a noble hero and martyr. Southerners thought he was a vicious murderer
who would inspire more Northerners to act against them.
SECTION 3: THE UNION DISSOLVES
THE ELECTION OF 1860 & THE DEMOCRATIC SPLIT
The party was rent because Northern Democrats wanted popular sovereignty in new territories, while
Southerners wanted to uphold the Dred Scott decision and a federal slave code. These splits seriously
helped the Republicans, though if they won, then the South was more likely to secede.
LINCOLN IS ELECTED
The Republicans had no chance to win any Southern states, thus had to sweep the North. They supported
the popular Lincoln for President, and established themselves as antislavery, though would permit popular
sovereignty, support higher tariffs, a new homestead law for western settlers, and a transcontinental
railroad. Naturally the South hated all of these. Lincoln won due to a split Democratic vote, and the South
viewed this victory for abolition as a threat to their own society and culture. They felt they had no choice
but to secede.
SECESSION BEGINS
By February 1, 1861 seven Southern states had seceded: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. Southerners believed they were upholding the spirit of the America
Revolution by fighting for their rights. Many legislators wanted to compromise to avoid a civil war.
FOUNDING THE CONFEDERACY
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US History Chapter 8 Quick Notes
Seceding states established the Confederate States of America/CSA or the Confederacy. They drafted
a constitution much like the US Constitution, though it declared each stat was independent and
guaranteed slavery. Former Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis was elected President and declared, “The
time for compromise has passed. The South is determined to…make all who oppose her smell southern
power and feel Southern steel.”
THE CIVIL WAR BEGINS
IN HIS INAUGURAL President Lincoln addressed the seceding states, repeating his commitment not to
interfere with slavery where it existed, but insisted, “The union of these states is perpetual.”
He didn’t directly threaten those states, but said he WOULD “hold, occupy and possess” all federal
property in those states. He also encouraged reconciliation, saying “In your hands, my dissatisfied
countrymen, and not in mine is the momentous issue of a civil war. The government will not assail
(assault) you. You can have no conflict without yourselves being the aggressors…we are not enemies but
friends. We must not be enemies. Though passions may have strained it must not break our bonds of
affection.”
FORT SUMTER FALLS
In April Lincoln needed to resupply For Sumter. Davis faced a dilemma: leaving federal troops I the
South’s most vital harbor was unacceptable if the South was to remain an independent nation. If he fired
on the federal troops, though, that would definitely lead to war with the USA. Davis had Fort Sumter
captured before the federal supply ship arrived. The Confederates hoped to keep the peace, and
demanded the Fort’s commander, Major Robert Anderson, surrender by the morning of April 12, 1861.
Anderson refused to surrender. The Confederates began to fire cannons at the fort for 33 hours. The fort
was destroyed, though nobody was killed. Anderson surrendered and this act of aggression by the
Confederates meant the Civil War had begun.
THE UPPER SOUTH SECEDES
President Lincoln called for 75,000 troops to serve for 90 days. This led to a crisis in the Upper South
because they didn’t want to secede, but felt they had to do so in the face of civil war. By the summer
Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee had seceded. The Confederate capital was established at
Richmond, VA across from Washington DC on the other side of the Potomac River.
HANGING ONTO THE BORDER STATES
Lincoln wanted to retain the slaveholding border states of Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri and Maryland.
1. MARYLAND: if Maryland seceded then Washington DC would be surrounded by Confederate territory.
To save Maryland Lincoln imposed martial law, in which the military takes control. Concerned with
confederate spies in the capital, Lincoln also suspended the right of habeas corpus which protects
citizens from illegal imprisonment without evidence. Chief Justice Robert Taney said Lincoln was wrong,
but Lincoln, as Commander in Chief, said it was an unfortunate but necessary step in the face of war.
2. KENTUCKY: this state was neutral until September 1861 when Confederate troops occupied the state.
Union troops had to move in and many angry Kentuckians decided to fight against the Confederates.
Other pro-CSA Kentuckians created a rival government and tried to secede.
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US History Chapter 8 Quick Notes
3. MISSOURI: many people here supported the Confederacy, but voted against secession. Missouri stayed
with the Union with help from federal troops.
With the Union preserved as much as possible, and with the belligerent Confederacy established, the
conflicts would now shift to the battlefields…
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