POLITICS OF SLAVERY
NORTH

By the early 19th century,
northern states had either
abolished slavery or put it on
the road to extinction
NORTH VS SOUTH
SOUTH

southern states were
building the largest slave
society in the New World
MASON-DIXON LINE

The colonial surveyor’s
line that came to
represent the divide
between slave and free
SLAVE SOCIETY
The South was not merely a society with slaves.
It had become a slave society. Slavery shaped
the region’s economy, culture, social structure,
and politics.
 Whites south of the Mason-Dixon line believed
that slavery was necessary and just. By making
all blacks outcasts, all whites bound
themselves together

CAN ONE BE ANTI-SLAVERY IN THE SOUTH?

Anti-slavery Southerners were hounded from
speaking out; professors, clerics, or politicians
who even were slightly anti-slavery were driven
from jobs and in some cases the victims of
violence
WHITE MEN IN THE SOUTH
Argued about many things. The things they
agreed on:

Take land from Indians

Promote agriculture

Uphold white supremacy

Maintain masculine privilege

Defend all of the above from enemies
WILMOT PROVISO
 August
1846, Pennsylvania Democrat David Wilmot
proposed that Congress bar slavery in all lands
acquired in the War with Mexico
 Northerners of both parties supported it
 Southerners of both parties were outraged
 Southerners demanded political parity—equal
power in Washington
DAVID WILMOT OF PENNSYLVANIA
THE TERRITORIES?

Should slavery be extended to the territories?
 The
Wilmot Proviso says no
 A compromise of “popular sovereignty” is
proposed—let those who live in the territory decide
CONGRESS DOES NOT ACT
The House of Representatives passed the
Wilmot Proviso (it is dominated by northern
states)
 The Senate rejected the proviso (it is
dominated by slave states)
 It becomes an issue in the election of 1848

POLITICAL PARTIES

All political parties were split between those
advocating slavery and those against it
ELECTION OF 1848
Democrats: Lewis Cass (‘popular
sovereignty’)
 Whigs: Zachary Taylor (Mexican War hero)
 Free Soil Party: Martin Van Buren

FREE SOIL PARTY
Anti-slavery Whigs and anti-slavery Democrats
founded the Free Soil Party, making slavery the
central issue of the campaign
 Neither the Whigs nor Democrats took an
official stand on slavery in the election of 1848

ZACHARY TAYLOR


Taylor supported the Free
Soil approach to the
territories—surprising
given that he was a
Southerner and
slaveholder
He encouraged California
and New Mexico to draw
up constitutions to apply
for statehood promptly
CONGRESSIONAL SESSION OF 1849
 One
of the most contentious and significant
sessions in its history
 Senator Henry Clay proposed a series of resolutions
that sought to balance the interests of the slave
and free states: The Omnibus Bill
 both the anti-slavery people and the “fire-eaters” or
radical secessionist Southerner’s savaged Clay’s
plan and it failed
SENATOR DANIEL WEBSTER


Sanctioned compromise,
stating that the new
territories did not have
the climate appropriate
for slavery, making it a
mute point
Northerners thought he
abandoned their cause
SENATOR STEPHEN DOUGLAS


broke Clay’s compromise
into its various parts and
skillfully ushered each
part through Congress
Combined, the various
bills are known as the
Compromise of 1850
COMPROMISE OF 1850
California entered the Union as a free state
 New Mexico and Utah would be decided by
popular sovereignty
 Texas accepted its boundary with New Mexico
 Slave trade in Washington DC would be
abolished
 Fugitive slave laws would be more stringent

COMPROMISE OF 1850
THE COMPROMISE
It is more a testament to Douglas’s political
skills than to real compromise
 It preserved the Union, but only temporarily

1850
President Zachary Taylor died
 President Millard Fillmore succeeds him
 California is admitted to the Union
 Fugitive Slave Act is passed

FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT




The most explosive
measure of the
Compromise of 1850
Southerners thought the
North betrayed the
Compromise
In the North there were
some “personal liberty
laws” that provided some
fugitives with protection
Brutal enforcement of the
Fugitive Slave Act
radicalized the North
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE
KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT 1854
JOHN BROWN