Download Chapter 10: Sectional Conflict Intensifies

Chapter 10: Sectional Conflict
Intensifies
American History
Impact of Mexican War
• With the new lands acquired from Mexico, the issue
of slavery came into those territories
• Representative David Wilmot proposed the lands be
free of slavery or involuntary servitude
▫ Wilmot Proviso
 Outraged Southerners
 Democrats and Whigs voted for it, Senate would not vote
on it
• Senator Lewis Cass proposed a solution to the divide
brought on by the slave debate
▫ Popular sovereignty (decision to permit slavery or not)
 Many supported the idea
Election of 1848
• New parties emerged during this
time
▫ Conscience Whigs (opposed slavery
▫ Cotton Whigs (supported slavery due
to their ownership in North cloth
factories)
▫ Free Soil Party (Conscience Whigs +
anti-slavery Democrats + Liberty
Party)
• Runners
▫ Lewis Cass (Democrat)-supported
popular sovereignty
▫ Martin Van Buren (Free Soil)supported Wilmot Proviso
▫ Zachary Taylor (Whig)-ignored the
issue-won
Taylor’s the boss
• The issue of slavery came again
once Taylor was inaugurated
▫ California’s admittance into the
Union
 Gold Rush of 1849
• Taylor did not believe slavery
needed to expand westward to
survive
▫ Encouraged California to apply
to the Union as a free state
• California coming in as a free
state place the Southern slave
states as the minority
▫ Threatened to secede
The Great Compromiser
• To ease the tensions of the
slave debate, Henry Clay
proposed a compromise
▫ What did the pairs state?
(pg. 323)
▫ Did anyone disagree with
him? (pg. 323)
▫ Was it approved? (pg. 324)
• Taylor unexpectedly died,
and Vice President Millard
Fillmore took the role as
President
▫ Would later support and
vote in the Compromise of
1850
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• The publication of Uncle
Tom’s Cabin sparked
controversy in the South
and outraged in the North
▫ Depicts the life of a slave
(Tom) and his encounters
with his overseer (Simon
Legree)
 Brutal and violent
▫ Changed Northern views
of African Americans and
slavery
The Fugitive Slave Act
• Under this law:
▫ a person claiming an African American had escaped
from slavery had only to point him out as a runaway
for him to be taken to custody
▫ Accused runaway was brought before a commissioner,
where a sworn statement or testimony from white
witnesses were needed to send the accused down
South
▫ Commissioners were given a $10 incentive to find the
accused as a slave, and $5 to go the other way
▫ Required federal marshals to help track slaves, and
appoint any person to help, or face jail time
• Received opposition from the North, specifically for
the appointment of Northerners as slave trappers
▫ Oppositions became public, violent, and frequent
The Railroads
• The Underground Railroad
▫ Informal, but well-organized system
 “Conductors” transported runaways in secret, giving
them food and shelter, and sending them to the
North and Canada, with money for a fresh start
 Most famous conductor-Harriet Tubman
• The Transcontinental Railroad
▫ Supported by those who desired to expand
westward
▫ Gadsden Purchase: purchasing of land from
Mexico for destination points (Arizona and New
Mexico)
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Senator Stephan Douglas
desired to open the Great
Plains for settlement
▫ Proposed to undo the
Missouri Compromise and
repeal slavery in the region
▫ Also proposed to divide the
Missouri territory into two
 Nebraska would follow free
Iowa; Kansas would follow
slave Missouri
• The Kansas-Nebraska Act
had opponents from
northerners and antislavery advocates, but was
passed in 1854
Opposition towards Act
• Public opposition grew from the
Kansas-Nebraska Act
▫ Southerners and Northerners
hurried into Kansas
▫ “Border ruffians” and antislavery settlers created two
governments in Kansas
 Ruffians committed violent acts”Bleeding Kansas”
▫ Caning of Senator Charles
Sumner, an abolitionist, by
Representative Preston Brooks
Formation of new parties
• Due to disagreements
with common issues,
mainly slavery, new
parties emerged
▫ Republicans: combination
of former Northern Whigs
and Free-Soilers
 Opposed slavery
▫ Know-Nothings and
American Parties: Nativist
 Opposed immigration
Election of 1856
• Republicans: John C.
Fremont
• Democrats: James
Buchanan
• Know-Nothings: Milliard
Fillmore
• What did each party
represent? (pg. 334)
• Where did each party
have support? (pg. 334)
• Who won ? (pg. 334)
The Dred Scott Decision
• Buchanan argued that the
Supreme Court should decide
slavery in territories
• The Dred Scott Decision
▫ Who was Dred Scott? (pg. 334)
▫ What was the issue around the
case? (pg. 334)
▫ Who won the case, and why?
(pg. 335)
Who supported the decisions?
Who condemned it? (pg. 335)
▫ What is obiter dictum? (pg.
335)
Lecompton Constitution
• Buchanan urged Kansas to apply
for statehood
▫ Pro-slavery delegates called for an
election to a constitutional
convention, but ant-slavery
delegates boycotted it
 Constitution, drafted in
Lecompton, legalized slavery with
pro-slavery votes winning over
anti-slavery votes
• Another referendum (popular
vote) was held
▫ Settlers voted against the
constitution
▫ Kansas did not become a state
until 1861
Lincoln’s coming….
• In 1858, the Republican Party
nominated Abraham Lincoln to
run against Stephan Douglas
▫ Lincoln opposed slavery and its
expansion into the western
territories
▫ Douglas supported popular
sovereignty
 Freeport Doctrine: stated that
he accepted the Dred Scott
Decision, but that people could
still keep slavery out by refusing
to pass the laws needed to
enforce it
• Douglas won, but Lincoln made
a reputation for himself
Crazy John Brown and his raid
• Fundamental abolitionist who
believed God had appointed him
to eliminate slavery
• Planned and executed an
insurrection on the federal
arsenal in Harper’s Ferry
• Arrested, tried, and executed for
murder and treason
• Northerners saw him as a martyr
• Southerners took raid as proof
that Northerners were plotting to
murder slaveholders
The Election of 1860
• The debate over slavery tore the
Democratic Party apart, leaving
two candidates:
▫ Stephan Douglas-Northern
Democrats-supported popular
sovereignty
▫ John Breckinridge-Southern
Democrats-supported Dred Scott
decision
▫ John Bell-Constitutional Partyformer Whigs-supported upholding
constitution and Union
• Because of the Democratic split,
Lincoln won without support from
the South
Attempt to Compromise
• Before being inaugurated, however, six Southern
states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida,
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, seceded
from the Union
• Senator John Crittenden attempted to compromise
with the South by making several amendments:
Crittenden’s Compromise
▫ Guarantee slavery where it existed
▫ Return the Missouri Compromise lines and extend
them to California border where slavery would be
prohibited north of the line, and allowed south of the
line
 Did not pass
• Virginia proposed a peace conference
▫ No one came from the seceding states
Forming the Confederacy
• The seceding states met in
Alabama to form the
Confederacy, or the
Confederate States of
America
▫ Drafted a new constitution
based mainly on the U.S.
Constitution
 Declared each state
independent and guaranteed
slavery in those states
 Banned protective tariffs
 Limited president’s office to a
single six-year term
 Elected Jefferson Davis as
president
The Civil War begins
• Lincoln warned the
Confederate States that
he would protect the
North from invasion, but
try and make peace with
the states
• Davis heard that Fort
Sumter was being resupplied, and decided to
attack in order to get
additional arms
▫ Confederates attacked on
April 12th, 1861
▫ Killed no one, except for
one horse
More states secede
• Many did not want to secede, but faced with the prospect
of a civil war, had no other choice
▫ Virginia seceded first, then Arkansas, North Carolina, and
Tennessee followed
• Lincoln ordered martial law, or military authority, in
Maryland in order to protect it from seceding
• Lincoln worried about Kentucky and Missouri seceding
▫ Promised to leave Kentucky neutral if Confederates did the
same
▫ Kentucky was invaded by Confederates; state split due to
siding with both Union and Confederates
▫ Missouri sympathized with the Confederates, but voted
against secession
▫ Missouri was held to the Union’s cause, despite opposition
from pro-secession leaders