The 1850s and
the Irrepressible
Conflict
The East, the West, the North, and the stormy South all
combine to throw the whole ocean into commotion, to toss
its billows to the skies, and to disclose its profoundest depths.
-Daniel Webster, March 7, 1850
Sectionalism
• By examining sectional differences, we can
better understand the sectionalism (loyalty to
a particular region) that ultimately led to the
Union’s worst crisis: the civil war between
the North and South in the early 1860s
The North
The Northeast
Old Northwest
• The northern section contained two parts:
(1) The Northeast (New England/Middle
Atlantic states)
(2) Old Northwest (Ohio to Minnesota)
• The northern states were bound together by:
(1) Improved transportation
(2) High rate of economic growth based on
commercial farming and industrial
innovation
(3) Manufacturing was booming, yet the vast
majority of northerners were still involved
in agriculture
(4) The North was the most populous section
(high birthrate and increased immigration
The Industrial Northeast
• Originally, the Industrial Revolution centered in
the textile industry, but by the 1830s, northern
factories were producing a wide range of goods
(farm implements to clocks and shoes)
U.S. Manufacturing by Region, 1860
Number of
Establishments
Number of
Employees
Value of
Products
North Atlantic
states
69,831
900,107
$1,213,897,518
Old Northwest
states
33,335
188,651
346,675,290
Southern states
27,779
166,803
248,090,580
Western states
8,777
50,204
71,229,989
Census of the U.S., Manufacturing of the United States in 1860
Organized Labor
"Labor is prior to, and independent
of, capital. Capital is only the fruit
of labor, and could never have
existed if labor had not first existed.
Labor is the superior of capital, and
deserves much the higher
consideration."
— U.S. President Abraham Lincoln,
3 December 1861
• Industrial development meant that
a large number of people who had
once earned their living as
independent farmers and artisans
became dependent on wages paid
by factory owners.
• Common problems (low wages,
unsafe working environment, long
hours) led urban workers to
mobilize by forming unions and
local political parties
• The first U.S. labor party, founded
in Philadelphia in 1828, succeeded
in electing a few members of the
city council
Organized Labor continued…
Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842)
was a landmark legal decision
issued by Chief Justice Lemuel
Shaw who ruled that unions
were legal organizations and had
the right to organize a strike.
• Organized labor achieved one notable
victory in 1842 when the Massachusetts
Supreme Court ruled in Commonwealth
v. Hunt that “peaceful unions” had the
right to negotiate labor contracts with
employees
• Improvements for workers, however,
continued to be limited by:
(1) periodic depressions
(2) employers and courts that were hostile to
unions
(3) an abundant supply of cheap immigrant
labor
Urban Life
Tenement life in
New York sketches in "Bottle
Alley" (1879)
• The North’s urban population grew from
approximately 5 percent of the population
in 1800 to 15 percent by 1850.
• As a result of rapid growth in the cities
from Boston to Baltimore:
(1) slums expanded
(2) crowed housing
(3) poor sanitation
(4) spread of infectious diseases
(5) high rates of crime
• Nevertheless, new opportunities continued
to attract both native-born Americans
from the farms and immigrants from
Europe
African Americans
Frederick Douglass and
other free blacks (Library
of Congress)
• The 250,000 African Americans who
lived in the North in 1860 constituted
only a small minority (1 percent) of
northerners
• But as free citizens, African Americans
represented 50 percent of all free blacks
• Freedom may have meant they could
maintain a family or own land, but it did
not mean economic or political equality
• In the mid-1800s, immigrants displaced
African Americans from their jobs in
most skilled professions and crafts
• Denied membership in unions, blacks
were often hired as strikebreakers- and
often dismissed after the strike ended
The Agricultural Northwest
• By the middle of the nineteenth century, this
region became closely tied to other northern
states by two factors:
(1)Military campaigns by federal troops that
drove Native Americans from the land
(2) The building of canals and railroads that
established common markets between the
Great Lakes and the East Coast
Agriculture and New Cities
The Plow that Broke the Plains," an original
1838 John Deere Steel Plow, owned by the
Smithsonian
In July, 1831, Cyrus Hall McCormick
invented the mechanical reaper, known as
the Plano Harvester.
• In the states of the Old Northwest,
large grain crops of corn and wheat
were very profitable
• Using the newly invented steel plow
(by John Deere) and mechanical
reaper (by Cyrus McCormick), a
farm family was more efficient
• Part of the crop was used to feed
cattle and hogs and supply distillers
and brewers
• New cities served as transfer points,
processing farm products for
shipment to the East, and also
distributing manufactured goods
from the East (Buffalo, Cleveland,
Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis)
Immigration
From 1841 to 1850, immigration
from Europe totaled more than
1.7 million, including 780,000
Irish, who fled poverty and death
from the potato famine of 184549.
• From the 1830s through the
1850s, nearly 4 million people
from northern Europe crossed the
Atlantic to seek a new life in
America
• Most arrived by ship in Boston,
New York, and Philadelphia,
while others traveled to farms and
cities of the Old Northwest
• Few journeyed to the South,
where the plantation economy and
slavery limited the opportunities
for free labor
Immigration continued…
"Uncle Sam’s Lodging House"
shows the Irish as the only new
immigrant disrupting order.
• The surge in immigration from 1830-1860
was chiefly the result of:
(1) The development of inexpensive and rapid
ocean transportation
(2) Famines and revolutions in Europe
(3) The growing reputation of the United
States as a country offering economic
opportunities and political freedom
• Immigrants strengthened the U.S.
economy by providing both a steady
stream of cheap labor and an increased
demand for mass-produced consumer
goods
Immigration continued…
• The Irish:
(1) Almost two million came from Ireland
(2) Most were tenant farmers driven off the land by massive potato crop
failures
(3) They faced strong discrimination because of their Roman Catholic
religion
(4) Their progress was difficult but steady
• The Germans:
(1) Both economic hardships and the failure of democratic revolution in
1848 caused over 1 million Germans to seek refuge in the U.S.
(2) Most German immigrants had at least modest means as well as
considerable skills as farmers and artisans
(3) They moved westward in search of cheap and fertile farmland
(4) Eventually they established homesteads throughout the Old Northwest
and generally prospered
(5) They were both supporters of public education and staunch opponents
of slavery
Nativists
The Nativists went public in 1854 when
they formed the 'American Party',
which was especially hostile to the
immigration of Irish Catholics and
campaigned for laws to require longer
wait time between immigration and
naturalization.
• A large number of native-born
Americans were alarmed by the influx
of immigrants, fearing that the
newcomers would take their jobs and
also subvert (weaken) the culture of the
Anglo majority
• The nativists were Protestants who
distrusted Roman Catholics practiced
by the Irish and Germans
• This distrust led to violent
demonstrations and rioting in big cities
• It also led to the formation of secret
antiforeigner societies, such as the
Supreme Order of the Star-Spangled
Banner
• This society turned to politics in the
early 1850s, nominating candidates for
office as the American party, or KnowNothing party
The South
• Defined in economic, political, and social terms, the South
as a distinct region included those states that permitted
slavery, including certain border states (Delaware,
Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri) that did not join the
Confederacy in 1861
Agriculture and King Cotton
This period image depicts British
workers and their families lining up
for food and coal tickets (rations)
during the American Civil War. The
lack of Southern cotton put thousands
of British cotton mill workers out of
work
• Agriculture was the foundation of
the South’s economy even though
small factories in the 1850s were
producing almost 15 percent of
the nation’s manufactured goods
• Tobacco, rice, and sugarcane
were important cash crops, but
cotton in the South was “king”
• Before 1860, the world depended
on Britain’s mills for cheap cloth,
and Britain in turn depended
chiefly on the American South
for its cotton supply (American
North was also dependent)
Agriculture and King Cotton
continued…
This contemporary cartoon from the
British magazine Punch perfectly
illustrates how King Cotton was
crippled. The eagle, one wing adorned
with the Stars and Stripes and the other
the Stars and Bars, keeps King Cotton
bound. Both the Northern blockade and
Southern cotton embargoes hurt the
Confederacy.
• Originally, only South Carolina and
Georgia grew cotton, however, with
increased demand other planters
moved westward into Alabama,
Mississippi, and Texas
• By the 1850s, cotton provided twothirds of all U.S. exports and tied the
South’s economy to Britain
• “Cotton is King,” said one
southerner of his region’s greatest
asset
Slavery, the “Peculiar Institution”
Punishment for runaway slaves was severe.
At the very least, the slaves were returned to
their owners. Often they were given severe
beatings. Sometimes, if they were caught
“too far north” (if they weren’t worth the
hassle of bringing home), their pursuers
would kill them. The most common method
was lynching.
• Wealth in the South was
measured in terms of land and
slaves
• Southern whites were sensitive
to the fact that slaves were
human beings, which led to the
constant defense of slavery
(1) In colonial times, it had been
justified as an economic
necessity
(2) In the 19th century, apologists
used historical and religious
arguments
Southern Slavery
• The cotton boom was largely responsible for a fourfold
increase in the number of slaves, from 1 million to 4
million in 1860
• Most of the increase came from natural reproduction,
although thousands were smuggled into the South in
defiance of Congress’ prohibition in 1808 against
importing slaves
• In some parts of the deep South, slaves made up to 75
percent of the total population
• Fearing slave revolts, southern legislatures added
increased restrictions on movement and education to
their slave codes
Southern Slavery continued…
Scars on a slave who
was whipped. The man
in the picture was called
Peter and originated
from Louisiana.
• Economics:
(1) Slaves labored in the field, became skilled
craftsmen, house servants, factory workers, and
construction workers
(2) By 1860, the value of a field slave had risen to
$2,000
(3) One result of the heavy capital investment in slaves
was that the South had much less capital than the
North to undertake industrialization
• Slave Life:
(1) Conditions of slavery varied (some beaten, other
treated humanely)
(2) Families could be separated; women were
vulnerable to sexual exploitation
(3) Despite hardships, slaves managed to maintain a
strong sense of family and religion
Southern Slavery continued…
Vesey planned a revolt for the second
Monday in July 1822. According to some
reports, several thousand slaves made
knives, swords, and disguises to help in
their escape. But they were betrayed and
the plan discovered. Vesey and 130 other
blacks were arrested. 35 of them were
hung including Denmark Vesey.
• Resistance: Slaves contested their
status through a wide range of
actions, including work slowdowns,
sabotage, escape, and revolt
(1) Major uprisings included
Denmark Vesey in 1822 and
another by Nat Turner in 1831
(2) Revolts were quickly put down,
however they gave hope to slaves,
drove southern states to tighten
already strict slave codes, and
demonstrated the evils of slavery
Free African Americans in the South
Free blacks in Virginia
numbered 58,042 on the eve of
the American Civil War (1861–
1865), or about 44 percent of
the future Confederacy's free
black population.
• By 1860, as many as 250,000 African
Americans in the South were not slaves
• A number of slaves had been
emancipated during the American
Revolution, many mulatto children were
liberated by their white fathers, while
others achieved their freedom through
self-purchase
• Most of the free blacks lived in cities
where they could own property
• By state law, they were not equal to
whites, were not permitted to vote, and
were barred from certain occupations
• These free blacks lived in constant fear of
slave-catchers and kept legal papers
proving their free status
White Society
• Southern whites observed a rigid hierarchy among
themselves:
Aristocracy: To be a member, a person had to own at least 100
slaves and farm at least 1000 acres
Farmers: The vast majority of slaveholders had fewer than 20
slaves
Poor whites: Three-fourths of the South’s whites population
owned no slaves. These subsistence farmers lived in the
hills (hillbillies, “poor white trash”) and defended the slave
system in the hope that one day they too would own slaves
Mountain people: A number of small farmers lived in frontier
conditions isolated from the rest of the South (Appalachian
and Ozark mountains) and generally disliked the planters
and their slaves
Southern Thought
• The South developed a culture and outlook on life that was
uniquely its own and centered on cotton and slavery
Code of chivalry: dominated by the aristocracy planter class,
the agricultural South was largely a feudal society (strong
sense of personal honor, defense of womanhood, and
paternalistic treatment of all who were deemed inferior)
Education: The upper class valued an education for their
children; lower class schooling generally was limited or not
available; slaves were prohibited from gaining an education
Religion: The slavery question affected church membership;
Baptist and Methodist churched gained members (preached
biblical support of slavery); others such as the Unitarians
declined (challenged slavery)
Chief Black Kettle of
the Southern Cheyenne
US negotiations with Black
Kettle and other Cheyenne
favoring peace resulted in the
Treaty of Fort Wise: it
established a small reservation
for the Cheyenne in southeastern
Colorado in exchange for the
territory agreed to in the Fort
Laramie Treaty of 1851. Many
Cheyenne did not sign the treaty,
and they continued to live and
hunt on their traditional grounds
The West
• Native Americans: by the 1850s,
the vast majority of Native
Americans were living west of the
Mississippi River (those in the east
were either killed, emigrated
reluctantly, or forced to leave)
-The Great Plains offered a temporary
respite from conflict, some Native
Americans still lived in villages
and grew crops
-Others like the Cheyenne and the
Sioux became nomadic hunters
atop the horse following the buffalo
The Frontier
Jedediah Strong Smith was a
hunter, trapper, fur trader,
trailblazer, author, cartographer
and explorer of the Rocky
Mountains, the American West
Coast and the Southwest during
the 19th century.
• Mountain men: from the point
of view of native-born white
Americans, the Rocky
Mountains in the 1820s were a
far-distant frontier
(1) earliest whites in the area
followed Lewis and Clark
(2) Most were fur-trappers
(3) Many served as guides and
pathfinders for settlers
crossing the mountains into
California and Oregon
White Settlers on the Western
Frontier
• Most white settlers worked hard and lived in log cabins
or other improvised shelters
• More of them died at an early age from disease and
malnutrition than from Indian raids
• Women often lived many miles from the nearest
neighbors (women performed the daily tasks of doctor,
teacher, seamstress, and cook)
• As settlers moved into an area, within two generations,
they exhausted the soil with poor farming methods
• At the same time, trappers and hunters decimated the
beaver and the buffalo to the brink of extinction
Key Names, Events, and Terms
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sectionalism
Daniel Webster
Industrial Revolution
Unions
Urbanization; urban life
Cyprus McCormick; John Deere
New cities
Irish; potato famine
Germans
Old Northwest
Immigration
nativists
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
American party
King Cotton
“peculiar institution”
Denmark Vesey; Nat Turner
Slave codes
Free African Americans
Planter; poor whites; mountain
men
The West
The frontier
Native American removal
Great Plains
White settlers
Environmental changes
Question
Which of the following activities was most
commonly practiced by African Americans as
a means of resisting slavery in the early 1800s?
(a) sit-down strike
(b) legal action
(c) political action
(d)armed revolt
(e) work slowdown
Answer
E: work slowdown
The Union in Peril
SectionalismNorth vs. South
• Historians have identified at least four main
causes of the conflict between the North and
the South:
(1) slavery, as a growing moral issue in the
North, versus its defense and expansion in the
South
(2) constitutional disputes over the nature of the
federal Union and states’ rights
(3) economic differences between the
industrializing North and the agricultural
South (issues about tariffs, banking, and
internal improvements)
(4) political blunders and extremism on both
sides
Conflict Over Status of Territories
Congressman David Wilmot first
introduced the Proviso in the
United States House of
Representatives on August 8, 1846
as a rider on a $2,000,000
appropriations bill intended for the
final negotiations to resolve the
Mexican–American War. It passed
the House but failed in the Senate,
where the South had greater
representation.
• The issue of slavery in the territories
gained in the Mexican War became
the focus of sectional differences in
the late 1840s and 1850s
• The Wilmot Proviso, which
excluded slavery from the new
territories, would have upset the
balance of 15 free and 15 slave states
• On the issue of how to deal with
these new western territories, there
were essentially three conflicting
positions
An animation showing the free/slave status of U.S.
states and territories, 1789–1861, including the
proposed Wilmot Proviso.
Three Conflicting Positions
In the 1844 Democratic
convention Lewis Cass
stood as a candidate for the
presidential nomination,
losing on the 9th ballot to
dark horse candidate James
K. Polk, who went on to
win the presidential
election.
(1) Free-Soil movement: adopted the slogan
“free soil, free labor, and free men”
(wanted no extension of slavery, internal
improvements and advocated for free
homesteads)
(2) Southern Position: most southern whites
viewed any attempt to restrict the expansion
of slavery as a violation of the Constitution.
More moderate southerners favored
extending the Missouri Compromise line of
36 30’ westward to the Pacific
(3) Popular sovereignty: Lewis Cass, a
Democratic senator (MI) suggested that the
matter be put to the vote of the people who
settled the territory
Election of
1848
Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore
• The leaders of both major parties
(Democrats and Whigs) were terrified
that the slavery-expansion issue might
completely divide their ranks.
• Democrats nominated Lewis Cass (an
anti-Wilmot Democrat and a
“doughface” which was a pro-Southern
Northerner)
• Whigs nominated Zachary Taylor, a
military hero of the Mexican War
• Free-Soil Party nominated Martin Van
Buren
• Taylor won election, partly because the
Free-Soil Party candidate got nearly
300,000 votes (those votes in New York
and Pennsylvania made a huge
difference)
Possible Solutions to the SlaveryExpansion Issue
(1) Extension of the Missouri Compromise line
(2) Popular sovereignty
(3) Adoption of the Wilmot Proviso
(4) Protection of slavery in all the territories
• The gold rush of 1849 and the influx of about 100,000 settlers
into California created a need for law and order in the west
• Californians drafted a constitution that banned slavery and
President Taylor supported California and New Mexico’s
entrance into the Union as free states
• Taylor’s plan sparked talk of secession among the “fire-eaters”
in the South
Clay
Clay’s Compromise
Webster
Calhoun
• In the ensuing Senate debate over the
compromise proposal, three congressional giants
of their age-Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and
John C. Calhoun- delivered the last great
speeches of their lives
• Webster argued for compromise in order to save
the Union (he alienated the Massachusetts
abolitionists)
• Calhoun argued against compromise and insisted
that the South be given equal rights in the
acquired territory
• Northern opposition came from young antislavery
lawmakers, such as Senator William H. Seward
(NY), who argued that there was a higher law
than the Constitution
Clay’s Compromise continued…
Official White House
portrait of Millard
Fillmore
• The opponents managed to prevail
until the sudden death of President
Taylor (he opposed the Clay’s plan)
• Vice President Millard Fillmore
supported the compromise and readily
signed a series of bills into law
(Stephen A. Douglas helped engineer
different coalitions to pass each part of
the compromise separately)
• The Passage of the Compromise of
1850 bought time for the nation
Henry Clay takes the floor of the Old Senate Chamber;
Vice President Millard Fillmore presides as he,
Calhoun, and Webster look on.
The 1850 Compromise
1. California admitted as a free state
2. Two territories, Utah and New Mexico, organized from
the balance of land from Mexico; principle of popular
sovereignty to be applied there
3. Texas to yield to New Mexico on the boundary issue in
return for federal assumption of the $10 million Republic
of Texas debt
4. A new fugitive slave law enacted; enforcement would be
rigorous
5. Slavery retained, but slave trade abolished, in the District
of Columbia
6. Congress passed a resolution denying its jurisdiction over
the interstate slave trade
Fundamental Causes of the Sectional
Conflict
1. Grievances of the South:
* protective tariffs
* subsidies for internal improvements
* immigration
* economic dependence on the North
* homestead law (“free soil”)
2. Antislavery agitation:
* abolitionist societies
* personal liberty laws
3. New political leadership less willing to compromise
4. Failure to settle the issue of slavery in the territories
Agitation Over Slavery
Massachusetts had abolished
slavery in 1783, but the
Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
required government officials
to assist slavecatchers in
capturing fugitives within the
state.
• For a brief period-the four years
between the Compromise of 1850
and the passage of the KansasNebraska Act in 1854-sectional
tensions abated slightly
• However, the enforcement of the
Fugitive Slave Act and the
publication of a best-selling
antislavery novel kept the slavery
question in the forefront of public
attention
Fugitive Slave Law
• It was the passage of a strict Fugitive Slave Law that
persuaded many southerners to accept the loss of California to
the abolitionists
• Yet the enforcement of the new law in the North was bitterly
resisted by antislavery northerners
• The law placed fugitive slave cases under the jurisdiction of
the federal government
• Any captured person who claimed to be a free black and not a
runaway slave was denied the right of trial by jury
• Citizens who attempted to hide a runaway or obstruct
enforcement of the law were subject to heavy penalties
Underground Railroad
• The Underground Railroad, the
fabled network of “conductors” and
“stations” to help escaped slaves
reach freedom in the North, was
neither well organized nor dominated
by white abolitionists
• Both northern free blacks and
courageous ex-slaves led blacks to
freedom
• The escaped slave Harriet Tubman
made at least 19 trips into the South
to help some 300 slaves escape
Harriet Tubman circa 1885
Literature on Slavery-Pro and Con
When Abraham Lincoln
met author Harriet
Beecher Stowe, he said:
“so this is the little lady
who made this big war.”
• Popular books as well as unpopular laws
stirred the emotions of the people of all
regions
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the most influential
book of its day about the conflict between a
slave named Tom and the brutal white slave
owner Simon Legree
• The publication of this book by Harriet
Beecher Stowe moved a generation of
northerners to regard all slave owners as
monstrously cruel and inhuman
• Southerners condemned the “untruths” in the
novel and looked upon it as proof of the
North’s incurable prejudice against the South
Literature on Slavery-Pro and
Con continued…
Hinton R.
Helper
• Hinton R. Helper’s book of nonfiction, Impending
Crisis of the South, attacked slavery from another angle
• The author used statistics to demonstrate to fellow
southerners that slavery had a negative impact on the
South’s economy
• Southern states quickly banned the book
• The Southern reaction was typical of the proslavery
argument and the slaveowner’s lament
• George Fitzhugh questioned the principle of equal
rights for “unequal men” and attacked the capitalist
wage system as the worse form of slavery
• Among his works were Sociology for the South(1854)
and Cannibals All! (1857)
National Parties in Crisis
• Occurring simultaneously in the mid-1850s
were two tendencies that caused further
political instability:
(1)The weakening of the two major parties-the
Democrats and Whigs
(2) A disastrous application of popular
sovereignty in the western territory of Kansas
The Election of 1852
Pierce/King campaign
poster
• Signs of trouble for the Whig party were
apparent
• The Whigs nominated another military war
hero General Winfield Scott (platform centered
on plans for improving roads and harbors)
• Sectional issues could not be held in check by
Scott and the party fell to quarreling over the
slavery issue
• The Democrats nominated a safe compromise
candidate Franklin Pierce (NH)
• Pierce supported the Fugitive Slave Law
• Pierce and the Democrats won all but four
states in a sweep that proved the days of the
Whigs were numbered
The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
• With the Democrats firmly in control of national policy, a new
law was passed by the efforts of Senator Stephen A. Douglas
• In order to gain approval from the South to build a planned
railroad, he introduced a bill on an entirely different matter
• This bill proposed dividing the Nebraska Territory into the
Kansas and Nebraska territories (popular sovereignty would
decide whether or not to allow slavery)
• Since these territories were located north of the 36* 30’ line,
Douglas’ bill gave southerners an opportunity to extend slavery
• Passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act renewed sectional
controversy and in effect repealed the Compromise of 1820
• Northern Democrats condemned the law as a surrender to the
“slave power”
New Parties
Citizen Know Nothing
The Know Nothing Party's
nativist ideal
• In hindsight, it is clear that the breakup of
truly national political parties in the mid1850s paralleled the breakup of the
Union
Know-Nothing party(American party):
a party founded on ethnic tension in the
North between native-born Protestant
Americans and immigrants (Germans and
Irish)
(1) Drew support away from Whigs
(2) Focused on anti-Catholic and antiimmigrant issues
Birth of the Republican Party
• The Republican party was founded in Wisconsin in 1854 as a
direct reaction to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (KN Act)
(1) Coalition of Free-Soilers and antislavery Whigs and
Democrats
(2) First platform called for the repeal of both the K-N Act and
Fugitive Slave Law
(3) Its original members were chiefly northern and western
moderates (united in the non-extension of slavery)
(4) From 1854 to 1860, the party grew rapidly (2nd largest in the
North)
The Election of 1856
Buchanan/Breckinridge
campaign poster
• The Republicans’ first major test of
strength came in the presidential election
of 1856
-Republican John C. Fremont
-Know-Nothing former president
Millard Fillmore
-Democrat James Buchanan
• As expected, Buchanan won but the
Republicans carried 11 of the 16 free
states
• It was becoming evident that the
antislavery Republicans could win the
White House without a single vote from
the South
Extremists and Violence
• The conflicts between antislavery and proslavery forces were not confined to
politics and public debate.
• By the mid-1850s, both sides resorted to violence
-”Bleeding Kansas” resulted when proslavery settlers from Missouri set up homesteads
in Kansas and clashed with antislavery farmers from the Midwest
Characteristics:
(1) Northern abolitionists and Free Soilers set up New England Emigrant Aid
Company(helped move antislavery settlers to Kansas)
(2) Proslavery Missourians(called “border ruffians”) crossed the border to create a
proslavery legislature in Lecompton, Kansas (Lecompton Constitution)
(3) Antislavery settlers refused to recognize this government and created their own
legislature in Topeka
(4) In 1856, proslavery forces attacked the free-soil town of Lawrence (killed 2)
(5) Two days later, John Brown and his sons killed 5 proslavery settlers at
Pottawatomie Creek
(6) As “bleeding Kansas” became bloodier, the Democratic party became more divided
Extremists and Violence
continued…
-Caning of Senator Sumner occurred in
Lithograph of Preston Brooks'
1856 attack on Sumner; the artist
depicts the faceless assailant
bludgeoning the learned martyr
the halls of Congress when Senator
Charles Sumner gave a speech “The
Crime Against Kansas”
Characteristics:
(1) Sumner’s intemperate remarks
included personal charges against SC
Senator Andrew Butler
(2) Butler’s nephew, Congressman
Preston Brooks defended his uncle’s
honor
(3) Brooks beat Sumner with a cane
Constitutional Issues
Stephen A. Douglas broke
with the Democratic party
leadership over the
Lecompton Constitution.
• Both the Democrats’ position of popular
sovereignty and the Republicans’ stand
against the expansion of slavery received
serious blows during the Buchanan
administration(1857-1861)
-Lecompton Constitution was submitted to
and accepted by president Buchanan
• Buchanan asked Congress to accept the
document (admit Kansas as a slave state),
however it was defeated
• Democrats like Stephen Douglas and
Republicans united in rejecting the
Lecompton Constitution
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott was born a slave in
Virginia between 1795 and
1800. In 1820, he was taken by
his owner, Peter Blow, to
Missouri.
• Congressional folly and presidential ineptitude
contributed to the sectional crisis of the 1850s
• Then the Supreme Court, far from calming the
situation, infuriated the North with its
controversial proslavery decision in the Dred
Scott Case
Characteristics:
(1) Dred Scott (a slave) escaped to Wisconsin
and was later brought back be Missouri
(2) Scott went to a Missouri court to argue for his
freedom (he lived on free soil for 2 years)
(3) The case was appealed to the Supreme Court
(1857)
(4) Presiding over the Court was Chief Justice
Roger Taney (southern Democrat)
(5) The majority of the Court decided…
Chief Justice Roger Taney and the
Dred Scott Decision
Taney's attitudes toward slavery appeared to
harden in support. By the time he wrote his
opinion in Dred Scott, he labeled the
opposition to slavery as "northern
aggression," a popular phrase among
Southerners. He hoped that a Supreme Court
decision declaring federal restrictions on
slavery in the territories unconstitutional
would put the issue beyond the realm of
political debate. His decision galvanized
Northern opposition to slavery while splitting
the Democratic Party on sectional lines.
-Dred Scott had no right to sue in court (Framers
of the Constitution did not intend people of
African descent to be U.S. citizens
-Congress did not have the power to deprive any
person of property (Congress could not
exclude slavery from any federal territory
-Because Congress’ law of 1820 (Missouri
Compromise) excluded slavery from
Wisconsin, that law was unconstitutional
• Southern Democrats were delighted with the
Court’s ruling while Northerners and
Republicans were horrified
• The decision increased northerners’
suspicions of a slave power conspiracy and
induced thousands of former Democrats to
vote Republican
Lincoln-Douglass Debates
Lincoln in New York City the day
of his famous Cooper Union speech
• In 1858 the focus on the nation was
on Stephen Douglas’ campaign for
reelection as senator from Illinois
• Challenging him for the Senate
was a successful trial lawyer and
former member of the Illinois
legislature, Abraham Lincoln
• Accepting the Illinois Republicans’
nomination, Lincoln delivered the
“house-divided speech” widely
publicized (“This government
cannot endure permanently half
slave and half free”)
Lincoln-Douglass Debates
continued…
• Southerners widely saw Lincoln as a
radical even though he was clearly a
moderate who opposed the expansion of
slavery
• In seven debates throughout Illinois,
Lincoln attacked Douglas’ indifference
concerning slavery
• In a debate in Freeport, Illinois Lincoln
questioned how Douglas could reconcile
popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott
Decision
Stephen Douglas
Lincoln-Douglass Debates
continued…
US Postage, 1958 issue,
commemorating the Lincoln
and Douglas debates.
• In what became known as the Freeport
Doctrine, Douglas responded that slavery
could not exist in a community if the local
citizens did not pass and enforce laws
(slave codes) for maintaining it
• For southerners, this was not enough and
did not go far enough in supporting the
implications of the Dred Scott case
• Lincoln lost his campaign, however he
emerged from the debates as a national
figure and leading contender for the
Republican nomination for president in
1860
Milestones on the Road to Disunion
1. Kansas-Nebraska Act
2. “Bleeding Kansas”
3. Election of 1856
Democratic nominee: James Buchanan
Republican nominee: John C. Fremont
Know-Nothing nominee: Millard Fillmore
4. The Lecompton Constitution and the Democratic Split
5. Dred Scott decision
6. Lincoln Douglas Debates
6. John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry
7. Election of 1860
Key Names, Events, and Terms
• Free-soil movement; Free Soil
party
• Conscience Whigs
• “barnburners”
• Popular sovereignty
• Lewis Cass
• Henry Clay
• Zachary Taylor
• Compromise of 1850
• Stephen A. Douglas
• Millard Fillmore
• Fugitive Slave Law
• Underground Railroad
• Harriet Tubman
• Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle
Tom’s Cabin
• Hinton R. Helper, Impending
Crisis of the South
• George Fitzhugh, Sociology of the
South
• Franklin Pierce
• Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
• Know-Nothing party
• Republican party
• John C. Fremont
• New England Emigrant Aid
Company
• “bleeding Kansas”
• John Brown; Pottawatomie Creek
Key Names, Events, and Terms
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sumner-Brooks incident
Lecompton Constitution
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Roger Taney
Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
House-divided speech
Freeport Doctrine
Question
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 increased sectional
tension because it
(a) enriched northern railroad investors at the expense
of the South
(b) reopened the issue of slavery in a territory north of
36*30’
(c) supported proslavery state constitutions in Kansas
and Nebraska
(d) repealed the Compromise of 1850
(e) persuaded the Whig party to side with the South
Answer
B: reopened the issue of slavery in a territory
north of 36*30’