Download The Union in Peril

As slavery becomes the dominant issue in U.S. politics, the
face of the country itself will change…
Section 1
• North is industrialized
• Railroads carry manufactured goods and
settlers west, raw materials east
• Immigrants fear expansion of slavery
• Slaves might compete with non-slave labor
• Could reduce status of white workers
• Southern economy relied on cash crops
• Enslaved African Americans meet most labor
needs
• Whites fear restriction of slavery will change
society & economy
• In 3 states, blacks are majority; in 2, they make
up ½ of population
 Wilmot Proviso declared that there would be no
slavery in territory acquired from Mexico
 North: slave territory adds slave states; no jobs
for free workers
 South: slaves are property under Constitution,
individuals moving West should be able to bring;
fear more free states
• Some Southerners threaten
secession if the Wilmot
Proviso isn’t overturned
• Henry Clay offers
Compromise of 1850 to
settle disputes over slavery
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
California would be a free state
Popular sovereignty: New Mexico and Utah would
decide whether slavery would be legal
Abolish slave trade in Washington D.C.
Owning slaves legal in Washington, D.C.
Pay Texas $10 million to give up claims to eastern
New Mexico
Fugitive Slave Act ordered all citizens to assist in
the return of enslaved people who had escaped from
their owners
Clay gives a speech begging the North and South to
compromise and save the Union
“I have, Senators, believed from the first that.. The
subject of slavery would, if not prevented by some
timely and effective measure, end in disunion [of
the United States]… It has reached a point when it
can no longer be disguised or denied that the
Union is in danger. You have thus had forced upon
you the greatest and gravest question that can
ever come under your consideration: How can the
Union be preserved.”
• Clay’s speech starts one of
greatest debates in U.S.
history
• Senate rejects the Compromise
and Clay leaves Washington!
• Stephen A. Douglas eventually
reintroduces the resolutions
individually
• Compromise of 1859
Section 2
The Fugitive Slave Act
 Alleged fugitives denied jury trial; right to testify on own
behalf
 Federal commissioners paid more for returning than
freeing accused
 People helping a fugitive are fined, imprisoned, or both
Northern Response
 Many still send fugitives to Canada
 Personal Liberty Laws forbid prison for fugitives, grant
jury trials
 Underground Railroad – secret network of
to help slaves escape
 Fugitives go on foot at night, often no food,
avoiding armed patrols
 Some stayed in North; others go to Canada
Harriet
Tubman
escapes from
slavery and
becomes a
conductor on
19 trips
 1852: Abolitionist Harriet
Beecher Stowe’s Uncle
Tom’s Cabin stirs protest
 Uncle Tom’s Cabin shows
slavery as moral problem,
not just political
 Despised by Southerners
Uncle Tom’s Cabin Except – Questions
1. Within the group about the be auctioned off, what different categories or
classes does Stowe describe?
2. Stowe depicts St. Clare as being a wonderful Master to his slaves – what
differences are there between St. Clare and the men who are at the auction
in the excerpt? What type of life will St. Clare’s former slaves be facing?
3. Stowe writes her book to elicit an emotional reaction from her readers to
the practice of slavery – do you think she is successful? Why or why not?
• Created by Stephen A. Douglas
• Would override the Missouri Compromise
• Popular sovereignty is best way to organize new
states
• Doesn’t think slavery is feasible in Midwest, but wants
Southern support (he wants to run for President)
• 1854: Kansas-Nebraska Act allows popular
sovereignty in regards to slavery
The Race for Kansas
• Northerners and Southern settlers pour into Kansas
Territory
• 1855: Kansas holds elections for territorial legislature
• Proslavery “border ruffians” vote illegally, win
fraudulent majority
• Proslavery government in Lecompton
• Antislavery government in Topeka
• Territory called Bleeding Kansas for incidents that kill
some 200
• Senator Charles Sumner verbally attacks
colleagues over the issue of slavery (he is against)
• Congressman Preston S. Brooks beats Sumner for
insults to uncle
• Southerners applaud Brooks; Northerners
condemn him
Section 3
Slavery Divides the Whigs
• 1852: Northern, Southern Whigs split over slavery
• Democrat Franklin Pierce is elected president
• Whig Party splinters after Kansas-Nebraska Act
Nativism
 Nativism is the belief in favoring native-born
Americans over immigrants
 1854: Nativists form Know-Nothing Party
 Middle-class Protestants afraid of Catholicism; split over
slavery
Forerunner of the Republican Party
• Liberty Party pursues abolition through laws
The Free-Soilers
 Oppose slavery in territories
 Support restrictions on blacks
 Object to slavery’s impact on white wage-based
labor force
 Convinced of conspiracy to spread slavery
throughout U.S.
Republican Party
• 1854: unhappy Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers
form Republican Party
• Oppose slavery in territories; other opinions
varied
• Main competition is Know-Nothing Party
The 1856 Election
• Democrat James Buchanan is elected and
secession is averted
Anti-Federalists
Federalists
Jeffersonian-Republicans
Federalists
(Democratic-Republicans)
National Republicans
Democrats
(John Quincy Adams)
(Andrew Jackson)
Democrats
Republican Party
Whigs
Free-Soil Party
Liberty Party
(1848)
(1844)
Know-Nothing
Party (1854)
Section 4
 1857: Dred Scott, a slave
who had lived in free areas
after his master moved,
sues for freedom
 Decision:
1. slaves do not have rights of
citizens
2. no claim to freedom, suit
begun in slave state
3. Congress cannot forbid
slavery in territories
The Lecompton Constitution
• Proslavery Kansas government writes a constitution,
seeking statehood
• Vote put before the people of Kansas, but they vote down
constitution
• Stephen Douglas gets second vote put before the
people; voters reject it again
Why do you think the voters in Kansas shoot down
their own constitution??
• 1858: Republican Abraham Lincoln runs for Douglas’s Senate seat
• Challenges Douglas to seven debates
Issue
Lincoln
Douglas
Slavery
Slavery is immoral
Slavery is backwards,
not immoral
Spread of
Slavery
Legislation needs to be
created to stop the spread of
slavery
Popular sovereignty
will undo slavery
Lincoln questions how to
form free states if territories
must at least allow slavery
Douglas suggests the
Freeport Doctrine –
simply elect leaders
who do not enforce
slavery
Elections
Both men distort the other’s views to make them seem extreme
• Douglas wins the seat but his ideas worsen the split between Democrats
• Lincoln’s attacks on the “vast moral evil” of slavery draws national attention
Harpers Ferry
• 1859: John Brown plans slave uprising, needs
weapons
• Leads men to federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry
• U.S. Marines put down rebellion, capture Brown
John Brown’s Hanging
• Dec 1859: Brown hanged for high treason
• Many Northerners admire Brown; Southerners fear
future uprisings
Overflowing crowds attend the Republican Presidential
Convention in Chicago
• Lincoln wins nomination - seen as more moderate than
others
• Tells South he will not meddle with slaves, but the South still feels
threatened
The Election of 1860
• Democrats split over slavery
• Lincoln wins with less than half of popular vote
• gets no Southern electoral votes
• South Carolina first state to secede, followed by
Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana,
and Texas
• want complete independence from federal control
• fear end to their way of life
• want to preserve slave labor system
• Feb. 1861: Confederate States of America
established
• Permits slavery, recognizes state sovereignty
• Mass resignations from the federal government
• Former senator Jefferson Davis unanimously
elected president