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Chapter 15: The Nation Breaking Apart (1846-1861)
Chapter Guiding Essential Question: What issues and events shattered the nation’s
unity and led to civil war?
Section 1: Tensions Rise Between North and South
Section Essential Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
I.
II.
How did the economies of the North and South differ?
How did territorial expansion inflame sectional conflicts?
How did the Fugitive Slave Act deepen the crisis?
Why did violence erupt in Kansas and Congress?
North and South Follow Different Paths
A. Industry and Immigration in the North
1. Although both Northern and Southern parts of the country still
relied mainly on agriculture, the North had many small farms while the
South had many large plantations
2. North developed much more industry and commerce than South
3. Most canals and railroads ran east-west, connecting the North and
Mid-western states
4. Growing industries in the Northern cities attracted immigrants
5. Slavery was opposed in the North by abolitionists and by workers
who feared they’d be replaced by enslaved workers
B. Agriculture and Slavery in the South
1. Economy was mostly agricultural
2. Small class of wealthy planters dominated politics and society
3. South relied upon King Cotton to export
4. South invested in land and slaves instead of industry
5. Most Southern whites were poor farmers
6. Racist argument of paternalism: slavery helped slaves by
introducing them to Christianity and providing for them
Slavery and Territorial Expansion
A. The Wilmot Proviso: 1846 proposal that outlawed slavery in any territory
gained from the War with Mexico
David Wilmot of PA proposed the bill
2. The bill passed the House, but the South stopped it in the Senate
3. Led to the creation of the Free-Soil Party
4. Free-Soil Party: political party dedicated to stopping the expansion
of slavery (“Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men”)
B. The Compromise of 1850
1. South wanted to divide California in half (free north, slave south) to
keep the balance after the Gold Rush
2. Resulted in much bickering (petty quarreling)
3. Stephan A. Douglas: Illinois senator who backed the Compromise of
1850
4. Compromise of 1850:
a) California admitted as a free state
b) Slave trade abolished in Washington, D.C.
c) No laws passed regarding slavery in other territories won from
Mexico
d) Fugitive Slave Act (see below)
5. The compromise would not bring peace
The Crisis Deepens
A. The Fugitive Slave Act: 1850 law meant to help slaveholders recapture
runaway slaves
1. Fugitives held without an arrest warrant
2. Northerners had to help recapture runaway slaves
B. Outrage Over the Act
1. Harriet Beecher Stowe: abolitionist, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
2. Uncle Tom’s Cabin: novel published by Harriet Beecher Stowe in
1852 that showed slavery as brutal and immoral
a) Described the escape of a slave named Eliza across the Ohio
River
b) Popular in the North; South said it misrepresented slavery
Violence Erupts
A. The Kansas-Nebraska Act: 1854 law that established the territories of Kansas
and Nebraska that gave their residents the right to decide whether to allow
slavery
1.
III.
IV.
Popular Sovereignty: a system in which issues are decided by the
citizenry or voters
2. This would mean the destruction of the Missouri Compromise
B. Bleeding Kansas
1. March 1855; After illegal voters came from Missouri, the Kansas
legislature was filled with proslavery representatives
2. Antislavery and proslavery sides armed themselves
3. Sack of Lawrence: proslavery mob looted the town of Lawrence
4. Potawatomie Massacre: John Brown led seven other men in a
massacre of five proslavery neighbors
5. This civil war in Kansas lasted for three years; “Bleeding Kansas”
C. Violence in Congress
1. 1856, Senator Charles Sumner of MA spoke against proslavery
forces in Kansas; he insulted A.P. Butler, a senator from SC
2. Preston Brooks, a relative of Butler, beat Sumner unconscious in
Congress; Sumner was disabled for years
1.
Section 2: Slavery Dominates Politics
Section Essential Questions:
5. How did the issue of slavery affect political parties?
6. What events brought the nation to a crisis?
V.
Slavery and Political Division
A. The Republican Party Forms
1. The Whig party split into two factions over the Kansas-Nebraska
act’s provision for popular sovereignty
2. Many Southern Whigs joined the Democratic Party while Northern
Whigs and others created the Republican Party
3. Republican Party: political party formed in 1854 by opponents of
slavery
a) Used moral arguments against slavery
b) Opposed the South’s agricultural system based on enslaved
labor
4. John C. Frémont: Republican presidential candidate in 1856
VI.
a) Handsome, young hero known for exploring the West
b) “the Pathfinder”
c) Republicans were so unpopular in the South that Frémont’s
name didn’t appear on Southern ballots
B. Election of 1856
1. James Buchanan: Democratic presidential candidate in 1856
a) Said little about slavery; claimed his goal was to maintain the
Union
b) Appealed to Southerners, and to Northerners scared about
tearing the nation apart
2. Know-Nothing Party (anti-immigrant party formed in the 1850s)
a) Nominated Millard Fillmore
b) Divided over slavery and had little strength
3. Election turned into two separate races
a) North: Buchanan vs. Frémont (Buchanan won)
b) South: Buchanan vs. Fillmore (Buchanan won)
4. Frémont carried 11 Northern states, though he lost
5. Proved that Republican Party was a major force in the North
6. Slavery was dividing the nation along sectional lines
7. James Buchanan became the 15th president (and only president
ever to come from Pennsylvania)
The Breaking Point
A. The Case of Dred Scott
1. Enslaved person in Missouri who had lived in free territories for a
time and then was taken back to Missouri
2. Scott argued he was a free man since he lived in a free territory
3. Dred Scott v. Sandford: 1856 Supreme Court case in which a slave,
Dred Scott, sued for his freedom
4. Roger B. Taney: Supreme Court Chief justice who wrote the
majority opinion in the case of Dred Scott v. Sandford
5. Taney said that Scott was not a U.S. citizen and so could not sue in
US. Court; thus, he was still a slave
6. Taney also said that banning slavery in territories was
unconstitutional; Missouri Compromise was null and void
B. The Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Abraham Lincoln: Illinois Republican who ran against Stephan A.
Douglas in 1858 for his U.S. Senate seat
2. Republicans charged that Democrats wanted to expand slavery
everywhere
3. “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this
government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free.”
–Abraham Lincoln
4. Douglas and Lincoln debated numerous times in Illinois and the
debates were printed across the country
5. Douglas won reelection, but Lincoln became nationally famous
C. John Brown’s Raid
1. Harpers Ferry: federal arsenal in Virginia; captured in 1859 during
an antislavery revolt
2. October 16, 1859, Brown and 18 followers captured the Harpers
Ferry arsenal and attempted to provoke a slave uprising and arm the
slaves with the weapons
3. The uprising did not materialize, and Brown and six others were
captured, the rest were killed
4. Brown was convicted and sentenced to hang
5. Northerners called him a hero while Southerners were enraged by
his actions
6. Slavery had raised sectional tensions to the breaking point
1.
Section 3: Lincoln’s Election and Southern Secession
Section Essential Questions:
7. How did the 1860 election reveal the divisions in the country?
8. How did seven Southern states justify their decision to secede?
VII.
The Election of 1860
A. The Split in the Democratic Party
1. Southern Democrats wanted to support slavery in their platform,
but Northern Democrats wanted popular sovereignty
Platform: statement of beliefs
3. Northern Democrats backed Stephen A. Douglas
4. Southern Democrats backed V.P. John Breckinridge of KY
5. Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln
6. Constitutional Union Party (aim was to preserve the Union)
nominated John Bell of Tennessee
B. Two Political Races
1. Lincoln and Douglas competed in the North while Breckinridge and
Bell competed for Southern votes
2. Lincoln and Breckinridge were considered the most extreme on
slavery
3. Douglas and Bell were moderates; neither wanted the federal
government to pass new laws on slavery (leave the states make laws)
4. Lincoln defeated Douglas in the North
5. Breckinridge carried most of the South
6. North was more populous, so Lincoln won the election
7. Lincoln promised not to abolish slavery in the South, but the
Southerners did not trust him
8. White Southerners saw the Republican victory as a threat to their
way of life
2.
VIII.
Southern States Secede
A. The Confederate States of America
1. Southerners had threatened to secede if Lincoln won
2. Secede: to withdraw
3. Southerners argued on the basis of states’ rights
4. States’ rights: idea that the states have certain rights that the
federal government cannot overrule
5. States voluntarily joined the Union, and can leave voluntarily, too
6. Dec. 20, 1860: South Carolina became the first state to secede
7. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas joined
South Carolina in the secession movement
8. February 1861, the states met in Montgomery, Alabama and
formed the Confederate States of America
9. Confederate States of America: confederation formed in 1861 by
the Southern states after their secession from the Union
10. Jefferson Davis: first president of the CSA
11. Confederate Constitution was the same as the U.S. Constitution
except it supported states’ rights and protected slavery
B. The Union’s Response
1. President James Buchanan argued against secession and said that
states did not have the right to withdraw
2. Southerners were scared of Northern majority rule; Northerners
responded that the Southerners were scared of Democracy
C. The Failure of Compromise
1. Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky proposed that slavery be
protected south of the Missouri Compromise line
2. The Crittenden Compromise: compromise introduced in 1861 that
might have prevented secession
3. The Crittenden Compromise was defeated in the Senate
4. Compromise had failed
D. Lincoln’s Inauguration
1. March 4, 1861, Lincoln took the oath of office and gave his First
Inaugural Address. He assured the South that he would not abolish
slavery there.
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.
Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of
affection….” –Lincoln
2.