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Chapter 8
Sectional Conflict Intensifies
Section 1: Slavery and Western
Expansion
• Wilmot Proviso: legislation stated the new
territory acquired from Mexico cannot have
slavery.
• Never passed Congress, why?
• Senator from Michigan, Lewis Cass, came
up with popular sovereignty to deal with
issue of slavery
• The citizens from each new territory
should be able to decide if they are free or
slave
• Does this idea make sense?
• What do you suppose the abolitionists
thought of it?
1848 election
• Zachary Taylor won election; Whig
• Defeated Martin Van Buren and Lewis
Cass
GOLD!
• 1848 gold discovered in California
• People flocked to the West by 1849 “fortyniners”
• CA’s population escalated and applied for
statehood as a free state; will be annexed
• How did the South react to this?
• Southern states talked about secession
b/c they now had the minority in the
Senate
• Taylor died in office and VP Millard
Fillmore took over
Compromise of 1850
• CA would be a free state, NM, AZ, NV and
UT would decide through popular
sovereignty
• Slave trade would cease ONLY in
Washington D.C.
• Fugitive Slave Act: if someone spotted a
runaway slave in the North, all they had to
do was point them out (most controversial
aspect of the compromise to Northerners)
• The accused went to trial, but could not
defend him/herself
• Would be sent back to the South
• Abolitionists quoted “Civil Disobedience”:
“Unjust laws exist, shall we be content to
obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend
them, and obey them until we have
succeed, or shall we transgress (overrule)
them at once?”
Underground Railroad
• Series of routes, led by conductors, to get
slaves to the North
• Harriet Tubman is one of the most famous.
• P. 289
Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• Got the idea from her sister living in
Boston that had witnessed people being
beaten and wrongfully accused b/c of the
Fugitive Slave Act
• Stowe lived for several years across the
OH River, near KY
• She once witnessed slavery when she
visited KY
• The book is about a slave named Tom and
his master, Simon Legree.
• Book sold very well in the North, while
Southerners tried to ban it.
• Some historians list the book as one of the
causes for the Civil War
Transcontinental Railroad
• With the new territories, US needed a
railroad system that reached both sides of
the nation
• Question was where it should begin and
end
• Southerners wanted it to go through New
Orleans
• If so, it had to run through Mexico
• President Franklin Pierce bought the
Gadsden Purchase from Mexico for $10
million (30,000 square miles of southern
AZ and NM)
• What was the Missouri Compromise?
• IL Senator Stephen Douglas wanted a
terminal in Chicago
• In order for the RR to reach the W. Coast
it had to go through new territory called
Nebraska
• Since NE is above MO’s southern border,
it would be admitted as a free state
• Douglas had to repeal the MO
Compromise
• All to get the RR in Chicago. . .
• Douglas convinced Congress to divide the
region into NE and KS
• His plan was to drop the MO Compromise
and NE admitted as a free state while KS
was the slave state
• Kansas-Nebraska Act passed Congress
• Why do you suppose Congress approved
this legislation?
Bleeding Kansas
• Pro slavery and abolitionists flocked to the
new territory
• Both sides hoped they could populate the
area and when the states applied for
statehood, they could use popular
sovereignty
• In KS, abolitionists vandalized shops and
homes which caused a rebellion
• Roughly 200 people were killed; Bleeding
KS
Section 2: The Crisis Deepens
• Whig Party dissolved
• Free Soil and anti-slavery democrats
formed the Republican party
• 1856, James Buchanan elected Pres.
• Wanted to make concessions with the
South to save the Union, but did nothing
Dred Scott Case
• A slave who moved with his MO master to
a free territory
• Scott returned to MO thinking he should
permanently be free
• Case went to Supreme Court
• Court decided African Americans were not
citizens
• Court said they had no jurisdiction to
abolish slavery in the new territories
• Republicans said court was not called
upon to decide such a measure
• Southerners threatened northerners
saying they would secede if North did not
abide by ruling
Back to Kansas. . .
• Their constitution originally said slavery
was legal
• Referendum overruled this and KS
became a free state (admitted to Union in
1861)
Illinois Senate Race
• Democrat: Stephen Douglas
• Republican: Abraham Lincoln
• Douglas won b/c during debates he came
up with Freeport Doctrine
• Accepted Dred Scott ruling but also stated
that the people had the right to decide on
accepting slavery
• Lincoln gained national attention because
of his well-versed speeches
John Brown
• An abolitionist who seized federal arsenal
at Harper’s Ferry, WV
• Goal was to arm and free the enslaved by
rebelling
• Colonel Robert E. Lee and Marines ended
the rebellion
• Brown was executed; seen as a martyr by
Northerners
Section 3: The Union Dissolves
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1860 Presidential election
Stephen Douglas: democrat
Abraham Lincoln: republican
Lincoln won w/o campaigning in the South
Promised to stop the spread of slavery,
NOT completely abolish it
Secession Begins
• South Carolina voted to secede first
• Their reasoning was that the federal gov’t
was too powerful: STATES’ RIGHTS
VS. FEDERAL RIGHTS
• MS, FL, AL, GA, LA and TX joined the
secession
• AR, NC, TN and VA followed after
bombardment at Ft. Sumter, SC
Fort Sumter (Charleston, SC)
• Secessionists took control of federal forts
Sumter and Picks (Pensacola Harbor)
• These forts were under Union control
• Secessionists also decided to call their
new nation the Confederate States of
America (CSA)
• Wrote a Constitution identical to Union’s
except it guaranteed slavery and banned
tariffs
• Jefferson Davis was chosen as President
of Confederacy
• March, 1861, Lincoln made his inaugural
address: intended to “hold, occupy and
possess” federal property
• His goal was to preserve the Union
• April, 1861, Lincoln announced the
resupply of Ft. Sumter
• Confederacy did not want Northern troops
in what the South perceived was their vital
harbor
• President Davis decided to capture the fort
before the supply ship arrived
• April 12, 1861, south fired canons at the
fort
• Lasted 33 hours, no fatalities
• Union surrendered b/c they ran out of
supplies
• American Civil War has begun
• 1861-1865
Border States
• Sometimes called Buffer states
• Lincoln declared martial law on MD
• Military took control of an area, suspended
civil rights
• KY stayed neutral
• MO threw their support to the Union