
Differences Between North and South South • Plantation economy, relied on enslaved labor force. North • Diversified industries, was less dependent on slavery.
Slavery in the Territories California • Statehood 1850 • Forbade slavery Secession – the formal withdrawal of a State from the Union.
Henry Clay who came up with the compromise (he's known as the "Great Compromiser" in the Senate - worked out previous tariff issues)
The Compromise of 1850 • To please the North - provided that California be admitted to the Union as a free state. • To please the South – proposed new and more effective fugitive slave law. Popular Sovereignty – The right to vote for or against slavery. (New Mexico & Utah territories)
Protest, Resistance, and Violence The Underground Railroad • A system of routes along which runaway slaves were helped to escape safe areas. Harriet Tubman • “Conductor” hid fugitive slaves in secret tunnels and false cupboards, provided them with food and clothing, and directed them to the next station.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin • 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe published novel, which stressed that slavery was not just a political contest, but also a great moral struggle.
Tension in Kansas and Nebraska • Kansas-Nebraska Act introduced in Congress that would divide area into two territories: Nebraska in the north and Kansas in the south. • If passed would repeal the Missouri Compromise and establish popular sovereignty for both territories.
Bleeding Kansas • “Border ruffians” from Missouri crossed into Kansas and voted illegally, and won a fraudulent majority for the pro slavery candidates. • Abolitionists, furious over these events organized a rival government. • Bloody violence surfaced in the struggle for Kansas.
Violence in the Senate • Senator Charles Sumner delivered an impassioned speech in the Senate entitled “The Crime Against Kansas.” • For two days he verbally attacked the South and slavery, singling out Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina. • Butler’s nephew Congressman Preston Brooks, walked into the Senate chamber and struck Sumner repeatedly with a cane until the cane broke. Sumner suffered brain damage.
New Political Parties Emerge Slavery Divides Whigs • Southern faction splintered as its members looked for a pro slavery, pro union party to join. • Northern faction looked for a party of their own.
New Political Parties Emerge The Free-Soilers’ Voice • Objected to slavery’s competition with free white workers, or wage based labor force • Feared such competition would drive down wages. The New Republican Party • Republicans were united in opposing the Kansas-Nebraska Act and keeping slavery out of the territories.
Conflicts Lead to Secession The Dread Scott Decision 1857 • Dread Scott appealed to the Supreme Court for his freedom on the grounds that living in a free state had made him a free man. • Supreme Court ruled Scott, lacked any legal standing to sue in federal court because he was not, and never could be a citizen. Being in a free territory did not make a slave free. Chief Justice Taney presided, came from a slave-owning family.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates • 1858 race for U.S. Senate between Democrat incumbent Stephen Douglas and Republican Abraham Lincoln. • Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of debates on slavery in the territories. • Douglas believed deeply in popular sovereignty. Lincoln believed slavery was immoral.
Harpers Ferry • 1859 John Brown led 21 men to Harpers Ferry, Virginia to seize the federal arsenal there and start a general slave uprising. • Troops put down the rebellion. Authorities tried Brown and put him to death.
Lincoln Elected President • Lincoln pledged to halt the further spread of slavery • He also tried to reassure Southerners that a Republican administration “would not interfere with their slaves, or with them about their slaves.”
Southern Secession • Lincoln’s victory convinced southerners they had lost their political voice in the national government. • South Carolina seceded 12/20/1860, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. • Four others did not declare secession until after the 1861 Battle of Fort Sumter: Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia
Secession • Four slave states never declared a secession from the Union: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri. • West Virginia is the only state to form by seceding from a Confederate state.
Secession • Some Southern states decided to act. Delegates from the secessionist states formed the Confederate States of America or Confederacy. • Confederate constitution protected and recognized slavery in new territories. Jefferson Davis Unanimously elected president.