A PEOPLE & A NATION
SIXTH EDITION
Norton  Katzman  Blight  Chudacoff  Paterson  Tuttle  Escott
Chapter 14: Slavery and America’s
Future: The Road to War, 1845–1861
14-2
Ch.14: The Road to War,
1845–1861
• Sectional tensions escalate with debate over
slavery in new western territories
• Whigs collapse, and new Republicans unify
North with call to ban slavery from West
• Politics become increasingly sectional as North
and South divide over America’s future
• Slavery is root cause of war (expand/restrict)
• Events undermine fragile compromises
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14-3
I. “Mr. Polk’s War” with
Mexico (1846–1848)
• Polk makes war unavoidable with claim that
Rio Grande is Texas border and with desire for
Mexican land (CA) to Pacific
• Compromises with British on 49th parallel for
OR’s border to avoid two-front war
• Aggressive with Mexico: sends troops into
disputed area and waits for incident
• Deceives Congress on nature of incident
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14-4
II. Foreign War & the
Popular Imagination
• First US war on foreign territory; manifest
destiny is the theory and practice behind the war
• Numerous public celebrations and volunteers;
first war reported with immediacy by media
• US quickly takes NM and CA; then defeats
heavy resistance to capture Mexico City
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) expands
US border southwest (CA, NM and large TX)
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14-5
III. “Slave Power Conspiracy”
• Polk extends US to Pacific, but victories cause
sectional discord
• Abolitionists claim war is part of oligarchic
plot to extend slavery and suppress dissent
• Wilmot Proviso (1846) enflames southerners
with proposal to ban slavery from new lands
• Southerners begin to assert that 5th
Amendment protects slavery in all territories
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14-6
III. “Slave Power Conspiracy”
(cont.)
• South’s “state sovereignty” idea challenges
earlier restrictions on slavery in territories
• Wilmot is not an abolitionist; wants to ban
slavery’s expansion so new lands can be
reserved for free white men—a racist
• Reflects white northern majority: mix of
racism and antislavery; not abolitionists, but
fear of Slave Power will ally them with
abolitionists
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14-7
IV. Election of 1848 &
Popular Sovereignty
• Democratic nominee, Cass devises idea to let
settlers in new territories decide on slavery
• Whig nominee, Taylor agrees Congress should
not decide on slavery in new lands
• New Free-Soil Party emerges with demand to
prevent expansion of slavery
• Taylor wins, but voting reflects emerging
sectional divisions over slavery in West
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14-8
V. Compromise of 1850
• CA wants to enter US as a free state; would tip
balance of states toward free states
• South demands right to expand slavery into at
least part of CA territory
• Clay and S. Douglas craft series of measures
• No majority existed for whole package because
of sectional divisions; Douglas passes them as
separate bills
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14-9
V. Compromise of 1850
(cont.)
•
•
•
•
•
•
CA enters as free state
TX boundary is established
Popular sovereignty for slavery in NM/UT
Strengthens national fugitive slave law
Abolishes slave trade in DC
Compromise evades sectional disagreement on
specifics of popular sovereignty (when exactly
could a territory ban slavery)
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14-10
VI. Fugitive Slave Act
• Masters can use southern court documents as
proof to capture a fugitive anywhere
• Abolitionists and others are upset because
accused are denied jury trial and other rights
• 1850–54: abolitionists and freed blacks in
North violently resist slave catchers
• Some (F. Douglas) begin to assert that violence
is a legitimate way to oppose slavery
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14-11
VII. Uncle Tom’s Cabin &
the Underground Railroad
• Stowe’s 1852 novel portrays slave suffering,
slavery’s evils, and effects of northern racism
• Many northerners read it or see it as a play
• Southerners respond with pro-slavery novels;
also alarmed by efforts of Tubman and other
abolitionists to help 1000s of slaves escape
• Railroad applies pressure to slavery and serves
as a symbol that slaves want freedom
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14-12
VIII. Election of 1852 and
Collapse of Compromise
• Pierce (Democrat) wins because of Whig
decline (sectional tension, loss of leaders)
• Pierce’s vigorous enforcement of Fugitive
Slave Act infuriates many northerners
• More accept existence of evil Slave Power
with influence over US Government
• Some northern states pass laws to impede
Fugitive Slave Act; laws upset southerners
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14-13
IX. Kansas-Nebraska Act
(1854)
• Seeking railroad benefits for IL, S. Douglas
authors bill to organize these territories
• Enflames tensions by exposing disagreement
on details of popular sovereignty and by
destroying Missouri Compromise (1820)
• North is upset, and fears Slave Power more
• Sectional tensions cause Democratic decline in
North and Whigs’ collapse
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14-14
X. Birth of the Republican
Party (1854)
• Antislavery Whigs and Democrats, FreeSoilers, and other reformers form a new
northern party in reaction to KS-NE Act
• See Act as dangerous expansion of slavery that
threatens rights and liberty in territories
• Republicans dedicated to keeping slavery out
of territories, and party grows rapidly
• A sectional, not a national party
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14-15
XI. Party Realignment & the
Republicans’ Appeal
• Republican growth shows centrality of slavery
expansion to origins of Civil War
• Incorporates other issues to broaden support
• Absorbs Know-Nothing/American Party (antiimmigrant and anti-Catholic)
• Courts northerners who want economic
expansion (West) with homesteads, internal
improvements, and tariffs
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14-16
XII. Republican Ideology
• Motto: “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men”
• Builds on early republicanism and northern
self-image of economic growth and prosperity
• Progress requires free labor and economic
opportunity; asserts that slavery destroys these
• Northern definition of liberty stresses chance
to attain success; southern definition focuses
on liberty to take property (slave) anywhere
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14-17
XIII. Southern Democrats
• Democrats become majority party of South
• Appeal to yeoman majority (not slave-owners)
by arguing white equality requires slavery and
tap fears of racial change
• Stress states’ rights to preserve social order
• Democrats and Republicans sharpen sectional
identity and use racism to get white support
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14-18
XIV. Bleeding Kansas &
Election of 1856
• Antislavery groups and proslavery groups each
send supporters to KS; violence erupts over
slavery, land, and rival governments
• Tensions escalate as Brooks (SC) beats
Sumner (MA) unconscious on Senate floor
• Buchanan (Democrat) wins with southern
support, but Republicans dominate North
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14-19
XV. Dred Scott Case (1857)
• Scott sues for freedom after he lived with
master in free state and then in free territory
• Southerners on Supreme Court (5 of 9) push
for definite ruling on slavery in territories
• Majority opinion is by Taney, a MD planter
• Blacks can never be US citizens; Scott was not
free, and Congress cannot ban slavery in
territories (voids 1820 Compromise)
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14-20
XVI. Lincoln on the Slave
Power
• Decision infuriates North, and Republicans
grow stronger as more fear Slave Power
• Lincoln stresses West for free whites and
worries Court will block even state bans on
slavery
• Does not call for immediate end to all slavery;
Lincoln opposes any expansion and wants to
put slavery on path to “ultimate extinction”
• Fears a conspiracy to make slavery national
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14-21
XVII. Growing Militancy in
South
• After Scott, southerners are adamant that
slavery in West is constitutional and are
angered when KS rejects Lecompton (slavery)
Constitution
• S. Douglas tries to appease both northern and
southern Democrats, but impossible
• More southern planters consider secession to
protect slavery, and economic crisis (1857)
heightens sectional tensions
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14-22
XVIII. Brown’s Raid on
Harpers Ferry, VA (1859)
• Brown advocates using violence (including
slave rebellion) to end sin of slavery; attempt
fails
• Abolitionist funding for Brown and the
northern praise for him as martyr accelerate
southern fears that North would back slave
uprisings
• Republicans condemn Brown’s violence, but
also call slavery a crime
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14-23
XIX. Election of 1860
• Democrats split: S. Douglas is northern
nominee and Beckinridge is southern nominee
• Constitutional Union Party in Upper South
• Republicans (Lincoln) oppose slavery’s
extension, but leave slavery alone in South
• Voting is sectional; Lincoln wins with North’s
electoral votes but minority of popular vote
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14-24
XX. Secession (1860-1861)
• Some southerners refuse to accept election and
call for secession
• Adamant on platform, Lincoln rejects plan
(Crittenden) to divide West into slave/free
• Dec. 1860: SC secedes and launches separatestate secession process; joined by 6 Deep
South states
• Secessionists control special conventions, but
their public support is limited
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14-25
XX. Secession (cont.)
• Many yeoman do not vote for conventions and
those who do reject secession; secessionist
planters win because of overrepresentation
• Conventions refuse public vote on secession
• Class tensions beginning to emerge in South
• VA, NC, TN, AR reject disunion;
see Map 14.4
• Feb. 1861: Confederate States form; after war
starts, VA, NC, TN, and AR join
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14-26
XXI. Fort Sumter (April
1861) & Outbreak of War
• Inaugurated in March, Lincoln acts carefully;
tries to control only US forts in South
• Davis is adamant on controlling forts;
bombards Sumter (SC), forces US withdrawal
• Slavery is root cause of war as two sections
have fundamentally different attitudes on it
• Disputes over slavery in West polarize opinion
in North and South
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14-27
Summary: Discuss Legacy
& How Do Historians Know
• Why is US memory of John Brown mixed?
– Raises question of when revolutionary violence
is acceptable to achieve one’s goal
• HDHK box, p. 378*: how does this letter
reflect Lincoln’s views?
– He’s no radical abolitionist and Union is his top
priority, but he personally views slavery as
immoral and wants “ultimate extinction”
*Norton,
A People and a Nation, Sixth Edition
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