Chapter 10
The Impending Crisis
The Slave
Power
Conspiracy
The Wilmot
Proviso
• What was the Wilmot Proviso?
– An amendment to a military appropriations bill
in 1846 that stated that slavery would be
banned in all land won from Mexico in the
Mexican war … It did not pass.
• What did the Wilmot Proviso mean in
practical terms?
– If passed, CA, NM and Utah Territories would
be closed to slavery forever.
• What was the Northern position on the
extension of slavery into the US
territories? Why?
– Northerners opposed the expansion of slavery
because it would strengthen the influence of
slave states in the Senate.
• What was the Southern position on the
extension of slavery into the US
territories? Why?
– Southerners favored the expansion of slavery
because it would strengthen the influence of
slave states in the Senate.
The
Compromise
of 1850
• What issue sparked the need
for Compromise?
–CA’s application to join the Union
as a free state
• Who shaped the Compromise
of 1850?
–Henry Clay
Stephen A. Douglas
• What terms of the Compromise
appealed to the North?
– CA admitted as a free state
• What terms of the Compromise
appealed to the South?
– A tougher Fugitive Slave Act is adopted
Other terms of the treaty:
Popular sovereignty for NM and Utah
TX gives up some land to NM for $10 million
The sale of slaves is banned in Wash., D.C., but slavery remains
The Fugitive
Slave Law
• What were the terms of the Fugitive Slave
Act?
– Alleged fugitives did not receive a jury trial and
could not testify on their own behalf; anyone
convicted of helping fugitives was subject to
$1,000 fine and 6 months in prison
• Who supported the act, and who opposed
it?
– South supported; North opposed
• How did northerners resist the act?
– 9 northern states passed personal liberty laws,
which forbade the imprisonment of runaways and
guaranteed them jury trials
Underground
Railroad
• What was the Underground
Railroad?
–A network of free blacks and white
abolitionists who helped fugitive slaves
escape to freedom
• Who was Harriet Tubman?
–The most famous “conductor” on the
Underground Railroad; helped 300
slaves escape
Uncle Tom’s
Cabin
• When was it written?
– 1852
• Who wrote it?
– Harriet Beecher Stowe
• What was the theme of the book?
– Slavery was not just a political contest, but a
great moral struggle
• What were reactions to the book in the
North? The South?
– North: abolitionists increased protests against
the Fugitive Slave Act; South: criticized the
book as an attack on the South as a whole
The KansasNebraska Act
• Who introduced the KansasNebraska Act to Congress?
– Stephen A. Douglas (D – Illinois)
• What were his motives?
– To get southern support for a railroad
from his hometown of Chicago to San
Francisco
• What were the terms of the bill?
– Divide unorganized western territories
into 2 territories (Kansas and Nebraska)
and allow popular sovereignty to decide
slavery issue
• Who supported the bill?
–Southerners, b/c it repealed the
Missouri Compromise and opened
new lands to slavery
• Who opposed the bill?
–Northerners; b/c it extended slavery
further to the west
• When was the bill passed?
–1854
Bleeding Kansas
• What led to “Bleeding Kansas”?
– Passage of Kansas-Nebraska Act
• What happened in the 1855
election for a territorial legislature
in Kansas?
– antislavery and proslavery forces raced
to populate Kansas so they could elect
an antislavery or proslavery legislature
• Who were the “border ruffians”?
– The thousands of proslavery
Missourians who came into Kansas and
voted illegally
• Was a proslavery or antislavery
legislature elected?
–Proslavery
• What did abolitionists do in
response?
–Claiming electoral fraud, they
organized their own antislavery
legislature
The Sack of
Lawrence
• Was Lawrence, Kansas, a proslavery or
antislavery settlement?
– Antislavery
• What caused the sack of Lawrence?
– A proslavery grand jury condemned
Lawrence’s inhabitants as traitors and called
on a local sheriff to arrest them
• What was the sack of Lawrence?
– A proslavery posse of 800 burned buildings,
looted houses and stores in Lawrence
• What did this lead to?
– The Pottawatomie Massacre
The Pottawatomie
Massacre
• Who was John Brown?
– A radical abolitionist
• What were his beliefs?
– He believed that God had called on him
to fight slavery
• What did he do at Pottawatomie
Creek? Why?
– Brown and his followers murdered 5
proslavery settlers; Brown had the
mistaken impression that 5 antislavery
settlers had been killed during the sack
of Lawrence
Violence in the
Senate
• Who was Charles Sumner?
– An antislavery senator from Massachusetts
• What was the nature of his speeches
before the Senate on May 19th, 1856?
– Entitled “The Crime Against Kansas”, he
verbally attacked other senators for their
support of slavery
• Who was Andrew P. Butler?
– Proslavery senator from South Carolina;
Sumner was especially abusive toward him in
his speech
• Who was Preston S. Brooks?
– A U.S. Congressmen and also Butler’s
nephew
• What did Brooks do to Sumner?
– Approached him in the Senate chamber and
beat him repeatedly in the head with a cane
• How did southerners respond?
– They applauded Brooks for what he had done
• How did northerners respond?
– Condemned the incident as another example
of Southern brutality
The Whig Party
Splits
• When had the Whig Party been
founded? Why?
– 1834; to oppose Andrew Jackson’s policies
• What issue divided the Whigs?
– slavery
• What two factions emerged?
– Northern Whigs (“conscience Whigs”) and
Southern Whigs (“cotton Whigs”)
• What was the fate of the Whigs?
– It died out after the Kansas-Nebraska Act
(1854)
Nativism/KnowNothing Party
• What is nativism?
– The favoring of native-born Americans over
immigrants
• Who were the nativists and what were
they afraid of?
– Mostly middle class Protestants alarmed by
the large number of Catholic immigrants, who
they feared would undermine democracy
• When did the nativists form their own
political party?
– 1854; The American Party
• What did this party soon come
to be called?
–The Know-Nothing Party
• How was this political party like
the Whigs?
–The Know-Nothings were also
divided over the slavery issue.
The Free-Soil
Party
• What were two political parties that
were forerunners to the Republican
Party?
– The Liberty Party and the Free-Soil
Party
• What were these parties’ political
objectives?
– Liberty Party = abolish slavery; Free-Soil
Party = stop spread of slavery to the
west
• Who did the Free-Soil Party nominate
for President in the 1848 election?
What was the outcome?
– Former President Martin Van Buren (D);
received no electoral votes but 10% of the
popular vote
• How could a Northerner be a FreeSoiler without being an abolitionist?
– Many Free-Soilers wanted land free in the
West so that free labor would not have to
compete with slaves.
The Republican
Party
• When was the Republican Party
formed?
– 1854
• What was the major purpose of the
Republican Party?
– Opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the
extension of slavery into the territories
• What were some of the other groups
that joined the Republican Party,
increasing its political strength?
– Abolitionists, Know-Nothings
The Election of
1856
• Who was the Republican candidate for
President in the election of 1856?
– John C. Fremont
• Who was the Democratic candidate?
– James Buchanan
• What was the result of the election? Why?
– Buchanan wins; he is the only truly national
candidate
• What did the 1856 presidential election
prove?
– Know-Nothings on the decline and
Republicans were on the rise
•
•
Republican candidate:
John C. Fremont
–
The famed
“pathfinder” who had
mapped the Oregon
Trail and led U.S.
troops into California
during the war with
Mexico
•
Know-Nothing
candidate:
Millard Fillmore
– Former
U.S.
president
(Taylor’s
VP)
Democratic candidate: James
Buchanan (PA)
– He was the only truly national
candidate
• He was a northerner
• Most of his Washington friends
were Southerners
• As minister to Great Britain, he
had been out of the country
during the heated disputes over
the Kansas-Nebraska Act and
thus he had antagonized
neither the North nor the South
• Election results:
– Buchanan won with 45% of the popular vote
– But the Republicans came in a strong second
with 33%, demonstrating that they were a
political force in the North
The Dred Scott
Decision
• Who was Dred Scott?
– A slave from Missouri
• Why did Dred Scott sue his owner?
– He sued for his freedom b/c his owner had
taken him into a free territory
• What two basic legal questions did the
Supreme Court have to decide?
– Could a slave sue in court?
– Does being in free territory make a slave
free?
• When did the Supreme Court hand
down the Dred Scott ruling?
– 1857
• Who was Chief Justice at the time?
– Roger B. Taney
• What did the ruling say?
– Slaves were not citizens and had no right to
sue.
– Slaves were property. Any restriction on the
right to own property would violate the 5th
Amendment
Dred Scott
• What did the Supreme Court, in
effect, declare unconstitutional?
– The Missouri Compromise
• What were the implications of the
Court ruling?
– The path had been cleared for the
extension of slavery into the western
territories
The LincolnDouglas Debates
• Why were Abraham Lincoln and
Stephen A. Douglas debating?
– Both were competing for a US Senate seat
from Illinois in 1858
• What party did each man belong to?
– Douglas (D); Lincoln (R)
• What was Douglas’ position on the
extension of slavery into the
territories?
– He strongly believed in popular sovereignty
(let residents of territories decide for
themselves if they want slavery or not)
• What was Lincoln’s position on the
extension of slavery in the territories?
– He was opposed to the extension of slavery
• What was the Freeport Doctrine?
– Douglas’ answer to a question posed by
Lincoln: In light of the Dred Scott case, could
residents of a territory exclude slavery?
Douglas responded that they could, if they
elected representatives that would not enforce
slaveowners’ property rights.
Harpers Ferry
• What was located at Harper’s
Ferry?
–A federal arsenal
• Who led a raid on Harper’s
Ferry?
–John Brown
• What was his ultimate goal?
–To seize weapons, arm the slaves,
and lead a slave revolt
• Who led US Marines to Harper’s
Ferry to stop the raid?
– Robert E. Lee
• What was John Brown’s ultimate
fate?
– He was captured, found guilty of
treason, and hung.
• How was this viewed by people in
the North? The South?
– North saw Brown as a martyr; South
saw him as a madman
Election of
1860
• Who did most people believe
would be the Republican nominee
for President in 1860?
– William H. Seward
• Who actually won the Republican
nomination? Why?
– Abraham Lincoln; he was relatively
unknown and had not angered fellow
Republicans … he was viewed as more
moderate than Seward
• What other 3 parties ran candidates in
the Election of 1860, and who were the
candidates?
– Northern Democrats = Stephen Douglas
– Southern Democrats = John C. Breckinridge
– Constitutional Union = John Bell
• Who won the election? Where did he
draw his support from?
– Lincoln; Northern states
• Who came is second? Where did he
draw his support from?
– Breckinridge; Southern states
Southern
Secession
• Which state was the first to secede?
Why did it secede?
– South Carolina; they felt they had lost their
voice in national politics
• Which other states followed suite?
– Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,
Louisiana, Texas
• What did the secessionist states form
on Feb., 4, 1861?
– The Confederate States of America (CSA)
• Where was the Confederate capital?
– Montgomery, AL
• How was the Confederate constitution
different from the US Constitution?
– The CSA constitution “protected and
recognized” slavery in new territories and
stressed that each state was to be “sovereign
and independent”
• Who was named President of the
Confederate States of America?
– Jefferson Davis
Confederate States of America (CSA)