• Missouri admitted as a slave state
• Maine (Mass.) admitted as a free state
• Number of slave and free states kept equal
(12 each)
• Louisiana Purchase territory divided at
36°30’ line of latitude
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Radical, outspoken white abolitionist
1831 – Began printing The Liberator, an antislavery
newspaper in Boston – published weekly until 1865
1833 - Founded the American Anti-Slavery Society
1835 – Nearly lynched by a mob in Boston
Georgia legislature offered $5000 reward for
delivering Garrison for trial
Mississippi slaveholders offered $20,000
1854 - Burned a copy of the Fugitive Slave Law, and
the Constitution, calling it “a Covenant with Death, an
Agreement with Hell”
The Liberator
Abolitionist Paper – published weekly from
1831 to 1865
William Lloyd Garrison, publisher
Boston, Massachusetts
• August 1831 – Southampton, Virginia
• Nat Turner led about 60 slaves from local
plantations to attack white families in the area
• 57 whites, many women and children, killed
• October 1831 – Turner found hiding in a cave
• From jail, Turner dictated his “Confessions”
explaining how God had given him a vision to
lead others in rebellion.
• Turner was executed for the murders
• The Virginia State Assembly debated the issue of
slavery throughout the 1831 – 32 session.
• As no plan for abolition could be agreed on, Virginia
began to support the idea of colonization of blacks
elsewhere.
• This became a way to get rid of free blacks rather
than eliminate slavery, as free blacks were seen as a
bad influence on slaves.
• Afraid of more slave violence, Virginia enacted laws
severely limiting both free and enslaved Africans –
They could not be taught to read, could not
assemble, could not be preachers.
• Southerners began to defend slavery as a “positive
good” rather than a necessary evil.
1818 - 1895
1818 - Born a slave in Maryland
1838 – Escaped to Massachusetts
1841 – He heard William Lloyd Garrison
speak at an Anti-Slavery Society meeting in
Bristol.
A few days later, he gave his first speech at
the annual Society convention in Nantucket.
The Anti-Slavery Society asked him to
become a lecturer for them.
Garrison became his friend and mentor
1845 – Wrote autobiography - Narrative of
the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American
Slave, Written By Himself
 Lectured in Britain for 3 years
1848 - Began to publish abolitionist weekly
newspaper, The North Star, in Rochester,
New York
1855 – Split with Garrison after he burned the
Constitution
Harriet Tubman
“Black Moses”
1820 - 1913
•
•
•
•
1820 – Born into slavery in Maryland
1849 – Escaped to Philadelphia
Immediately returned to help her family escape
After 1850 - Became a major “conductor” on the
Underground Railroad helping more than 70
slaves escape from eastern Maryland to Canada
• 1858 – Helped John Brown in his efforts to recruit
escaped slaves in Canada to join his rebellion
• March of 1848 – Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo ratified by Congress
• Defined the new border of Mexico and the
U.S. (partly along the Rio Grande)
• This resulted in Mexico ceding 525,000
square miles of land in present-day New
Mexico, Arizona, Utah, California, and
Nevada.
Territory gained in the Mexican Cession
525,000
acres
• 1846 – Before the Mexican-American war was
even over
• Proposed by Congressman David Wilmot,
Democrat from Pennsylvania
• Would prohibit slavery and the settlement of
any free blacks in any territory acquired
from Mexico (Free Soil Movement)
• Appealed to abolitionists . . .
And white laborers . . .
and racists.
• The Wilmot Proviso is supported by both
Democrats and Whigs in the North.
• It is opposed by both Democrats and Whigs
in the South.
• The second-party system (Whigs/Democrats)
begins to split along sectional lines based on
the issue of slavery.
• The Proviso is defeated and the issue is not
resolved before the 1848 election.
• Democrats – Senator Lewis Cass
– proposed “squatter sovereignty”
– allow the people of the new territories to vote on
issue of slavery
• Whigs – General Zachary Taylor
– slave holding Southerner
– refused to take a stand on slavery, but promised to
support whatever Congress decided on the issue.
• Taylor wins.
President Zachary Taylor – Hero of the MexicanAmerican War
• 1848 – Gold is discovered in California. (at
almost exactly the same time that the treaty
is being ratified)
• 1849 - Population booms from 15,000 to over
100,000. (“49ers”)
• 1850 - California applies for statehood.
• The issue of slavery in the state must be
decided.
• Time for another compromise . . .
Gold seekers traveled west on the Oregon Trail
then south along the California Trail a 2000 mile trek
Donner Pass
 Proposed by Henry Clay.
 A series of bills, meant to satisfy both
northern and southern lawmakers
 Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois was a
key negotiator in getting the separate
pieces of legislation passed:
 California entered the Union as a free state
 Squatters’ sovereignty (popular sovereignty) in
New Mexico and Utah - Territorial legislatures
would vote on slavery issue.
 Slave auctions would be abolished in
Washington, D.C.
 Fugitive Slave Act
 Northerners compelled to help return slaves
 Fugitives denied a jury trial
 Fugitives could not testify in own defense
 Led to the kidnapping of and enslavement of legally
free blacks
 Neither the South nor North were entirely
pleased with the plan.
Compromise of 1850
Senator Henry Clay
(Kentucky)
Senator Stephen Douglas
(Illinois)
 1852 - A novel written by Harriet Beecher
Stowe
 Described the misery and horror of slavery
 Stirred up abolition sentiment in the North
 Angered Southerners
 During the Civil War, when Abe Lincoln met
her, he reportedly said, “So this is the little
lady who brought on this big war.”
1854 - Proposed by Senator Stephen A.
Douglas (the “Little Giant”)
He wanted the rapid settlement and
economic growth of the region by bringing
a transcontinental railroad through Kansas
Territories of Kansas and Nebraska created
Slavery would be decided by popular
sovereignty in both territories.
Senator Stephen A. Douglas (1813 – 1861)
Democrat from Illinois
The Outcome
A few southern lawmakers demanded a
repeal of the Missouri Compromise.
Douglas agreed.
Northerners felt betrayed – believed
Douglas had violated a sacred pledge to
limit slavery
 Added to their suspicion of a “Southern
conspiracy” to spread slavery.
Douglas lost support of “independent
Democrats”
66 northern Democrats lost their
Congressional seats in the 1854 elections to
Free Soilers and the new Republican
Party.
Whig Party disintegrates as northerners
and southerners cannot unite over slavery
issue.
Republicans become the party of the
North.
Democrats the party of the South.
 Over 1000 New Englanders were sent to Kansas
to fight against slavery.
 Henry Ward Beecher and others provided them
with money and rifles (Beecher Bibles).
 Many Southerners crossed into Kansas from
Missouri to vote illegally for slavery.
 By 1855 anti-slavery forces had created a
second capital at Lawrence.
 Many died in violent raids between pro and
anti slavery groups.
“Bleeding Kansas”
Dred Scott
 A slave living in Missouri
 Filed suit against his owner
 Claimed he and his wife should be
free because their owner had once
taken them to live in the free
territories of Illinois & Wisconsin
Dred Scott
Dred Scott Decision
• 1857 Supreme Court (Chief Justice
Roger B. Taney) ruled that
• Scott had no right to sue in court
because he was black and therefore not
a citizen.
• Congress did not have the power to ban
slavery in states or territories because
slaves were private property.
Roger B. Taney
Chief Justice
of the
Supreme Court
1836 to 1864
John Brown
 Radical white abolitionist
 May, 1856 He and his sons had killed 5 men
in Pottawatomie , Kansas during the
“Bleeding Kansas” civil unrest
 October, 1859 - Led an attack on the federal
arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.
 Intended to give guns to slaves for an armed
rebellion.
 7 people killed and the rebellion failed.
 Brown was convicted of treason and hanged.
John Brown
Painting, depicting
John Brown on his
way to the gallows
to be hung,
stopping to kiss a
black child
(Did not actually happen)
Election of 1860

Republican Party Platform

Halt the expansion of slavery

High protective tariff
Federal
aid for internal
improvements (transcontinental
railroad)
Free
homesteads for western
settlers
Election of 1860

Democratic Party

Douglas supporters – endorsed
popular sovereignty in
territories

Deep South – wanted a federal
slave code in territories (to
protect slavery)
Party
splits over the issue
Election of 1860

Constitutional Union Party

Made up of former conservative
Whigs and Know-Nothings (the
anti-immigrant party)

Took no stand on slavery

Attempted to be the party of
compromise
Election of 1860
 Republicans – Abraham Lincoln

Southern Democrats – John
Breckinridge

Northern Democrats – Stephen A.
Douglas

Constitutional Unionists – John
Bell
The Outcome

Lincoln Wins

only 40% of popular vote
180

electoral votes (out of 303)
wins 19 states
other
no
13 states split 3 ways
southern states vote for
Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
16th President
Self-educated lawyer
from Kentucky/Illinois
Almost no political
experience
Served one term as
Congressman from
Illinois
Originally a Whig, but
became a Republican
1860 – Elected with no
Feb. 1860
southern electoral
votes