Download Chapter 14 - Alpine Public School

The Nation Divided
 Homework:
What issues reopened slavery?
Think back to chapters 12 &13 and create a
list
 Do


Now:
Have out key terms and people (page 482)
What was the Wilmot Proviso?
•
Slavery and the Mexican – American War
–
Maintaining the balance
•
Between 1820 and 1848 – 8 new states were admitted
4 slave and 4 free
– Totals of 15 slave and 15 free states
–
•
Remember the Missouri Compromise?
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•
It did not apply to the lands claimed after the MexicanAmerican War
Wilmot Proviso
David Wilmot of PA proposed this law
– Congress ban slavery in all territory that might become
part of the U.S. as a result of the M-A War.
» It passed in the house (population) and failed in the
senate (equal)
– Wilmot Proviso never became law, but it was viewed as
an attack on slavery by southerners
–

An Anti-Slavery Party

Free Soil Party


Formed on the basis of the Wilmot Proviso – they wanted
to stop the spread of slavery – especially in the newly
acquired territory from Mexico
3 candidates run in the election of 1848
Democrats – Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan
 Whigs – General Zachary Taylor (hero of the M-A War)
 Free Soil – former president Martin Van Buren


Democrat votes are split between Van Buren and Cass

This allows Taylor to win
•
A Bitter Debate
California’s Gold Rush
– With the inflow if gold seekers – California had
enough people to become a state
– Both sides realized that the admission of California
would upset the balance between free and slave
states
– Northerners
–
•
–
Argued that CA become a free state because most of the
land there was north of the Missouri Compromise line
Southerners
•
Knew that another free state would upset the balance in
the senate
–
•
They would be unable to block laws like the Wilmot Proviso
Began threatening to secede from the union
 Homework:
Think about the Civil War? Do you
feel it was unavoidable?
 Do
Now: Please take out your notes from
Monday (section 1)
–
Other issues dividing the North and South
•
Northerners
–
•
Southerners
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Wanted the slave trade abolished in Washington D.C.
Wanted fugitive slave laws
» Would force the return of runaway slaves to their owners
Henry Clay
•
•
•
Presents a series of proposals to deal with the issue
This sparks one of the greatest debates in American
history
John C. Calhoun
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Argues against the compromise
The admission of CA as a free state leaves only 2 solutions for
the South
» 1 – an amendment protecting states rights must be passed
OR…
» 2 – The South would leave the Union

Daniel Webster
Argues in support of the compromise
 He calls for an end to the sectionalism that divides the
country
 Argues for Clay’s proposal in order to preserve the
union

 Homework:
Complete classwork (page 492-
493)
 Do
Now: Complete Key terms and people
page 486
•
The Compromise of 1850
–
In September 1850 Congress passes 5 bills based
on Clay’s Proposals
Zachary Taylor had opposed the compromise, but he died
in 1850
– Millard Fillmore took over the presidency and signed the
bills into law
–
–
To Please the North
•
•
–
CA would be admitted as a free state
Slave trade would be banned in Washington D.C.
To Please the South
•
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Popular sovereignty would decide slave issues in other
new states from the Mexican Cession
Southerners got a tough new Fugitive Slave Law

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
Allowed government officials to
arrest ANYONE accused of being a
runaway slave
 The accused had no right to a
trial – no way to defend
themselves
 All that was required was a
witness to swear that the
individual “was a slave”
 Law also required northern
citizens to help capture accused
runaways if authorities requested
assistance


Outrage in the North

Northerners were upset to see
people accused of being
fugitives lose their freedom
Many African Americans fled to
Canada to escape being accused
 Many Northerners resisted the
laws


Calhoun had hoped that the law would force northerners to
admit that slave owners had rights to their property


Calhoun was wrong – it convinced more northerners that slavery
was evil
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
 Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe


Book was written to show the nation what a horrible
thing slavery was


Daughter of an abolitionist minister
Focused on a fictional tale of Uncle Tom – a kind slave who
suffers cruelty from his owner Simon Legree
Book was a best-seller in the North

Southerners called it Propaganda


False or misleading information to spread or further a cause
They claimed it did not give an accurate portrayal of the
lives of slaves
 Open
to page 492-493. Read the excerpts
from Uncle Tom’s Cabin


Identify the main characters and describe them
Notice how the author presents the characters,
what does Stowe really think of the slavetrader?
How do you know?
 Homework:
 Do
page 494 Key terms and people
Now: have out homework from last night
please.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act
 Nation moved closer to war after Congress passes
the KS-NE Act in 1854

Proposed by Stephen Douglas


Wanted to form two new territories – Kansas and Nebraska
Southerners objected
The two new territories were in areas closed to slavery
 When they became states they would be free



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To win southern support, Douglas proposed popular
sovereignty in the territories
Because of this proposal, the act passed in Congress
It was signed into law by Franklin Pierce, (D – 1852)

According to Pierce ‘the question of slavery would be
forever banished from the halls of Congress’
•
Bleeding Kansas
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Both pro and anti slavery settlers flooded into
the new territory of Kansas
•
Each side was determined to hold a majority when it
was time to vote
Thousands of MO residents entered Kansas on election day
– KS only had 3,000 residents but 8,000 votes were cast to
elect a legislature
» In that legislature, 36 of the 39 elected were proslavery
–
•
Anti-Slavery settlers refused to accept the results
They held a second election
– KS now had 2 governments each claiming a right to impose
their government on the territory
–
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Growing Violence

In April 1855 a pro-slavery sheriff was shot when he
tried to arrest some anti-slavery settlers in Lawrence


Three days after the attack on Lawrence more
violence occurred


A month later he returned with 800 men and attacked the
town
John Brown led 7 men to a pro-slavery settlement near
Pottawatomie Creek and murdered 5 men and children
These incidents set off widespread violence
throughout the territory

Bloodshed in the Senate

Charles Sumner – Abolitionist senator from MA
Denounced the proslavery legislature in Kansas
 Then went on to attack southerners singling out Andrew
Butler from SC
 Butler’s nephew – a congressman, Preston Brooks marched
into the senate chamber and beat Sumner with a cane –
Sumner never fully recovered
 Many southerners felt he got what he deserved and sent
canes to Brooks to show their support

 Homework:
 Do
Supreme Court Packet
Now: Have out homework (section review
and key people)
•
A New Anti-Slavery Party
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In 1854 the Whig party split apart
•
Many northern Whigs joined the Republican Party
–
•
Main goal was to stop the spread of slavery in the western
territories
Republican Victories
In the 1854 elections, republicans won 105 of the
available 245 seats in congress
– They also gained control of most free state legislatures
–
•
First Republican presidential candidate
John C. Fremont (leader of revolution in California)
» He won 11 of the nations 16 free states
– Defeated by James Buchanan
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Dred Scott Decision
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Decision was made by the U.S. Supreme Court
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Facts of the Case
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Dred Scott was a slave owned by a U.S. Army Doctor. The
doctor and Scott lived in Illinois and later in Wisconsin, both
were places where slavery was illegal. Later the Doctor and
Scott settled in Missouri.
Scott, with the help of abolitionist lawyers sued for his
freedom claiming that since he lived where slavery was
banned, that he should be free.
The Court Decides
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Opinion written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney
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Scott was not a free man for 2 reasons
» First, he had no right to sue in federal court because he
was not a citizen
» Second, merely living in a free territory did not make a
slave free, slaves were property, and property rights were
protected by the Constitution.
•
Taney’s decision went further….
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Taney said that Congress did not have the power to
prohibit slavery in any territory
» This meant that the Missouri Compromise was
unconstitutional
Reaction
•
Supporters of slavery rejoiced.
–
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Decision meant that slavery was legal everywhere
Northerners were stunned
The decision brought out many abolitionists because of
outrage
– One key player was an attorney from Illinois
– Abraham Lincoln
» Said that the idea that African Americans could not be
citizens was based on a false view of American History
–
 Homework:
 Do
page 498 1-3
Now: Be ready to rpesent your “what if…”
scenarios
•
The Lincoln Douglas Debates
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Lincoln had a brief beginning in politics
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Served one term as a representative for IL
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Lincoln was a long time rival of Stephen Douglas
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Both politically and personally
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Then returned to his law practice
Both men had courted Mary Todd, who married Lincoln
A House Divided
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In 1858 the Republican party chose Lincoln to run
against Douglas for the Senate
–
In his nomination acceptance speech, Lincoln claimed that
a nation divided by issues such as slavery cannot continue
to stand

Debating Slavery

Douglas held firm to his position on Popular Sovereignty

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Lincoln claimed that ‘if slavery is not wrong, nothing is
wrong’
Douglas won the election, but the 2 would face off again


States had a right to decide what was and was not legal within their
borders
Both ran for the presidency later
John Brown’s Raid
 Brown had a plan

Lead abolitionists on a raid at Harpers Ferry
Goal was to acquire guns the military had stored there
 Blacks would join in his uprising, and he would form an army
to lead the enslaved to freedom
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Brown’s plan fell short

While he took over Harpers Ferry, he and his men were soon
surrounded by Col. Robert E. Lee

John Brown’s Trial


Brown sat quietly as he was convicted of treason at his
trial
He received a death sentence and was hung in Virginia

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That day, church bells across the North rang out


December 2, 1859
Many considered him a hero
Southerners were stunned

How could the north support a man convicted of treason
•
The Nation Divides
–
Election of 1860
•
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Republicans nominate Abraham Lincoln
The Democratic party splits
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Douglas felt that Lincoln would win and pleaded with
southern voters to stay with the Union no matter what
happened
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Southern Democrats nominate Vice President John
Breckenridge
Northern Democrats nominate Stephen Douglas
A third party was formed by Southerners hoping to heal the
split between North and South, they form the Constitutional
Union and nominate John Bell
He was pelted with eggs and garbage as a result of his efforts
The election showed the division of the country
•
Look at the map on page 500

Southern States Secede
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Lincoln’s election shocked the south
They felt that a government would
move to take away their ‘rights’
On December 20, 1860
South Carolina passed a declaration
 In that document was stated
 “The union now subsisting between
South Carolina and the other states,
under the name of the United States of
America, is hereby dissolved”


The Confederate States of America

Six more states followed SC out of the union

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Some moderates in Tennessee and Texas opposed
 Sam Houston and Andrew Johnson
The 7 seceding states met in Montgomery Alabama to
form a new nation
By the time Lincoln took office, they had written a
constitution and appointed a president – Jefferson
Davis of Mississippi
•
The Civil War Begins
–
On March 4, 1861 Abraham Lincoln became President
•
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He had to face the greatest crisis in the short history of
the U.S.
Lincoln tried to give assurance to the seceded states
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He said that:
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The south rejected Lincoln’s proposal
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I have no intention of interfering with slavery where it exists
Warned the southern states about continuing on their present
course
» Read the quote on page 501
They took over forts, post offices, and other federal lands
Lincoln now had to decide how to respond
–
Fort Sumter
•
The commander of Fort Sumter refused to surrender and
turn his post over to the southern states
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Lincoln did not want to give up the fort either
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•
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The southern states had cut the fort off from supplies since
December
They knew that the men inside would starve and be forced to
give up
He announced that the north was sending unarmed supply
ships to the fort
The southern states did not give them a chance to arrive
On April 12, 1861 Confederate artillery opened fire on
Fort Sumter
–
This was the beginning of a Civil War
» War between opposing groups of citizens of the same
country