By: Ms. Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY
& Dr. A. Maxeiner, Hicksville NY
Problems of Sectional Balance
in 1850
ß California statehood.
ß Southern “fire-eaters” threatening
secession.
ß Underground RR & fugitive slave issues:
 Personal liberty laws
Compromise of 1850
Harriet
Beecher
Stowe
(1811 – 1896)
So this is the lady who
started the Civil War.
-- Abraham Lincoln
Uncle Tom’s
Cabin
1852
 Sold 300,000 copies in
the first year.
 2 million in a decade!
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852
Why was it so influential?
• Uncle Tom is beaten to death, trying to
protect the other enslaved people.
• The idea that an enslaved person could
be like Jesus Christ.
Eliza escapes, with her infant son
• Influenced by the
ideals of Republican
Motherhood and the
Cult of Domesticity,
people were
horrified by the
practice of
separating families.
The “Know-Nothings” [The American Party]
ß Nativists.
ß Anti-Catholics.
ß Anti-immigrants.
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854
“Bleeding Kansas” 1856
Lawrence
, Pottawatomie, Osawatomie
Border “Ruffians”
(pro-slavery
Missourians)
Birth of the Republican Party, 1854
ß Northern Whigs.
ß Northern Democrats.
ß Free-Soilers.
ß Know-Nothings.
ß Other miscellaneous opponents
of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Why did Republicans hate
slavery?
• Economically, an enslaved person (who
worked for “free”) was in direct competition to a
free, poor laborer.
• Republicans hated aristocracy; they wanted a
society where people “pulled themselves up
using their own bootstraps”.
• Most could not resist the racism that had
developed out of slavery, however.
The Caning of Sumner 1856
Northerner Sumner was beaten on the floor of the Senate by
Southerner Brooks —he took three years to recover. Congressmen
began to carry guns.
Sen. Charles Sumner
(R-MA)
Congr. Preston Brooks
(D-SC)
Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857
• No person of
African ancestry
could be a citizen
of the USA
• Federal
government had no
right to prohibit
slavery in the
territories–
Missouri
Compromise
unconstitutional
The Lincoln-Douglas (Illinois Senate)
Debates, 1858
A House divided against
itself, cannot stand.
Stephen Douglas
& the
Freeport Doctrine
Popular
Sovereignty?
In my opinion, the
people of a Territory
can, by lawful means,
exclude slavery from
their limits prior to the
formation of a State
constitution
√ Abraham Lincoln
Republican
John Bell
Constitutional Union
1860
Presidential
Election
Stephen A. Douglas
Northern Democrat
John C. Breckinridge
Southern Democrat
Republican Party Platform in 1860
ß Non-extension of slavery [for the Free-Soilers.
ß Protective tariff [for the No. Industrialists].
ß No abridgment of rights for immigrants [a
disappointment for the “Know-Nothings”].
ß Government aid to build a Pacific RR [for the
Northwest].
ß Internal improvements [for the West] at federal
expense.
ß Free homesteads for the public domain [for farmers].
1860 Election: 3 “Outs” & 1 ”Run!”
1860 Election: A Nation Coming Apart?!
John Brown’s Raid
on Harper’s Ferry, 1859
John Brown: Madman, Hero or Martyr?
Mural in the Kansas Capitol building
by John Steuart Curry (20c)
John Brown: terrorist or martyr?
• In Kansas, he had beheaded five
people with a broadsword for being
pro-slavery.
• Harpers Ferry Virginia: he attacked a
federal armory to get weapons for a
slave revolt.
• He was hanged. Union soldiers went
into battle with a piece of the rope that
hanged him. Confederates gave his
action as a reason to fight against the
North.
1860
Election
Results
Secession!: SC Dec. 20, 1860
Fort Sumter: April 12, 1861