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Chapter 15
A Divided Nation
1848 - 1860
Essential Question
•How did the issue of
slavery affect politics
in the United States?
I. Debate over Slavery
• 1820 – Missouri
Compromise – Henry
Clay
– Maine = Free State
– Missouri = Slave State
– Line at 360 30’
• North of the line = FREE
• South of the Line = SLAVE
New Land Renews Slave Disputes
• 1848 - Additional lands from the Mexican
American War cause bitter debate over
slavery and keeping equal free and slave
states
• Popular Sovereignty: political power belongs
to the people – let them decide slavery issue
• Wilmont Proviso: document stating that
slavery should not exist in lands obtained from
Mexican American War – did not pass Senate
Sectionalism
•Favoring the interests of
one section or region
over the interests of the
entire country
The California Question
• Gold rush caused huge
population growth in
California – applied for
statehood
• California opposes
slavery – would upset
balance of free and
slave states
Compromise of 1850
• 3 Major Players:
– Henry Clay:
• Known as “The Great
Compromiser”
– John Calhoun:
• Southerner who wanted
slavery and threatened
secession
– Daniel Webster:
• Northerner who pleaded
for national unity
Compromise of 1850
• 1 – California would enter as a free state
• 2 – Popular sovereignty would be used to
decide slavery in Mexican Cession land
• 3 – Texas gives up lands east of Rio Grande –
receives money from federal government
• 4 – Slave trade abolished in Washington, D.C.
(slavery still legal)
• 5 – Fugitive Slave Act
Fugitive Slave Act
• 1850
• Denied escaped slaves
to have a trial or testify
• Helping a slave = $1000
fine and 6 months in jail
• $10 for every African
American “suspected of
escape” in the North
brought back to the
South
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• 1852
• Written by Harriet
Beecher Stowe
• Dramatic tale about a
loyal slave beaten to
death by his owner,
Simon Legree
• Presented slavery as a
horrible evil and changed
people’s views
• Southerners felt it was
full of lies
II. Trouble in Kansas
• Franklin Pierce elected
President in 1852
– From New Hampshire
– Little known
– Promised to support
Compromise of 1850
and Fugitive Slave Act
Kansas – Nebraska Act
• 1854
• Illinois senator, Stephen
Douglas, wanted to organize
Kansas and Nebraska
territories in order to build
a transcontinental railroad
across the country
• Needing southern support
for the act, Douglas allowed
Kansas and Nebraska to
decide by popular
sovereignty the issue of
slavery
“Bleeding Kansas”
• Pro and Anti slavery
supporters rush to
Kansas
• Pro-slavery Missourians
illegally vote in Kansas
for pro-slave
government
• “Sack of Lawrence” – an
anti-slavery town
burned by pro-slavery
people in 1856
John Brown
• John Brown, a radical
anti-slavery settler,
butchers five proslavery men at
Pottowatomie Creek as
a response to Lawrence
– Called “Pottowatomie
Massacre”
– Civil war in Kansas
VIOLENCE IN THE SENATE
• In May, 1856,
Massachusetts senator
Charles Sumner gives a
speech attacking slave
holders for the situation
in Kansas
• South Carolina
representative Preston
Brooks beat Sumner over
the head with a cane –
Sumner did not return to
the Senate for two more
years
III. Political Divisions
• Republican Party: a
political party united
against the spread of
slavery – 1854
• Democrat James
Buchanan elected
President in 1856
Dred Scott Decision
• Dred Scott was the
slave of a Missouri army
surgeon, who had taken
him to Illinois and
Wisconsin to live for a
few years
• In 1846, Scott claimed
in court that since he
lived on free soil, he
should be a free man
• What did the Court
decide?
• 3 key issues:
– Was Scott a citizen?
– Does living on free soil
make you free?
– Is it constitutional to
prohibit slavery in
federal territories?
Dred Scott Decision
• Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney –
• "It is difficult at this day to realize the state of public
opinion in regard to that unfortunate race which prevailed
in the civilized and enlightened portions of the world at the
time of the Declaration of Independence, and when the
Constitution of the United States was framed and adopted;
but the public history of every European nation displays it
in a manner too plain to be mistaken. They had for more
than a century before been regarded as beings of an
inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the
white race, either in social or political relations, and so far
unfit that they had no rights which the white man was
bound to respect."
Lincoln Douglas Debates
• In 1858, Abraham Lincoln ran against Stephen
Douglas for the Illinois Senate seat
Lincoln Douglas Debates
• Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of
debates – the issue of slavery, Dred Scott
Decision, and condition of the country
• Freeport Doctrine: Douglas believed the
police would enforce the voters’ decision if it
contradicted the Supreme Court’s decision in
the Dred Scott case
• Results: Douglas narrowly defeats Lincoln, but
Lincoln becomes a national figure and ready
to run for President in 1860
John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry
• October 16, 1859, John Brown appeared in
Harpers Ferry, Virginia, with 21 followers to
seize the military arsenal
• Plan: To give weapons to escaped slaves to
ignite a slave revolt
John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry
• Colonel Robert E. Lee led a
force of Marines to capture
Brown
• Virginia convicts Brown of
treason and hangs him 6
weeks later
• Brown becomes a martyr to
the abolitionist cause –
South feels North will do
anything to destroy slavery
• “John Brown’s Body”
becomes a song
Election of 1860
• Candidates
– Republican: Abraham
Lincoln
– Northern Democrat:
Stephen Douglas
– Southern Democrat: John
Breckinridge
– Constitutional Union:
John Bell
– Lincoln wins with only
40% of the popular vote –
becomes the first
Republican president
The South Secedes
• After Lincoln’s election,
South Carolina, Alabama,
Mississippi, Georgia,
Florida, Louisiana, and Texas
secede (break away) from
the Union and form the
Confederate States of
America
• Jefferson Davis, Senator
from Mississippi, elected
President of the
Confederacy
Lincoln Takes Office
• Lincoln pleads with the South to reunite the Union –
no need for bloodshed or violence
• “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be
enemies.”
• Fort Sumter – a federal fort in South Carolina – was
running short of supplies
• Lincoln says that a ship coming down to the fort only
has food – no weapons or soldiers!
• Confederate President Jefferson Davis decides that
fort protects Charleston (an important city) and must
not stay in Northern/federal hands