Download The Antebellum Period Part IV

The Antebellum Period
Part IV
The Inevitable War
Texas and Florida
• In 1845, Texas and Florida were admitted into
the United States.
• Prior to that, slaves fled southern states to
join the Mexicans in the fight for Texas.
• There are even accounts of slaves fighting on
both sides at the Alamo.
• After Texas became a state, the slave
population grew to 58,000 by 1850.
Florida
• While slavery in Florida was legal, the slaves
themselves had other ideas.
• The slaves joined the Seminole, Creek, and
Mikasuki Indians and fought in the Second
Seminole Wars from 1835-1842.
• Slaves in the northern part of Florida were not
so lucky as slavery took hold until the end of
the Civil War in 1850 slaves numbered 25,000.
United States & Mexico
• War was declared after Texas was admitted to the
union and Mexico refused to cede the lands and
leave Texas.
• The federal government tried to enact the
Wilmot Proviso to eradicate all lands acquired
during the war which included Florida and Texas.
• Some in the Whigs party created the “Free Soil
Party” when the Wilmot Proviso would not pass.
The Election of 1848
• A northern Democrat was nominated to run
for president but he was not for slavery.
• Southern jumped rank to support the Whig
candidate, Zachary Taylor a war hero.
• Taylor died after 4 months in office and
Millard Fillmore was now president.
• Fillmore detested slavery and wanted to get
rid of it but did not want to destroy the union
to do it.
Fillmore Continues to Split Nation
• Fillmore was president and supported the
admission of California as a free state.
• This angered southerners so much that now
they start threatening succession.
• Fillmore rushes to enact the Compromise of
1850.
• This was not one single compromise but five
separate laws to help balance the power
between slave and free states.
Compromise of 1850
• (1) The fugitive slave act allowed southerners
to finally go into northern cities legally and
reclaim their “property”, slaves.
• This really steamed Abolitionist leaders in the
north as massive protests followed many
attempts to return slaves to their masters.
• One particular in Boston turned very violent.
Continued
• (2) California and New Mexico were admitted
as free states.
• (3) It created areas (Utah, Wyoming, and
Arizona) to be “popular sovereignty” where
states could vote if they wanted slavery or
not.
• (4) The slave trade was forever stopped in
Washington, D.C.
• (5) Texas paid its national debt.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• In 1854, the fragile peace created by the
Compromise of 1850 was shattered by the K-N
act.
• Designed by senator Stephen A. Douglas
democratic senator from Illinois, he hoped by
letting territories decide whether to vote for
slavery in their states or not would finally put
an end to the slavery question.
• HE WAS WRONG!!!
Bleeding Kansas
• The Nebraska territories were divided into 2
states, Kansas and Nebraska.
• Both pro-slavery and abolitionists sent farmers
into the territories to set up shop and claim
the territories as they wanted.
• The conflict resulted in murders of settlers in
both areas as they retaliated against each
other.
John Brown’s Raid
• John Brown was hired to protect anti-slave
farmers in Kansas and massacred farmers at
the Pottawatomie Massacre.
• He protected voters with guns from being
intimidated in voting booths.
• He cemented his place in history with an
unsuccessful raid at a ferry near present day
West Virginia as he tried to arm slaves in
Virginia with guns.
The Inevitable
• Robert E. Lee first came into prominence by
capturing John Brown and Brown was hung in
Charles Town, Virginia.
• Robert E. Lee would become almost God-like
to southerners then and during the Civil War.
• Kansas was admitted as a free state and
Nebraska did not get voted in until after the
Civil War began.
War Looms Close
• James Henry Hammond set the stage for
succession by stating at the senate floor, "If
Kansas is driven out of the Union for being a
slave state, can any Southern state remain
within it with honor?“
• The Republican Party came to power and
Lincoln was elected and the states that made
up the south began seceding shortly after.
Dred Scott Case
• A side note was a legal battle fought by an escaped
slave trying to beat the legality of the fugitive slave act.
• The resulting vote by the supreme court decided that
African descent imported into the United States and
held as slaves, or their descendants whether or not
they were slaves—were not legal persons and could
never be citizens of the United States, and that the
United States Congress had no authority to prohibit
slavery in federal territories. The Court also ruled that
slaves could not sue in court, and that slaves—as
chattel or private property—could not be taken away
from their owners without due process.
By the Way
• This decision should have not surprised
anyone.
• Remember, through the 3/5 rule the south
had nominated 18 of the 31 supreme court
justices over a period of 50 years.
• How else would the judges have voted?
• Of course they would support slavery.