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Sectionalism
Regional Conflict and Attempts at
Compromise.
or
Events Leading to the Civil War.
Early Efforts to Abolish Slavery
(1774 – 1804)
In 1777 Vermont wrote a state constitution
abolishing slavery.
 State constitutions were written in
Massachusetts in 1780, and by New Hampshire
in 1783, which implied the abolition of slavery.
 Gradual abolition was begun in Pennsylvania in
1780, in Rhode Island and Connecticut in 1784,
in New York in 1799, and in New Jersey in 1804.

Early Efforts to Abolish Slavery
(1774 – 1804)
 The
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
outlawed slavery north of the Ohio and
east of the Mississippi, including the
present states of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana,
Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of
Minnesota.
Constitutional Convention
(1787)
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3/5 Compromise
In 1808 the importation of slaves end
(Art. 1, Sec. #2)
Fugitive Slave Laws (Art. 4, Sec.#2)
Missouri

Why was the admission of the Missouri
Territory as a new state a problem for
some Americans?
The Balance of Power
In the United States Senate in 1819 Free
States and Slave States were equally
represented. How would the admission of
Missouri as a state change the balance of
power in the Senate?
Missouri Compromise (1820)
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Missouri entered the union as a slave
state.
Maine entered the union as a free state.
(This maintained the balance of power between free and slave
states in the Senate at 12 each.)
Slavery not allowed in the remainder of
the Louisiana Purchase north of 36
degrees 30’ (the southern border of
Missouri.)
Nullification and Secession
1798 – 1799 “Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions”
They were written by Thomas Jefferson and James
Madison in reaction to the Sedition Acts (Alien and
Sedition Acts).
 Jefferson argued that states had the power to “nullify”
laws passed by Congress if Congress acted outside the
powers given to it in the Constitution.
 These resolutions were considered some of the first
arguments for states’ rights.

Hartford Convention (1814)
In December of 1814 delegates from 5 New
England states met in Hartford Connecticut
to protest the War of 1812.
 Power had shifted from the Federalist Party
to the Republican Party.
 Some Federalists suggested that states could
refuse to send militia into service.
 Some Federalists suggested secession from
the Union.

Tariff of Abominations (1828)
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In 1828 Congress passed an unusually
high protective tariff. Some
manufactured goods from Europe had a
tariff as high as 50%.
The tariff protected Northern factories
from competition with European
manufacturers.
Northerners generally favored high
protective tariffs.
Southern reaction:
 Southerners did not benefit from the tariff.
 Most Southerners wanted the option of buying
goods from Europe.
 Southerners were afraid that European powers
would place a tariff on their cotton making it
too expensive (e.g. no more King Cotton).
 John C. Calhoun, writes his South Carolina
Exposition and Protest. Calhoun says that
states have the right to nullify any federal law it
doesn’t like.
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1833 South Carolina nullifies a slightly
lower tariff passed by Congress.
Congress, at the request of President
Jackson, passed the Force Bill. South
Carolina Nullifies it as well and says it will
fight any army which marches in the
state.
Henry Clay works out a compromise in
Congress which removed some of the
taxes and South Carolina rescinded its
nullification.
Power in Government

North - favored strong National
Government

South - favored strong State
Governments
The Abolitionists
William Lloyd Garrison
He published The Liberator (1831)
 Garrison was a radical abolitionist who
published an anti-slavery newspaper in
Boston. He called for an immediate end to
slavery and portrayed slave owners as
evil.

“Let Southern oppressors tremble…..”
“In defending the great cause of human rights, I wish to
derive the assistance of all religions and of all parties.”
“….. I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not
excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE
HEARD.”
Theodore Weld (1803–1895)

Theodore Weld became a preacher after meeting the Methodist preacher
Charles G. Finney in 1825.

In 1830 he took up the fight against slavery, and was one of the founders
of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833.

In 1836 Weld trained a band of 70 abolitionists, including his future wife,
Angelina Grimké, a writer of anti-slavery stories.

Weld went to Washington and became a lobbyist in Congress for the antislavery cause. Weld also was an adviser to John Quincy Adams when
Adams tried to introduce a constitutional amendment against slavery.

Weld's was one of the major voices in the pre-Civil War abolitionist
movement. In 1839 he anonymously published American Slavery As It Is.
The Grimke Sisters
– Born in South Carolina
– Among the first women to
speak out against slavery
– Lectured for the American Anti-
Slavery Society
The Grimke Sisters
– They were Southern women
who freed their slaves
Frederick Douglass
– Former slave
– Edited the antislavery
newspaper, The North Star
– Best known AfricanAmerican abolitionist
Sojourner Truth
(Isabella Van Wagener)
(1797?-1883)
She was born a slave and became the most famous
antislavery spokeswoman. In 1843 she said that
God called upon her to "travel up and down the
land" and preach his word. She changed her name
to Sojourner (meaning traveler) Truth and set out
on a lecture tour to speak out about religion,
slavery, and women's issues. Although she could
neither read nor write, she was a captivating orator.
Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831)
1. Describe the event.
2. How did Southerners react to the event?
Fear of Slave Rebellions
Fear of slave rebellions haunted whites who lived where
slaves were numerous:
1739 – Led by a slave named Cato on the Stono Plantation, South
Carolina, 74 killed.
1801 – A slave, Gabriel Prosser, urged blacks to rebel and march on
Richmond , Virginia. The plan failed, he was caught and hanged.
1822 – Denmark Vesey, a free black, was convicted of trying to
organize on uprising in Charleston, South Carolina. Vesey and 36
others were executed.
Overview:
Nat Turner
Southern Reaction To Nat Turner’s Rebellion
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Many southern states made it difficult for planters to free
their slaves.
In some states free blacks were required to live in cities,
far from the plantations. In Virginia, freed slaves had to
leave the state.
Most southern states made teaching a slave to read a
crime.
Slaves off the plantation had to carry passes.
Slave patrols could stop and search any black, at
gunpoint.
Underground Railroad (c.1835)
What was it?
How did it operate?
How did this event create bad
feelings between Northerners in Free
States and Southerners in Slave
States?
Wilmot Proviso (1846)
What was it?
How did this event create bad
feelings between Northerners in Free
States and Southerners in Slave
States?
Compromise of 1850
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Proposed by Henry Clay (“Great Peacemaker”)
California enters the Union as a free state.
In the remainder of the Mexican Cession the
states would decide the slavery issue for
themselves. Popular sovereignty would decide
the issue in the Utah Territory (Nevada and
Utah) and in the New Mexico Territory (Arizona
and New Mexico).
Stricter fugitive slave laws were passed
No slave trade in the District of Columbia
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
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What was it?
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How did it create bad feelings between
Northerners and Southerners?
The story opens in Kentucky. To satisfy a
debt, Arthur Shelby is obliged to sell his
faithful slave Tom, a devoutly religious man,
and a child Harry, son of Eliza. Hearing that
her child is to be sold away from her, Eliza
escapes and, after a desperate flight across
the ice of the Ohio River reaches safety
among the Quakers of the Underground
Railroad. Later, her husband, George Harris,
joins her. Tom, while on a Mississippi River
steamboat taking him to be sold downriver,
saves from drowning Eva, the young
daughter of a wealthy Louisiana planter,
Augustine St. Clare. In gratitude, St. Clare
buys Tom as a household servant, but after
St. Clare's death Tom is sold to Simon
Legree, the brutal owner of a Red River
plantation. There the final acts of the
tragedy take place, as young George Shelby
arrives too late to redeem his old favorite
servant.
Ferguson, DeLancey. "Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly."
Encyclopedia Americana. 2008.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a fictional novel
about slavery that became a best-seller.
 The novel portrayed slave owners in a very
negative way.
 Southerners very critical of the author and her
work.
 Many Northerners, after reading the novel,
became critical of the institution of slavery.

Below is an except from a book review of Uncle Tom’s Cabin which appeared in
the Liberator. Garrison shares with his readers some of Stowe’s motives for
writing the novel.
First, let the author speak for herself, as she
does in her Preface:—"The object of these
sketches is to awaken sympathy and feeling for
the African race, as they exist among us; to
show their wrongs and sorrows, under a system
so necessarily cruel and unjust all to defeat and
do away the good effects of all that can be
attempted for them, by their best friends, under
it……
The Liberator
Unsigned, William Lloyd Garrison
Boston: 26 March 1852
The Kansas Territory 1854
The Kansas and
Nebraska
Territories were
above the 36 deg.
30’ Line.
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Popular sovereignty would decide the
legality of slavery in the Kansas and
Nebraska Territories.

The 36 deg. 30’ line was no longer the
rule (This voids the Missouri Compromise).
Bleeding Kansas (1855-56)

Pro-slavery (Border Ruffians) v. antislavery forces (Jayhawkers)

Some say the first shots of the Civil War
were actually fired in Kansas (Bleeding
Kansas).
Dred Scott (1857)
Who was Dred Scott?
Why was he in court?
What did the Supreme Court rule in his case?
What did the Court have to say about slavery?
How did this event create bad feelings between
Northerners in Free States and Southerners in
Slave States?
The Dred Scott Decision
Question: Do free blacks have Constitutional rights?
Answer: All being ancestors of slaves imported into this country, No.
Dred Scott was not a citizen and therefore had not right to sue anyone in
court. They (blacks) were never intended to be part of the “people of the
United States” because at the time our nation was formed “they were…a
subordinate and inferior class of beings.”
“…the enslaved African race were not intended to be included” when our
Founding Fathers stated that “…all men are created equal.”
The Court also ruled that Congress never had the right to prohibit slavery in
any territory. Any ban on slavery was a violation of the Fifth Amendment,
which prohibited denying property rights.
7 – 2 vote. 5
Southern justices
The Missouri Compromise was therefore unconstitutional.
including Chief
Justice Taney.
Lincoln – Douglas Debates 1858
Abraham Lincoln
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Republican
Not very well known
Against the expansion of
slavery into the territories
Stephen Douglas
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Democrat
Champion of popular
sovereignty
Well known “Little Giant”
Lincoln – Douglas Debates 1858
Abraham Lincoln
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“A house divided against
itself cannot stand….It
will become all one thing
or all another.”
Stephen Douglas
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The issue of slavery in
the territories should be
decided through popular
sovereignty.
Lincoln – Douglas Debates 1858
Abraham Lincoln
How can you support
popular sovereignty when
the Supreme Court has
ruled against it?
 The government is being
controlled by ‘Slavocrats.’

Stephen Douglas
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Territorial legislatures can
refuse to pass laws that
protect the rights of slave
owners. (This becomes
known as the Freeport
Doctrine.)
Lincoln – Douglas Debates 1858
Abraham Lincoln

The real issue is
“between the men who
think slavery a wrong and
those who do not think it
wrong. The Republican
Party thinks it wrong.”
Stephen Douglas

Mr. Lincoln wants African
- Americans to be fully
equal to whites.
John Brown’s Raid (1859)
Describe the event:
How did this event create bad
feelings between Northerners in Free
States and Southerners in Slave
States?
Presidential Election of 1860
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The Democratic and Whig Parties had split over the issue of
Slavery.
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Democrats run two candidates:
Northerner - Douglas
Southerner - Breckinridge

The Constitutional Union Party formed from remnants of
the Whig Party and chose John Bell of Tennessee as their
candidate
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Republicans nominate Lincoln
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Lincoln elected - votes came from one part of the country:
the North
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South Carolina seceded (Dec. 20, 1860)
Results