Causes of Sectional Tension between North and South Prior to Civil War

1. Objective: • Describe causes of Sectional tension between the North and South prior to the Civil War (1820-1860).

2. Sectionalism (1820-1860) Period of growing tension between North, South and West over slavery and other issues.

3. North and South: Differences The North: • Primarily industrial • Mostly urban and small farms • Supported tariffs and internal improvements • For strong central government • Relied on free labor • Wanted to limit spread of slavery in West The South: • Primarily agricultural • Mostly small farms and plantations • Generally opposed tariffs and internal improvements • For “states’ rights” • Relied on slavery due to smaller population • Supported extending slavery in West

4. “How can an industrialized Northeast, a plantation South and a small farms West share the same nation?” • Unidentified Southern politician describing the Sectional period in U.S. History

5. Objective: Describe several historical developments that took place over the spread of slavery

6. Do Now • Define:

7. Expansion created both new free and slave states. It was commonly agreed it would be a good idea if new states did not upset the balance between existing free and slave states. The proposed admission of Missouri in 1819 as a slave state threatened to upset this balance. (from 11 slave and 11 free to 12 slave and 11 free) 1819 11 slave states 11 free states

9. Missouri Compromise • A compromise over the extension of slavery into the new territories. Missouri became a slave state and Maine became a free state. • All territories north of 36’30 minutes latitude were prohibited from having slavery; all territories south of 36’30 were allowed to have slavery

11. Although the controversy was temporarily resolved, Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend “But this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper…But as it is, we have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go.” Thomas Jefferson, April 1820, Monticello Virginia.

12. The Mexican Cession • Ceded to U.S. at end of Mexican War (1848) • North and South soon clashed over whether territory should be slave or free • Debate intensified as California and Texas sought statehood All or part of seven states later emerged from the Mexican Cession

13. Compromise of 1850 • A compromise over the extension of slavery into the new territories: • California becomes a free state • Fugitive Slave Law: All escaped slaves must be returned to the south • Popular Sovereignty: The people of each territory, themselves, decide on whether their territory will be slave or free.

14. The Compromise of 1850 In Robert Whitechurch’s 1855 painting, Henry Clay describes his plan to admit California as a free state. Daniel Webster (with head in hand) sits to Clay’s left, while John C. Calhoun stands third from right.

15. Protests and political action against the Fugitive Slave Law Several Northern states passed additional “personal liberty” laws designed to counter the Fugitive Slave Law.

16. Fugitive Slave Law Controversy • Appointed federal commissioners • Could issue warrants, form posses, forcibly enlist citizens to help • Commissioners got paid for capturing slaves as well as free blacks • Accused not allowed a jury or to testify in their defense • “Personal liberty laws” An illustration condemning the Fugitive Slave Law

17. What the Fugitive Slave Law ordered • Federal commissioners were appointed and given authority to issue warrants, gather posses, and force citizens to help them catch runaway slaves under penalty of a fine or imprisonment. • Accused runaways were denied both a jury trial and the right to testify in their own behalf. They could be sent to the South on the basis of a supposed owner's affidavit. • Also working against the accused’s ( runaway or free) chances for freedom was the fee to be paid to the commissioners to decide each case: they received ten dollars for returning the fugitive to the claimant, five dollars if they freed the person. • The law, made all personal liberty laws null and void. A slave owner or slave catcher could claim fugitives simply by seizing a Black person who fit the description of the runaway and bringing him/her before a federal judge. The judge decided the identity of the fugitive, based entirely on the testimony of the slave owner or slave catcher. • Any US marshal who refused to act under the law was fined $1000, and any person "obstructing arrest of [said] fugitive, harboring fugitives, or concealing them" was fined up to $1000 and could serve up to six months in prison.

18. Missouri Compromise vs. Compromise of 1850

19. The Kansas-Nebraska Act: 1854 • Introduced by Stephen Douglas • Bill allowed for popularsovereigntyto be introduced in the Kansas and Nebraska territories. • Citizens in these areas would vote on whether to allow slavery 36o30'

20. “Bleeding Kansas”: Prelude • Pro- and antislavery settlers streamed into Kansas for slavery vote • Violence erupts and hundreds are killed in “Bleeding Kansas” A period map showing free states (red), slave states (gray), territories (green), and Kansas Territory (white, in the center)

21. Dred Scott vs. Sanford (1857) • Dred Scott, a slave, is taken into free territory. • Scott felt he was free because of the Missouri Compromise, and sued his owner for his freedom. • Ruling: Slaves are not citizens, they are property of their owners and not entitled to due process of law. • Also declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional because it would deprive slave owners of their property.

23. The federal government was unable to prevent the outbreak of Civil War….

24. Nationalism vs. Sectionalism • Nationalism- Pride in one’s country • Sectionalism- Pride in one’s area of the country • Division begins between the North and the South- Slavery becomes the big issue

25. The Missouri Territory • As people move into the Missouri Territory, slave owners bring their slaves. • Debate- should Missouri enter the union as a slave state or a free state?

26. The Missouri Compromise • Missouri would enter as a slave state • Maine would enter as a free state • Territory north of the 36 30’ line of latitude would be closed to slavery • http://teachingamericanhistory.org/neh/interactives/sectionalism/lesson1/

27. Activity- Textbook p. 84-85; 88-91 • In your groups, discuss the economic and social factors that led to feelings of sectionalism in the United States • Discuss how the Missouri Compromise affected each region. • Be prepared to present your findings