Mounting Violence

1. Mounting Violence Section 2

2. Uncle Tom’s Cabin • Read this section

3. The Act’s Inflammatory Effects • Under Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, a person claiming that an African American had escaped from slavery had only to point out that person as a runaway to take him or her into custody • Then the accused would be brought before a federal commissioner • A sworn statement would be taken, stating that the captive had escaped from slaveholder or testimony by white witnesses was all a court needed to order the person back to the south • African Americans had no right to a trial and were not allowed to testify

4. Cont. • Law also included financial incentives for federal commissioners to find in favor of the slaveholder • Commissioner received $10 in favor of slaveholder; $5 against the slaveholder • Law required federal marshals to help slaveholders capture African American fugitives and authorized marshals to deputize citizens on the spot to help them capture a fugitive • If a person refused to cooperate they could be jailed • “almost no colored man is safe in our streets”

5. Northern Resistance Grows • Many northerners not happy with the law and drove many to act in defiance • Many spoke out against the Fugitive Slave Act • Frederick Douglass would paint an emotional picture of an African American fleeing kidnappers then ask the audience if they would give the runaway over to “pursuing bloodhounds” • Henry David Thoreau wrote an essay called “Civil Disobedience” • Advocated disobeying laws on moral grounds • “Unjust laws exist. Shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amen them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?” • Many northerners chose to disobey them

6. Cont. • Northern resistance became frequent, public, and violent • Some believed the violence was justified by the violence and cruelty of the slaveholders and their hirelings • Douglass proposed “The True Remedy for the Fugitive Slave Law-A good revolver, a steady hand, and a determination to shoot down any man attempting to kidnap.”

7. The Underground Railroad • Fugitive Slave Law included heavy fines and even prison terms • Didn’t stop northern whites and freed African Americans from trying to help slaves escape • Underground Railroad- A system that helped enslaved African Americans follow a network of escape routes out of the South to freedom in the North • Conductors helped transport runaways north in secret • Provided shelter and food along their way • Some provided money for a new start, fresh start in Northern states or Canada

8. Cont. • Many African Americans made dangerous trips into the South to guide enslaved persons along the Underground Railroad • Harriet Tubman- one of the most famous conductors and runaway herself risked many trips to the South • The conductors had a series of hand signals they would use to communicate with other conductors along the Underground Railroad • The Underground Railroad was a thorn in the side to slaveholders and deepened Southern mistrust of Northern intentions

9. The Transcontinental Railroad • Sectional disagreements didn’t fade when settlers moved to new territories in the West • Settlers remained either Northerners or Southerners • 1850s- Missouri and Iowa was settled for their fertile lands • Territory was unorganized and would remain so until the federal government came in and organized it as a territory • Oregon and California were being admitted around the same time • Led many Americans to believe that a transcontinental railroad was needed to connect the West Coast to the rest of the country

10. Cont. • 1850s- travelling to the west took many weeks over land • Or a long sea voyage around the tip of South America • Transcontinental RR would reduce the trip to around 4 days • The trip also promoted further settlement and growth in the territories along the way • Conflicts with where the eastern starting point should be • South wanted it in New Orleans but geography of SW required RR to pass through northern Mexico • Gadsden Purchase- James Gadsden was sent to buy land from Mexican leader, Santa Anna. Purchased 30,000 square mile strip of land, modern day Arizona and New Mexico • 1853 Mexico accepted $10 million for the territory

11. Cont. • Stephen A. Douglas, head of Senate committee on territories, had his own idea about RR • Wanted eastern terminus to be in Chicago • Needed Missouri and Iowa to be organized first by Congress • 1853 Douglas prepares a bill to organize region into a new territory called Nebraska • Passed the House of Representatives but Southern senators prevented the bill from coming a vote • Senators made it clear that if Douglas wanted Nebraska organized, then he needed to repeal the Missouri Compromise and allow slavery in the new country

12. The Kansas-Nebraska Act • Read this section

13. Two New Territories • Douglas tried to dodge the issue and gain Southern support by saying states organized in new Nebraska territory could exercise popular sovereignty on slavery • Southerners leaders in Senate not fooled • Without Missouri Compromise repealed southern slave holders wouldn’t move there • Douglas goes a fateful step further • Proposed to undo Missouri Compromise and allow slavery in the region • Nebraska would be free; Kansas would be slave • Douglas’s bill outraged Northern Democrats and Whigs

14. Cont. • Free-Soilers and antislavery Democrats weren’t happy either • Calling it an “atrocious plot” • Abandoning the Missouri Compromise broke a solemn promise to limit spread of slavery • Despite opposition, Democrats won enough support in Congress to pass the Kansas-Nebraska Act in May 1854

15. Bleeding Kansas • Kansas became first battle ground for those favoring slavery and opposing it • People rushed from Missouri to take advantage of the rich soil as well as slavery • People from the North also rushed in to lay claims to the land in hopes of preventing slavery • Spring of 1855 thousands of armed Missourians held an illegal vote electing a proslavery legislature • Antislavery setters countered by holding a convention in Topeka and drafting their own constitution excluding slavery • March 1856 Kansas had 2 governments

16. Cont. • May 21, 1856 Northern border ruffians attacked town of Lawrence where many antislavery settlers were • Wrecked newspaper presses, plundered shops and homes, and burned a hotel and the home of the elected free state governor • Newspapers dubbed the name “Bleeding Kansas” • Became the scene of a territorial civil war between pro-slavery and antislavery settlers • End of 1856, 200 people died in the fighting and two million dollars’ worth of property had been destroyed

17. The Caning of Charles Sumner • Read this section • Charles Sumner • Andrew P. Butler