Unit 7: Antebellum Period Part II
SS8H6a: Explain the importance of key issues and events that led to
the Civil War; include slavery, states’ rights, nullification, Missouri
Compromise, Compromise of 1850, the Georgia Platform, KansasNebraska Act, Dred Scott case, election of 1860, the debate over
secession in Georgia, and the role of Alexander Stephens.
Name: _______________
Topic
Missouri
Compromise of
1820 (p. 235)
Missouri
Compromise of
1850 (p. 239)
The Georgia
Platform (p. 240)
Kansas-Nebraska
Act (p. 241)
Dred Scott Case
(p. 241)
Issues Leading to the Civil War
Date
What was the Issue?
End Result(s)
Missouri Compromise of 1820
•
•
•
•
1819-USA had 22 states
11 of those states allowed slavery in them= slave states
11 of the remaining states banned slavery= free states
Issue = Missouri applied for statehood as a slave state
in 1819…This would mess up the balance.
• Result = in 1820, Congress adopted the Missouri
Compromise, which allowed Maine to enter the USA as
free state.
• The Missouri Compromise banned slavery north of
36°20’ latitude.
Compromise of 1850
• By 1849, California’s population had drastically
increased (Gold Rush of 1848).
• By 1850, there were 15 slave states and 15
free states in the USA.
• Issue = California wanted to enter in the USA
as a free state.
Compromise of 1850
Benefits for the North (Results)
•California came into the Union
as a free state.
•Slave trading was ended in
Washington, D.C.
•Texas gave up its idea of
annexing New Mexico.
Benefits for the South (Results)
•The territories of New Mexico
and Utah would determine
whether they wanted to be a
slave state or free state.
•The residents of the
Washington, D.C. could keep
the slaves they already owned.
•Congress would pass the
Fugitive Slave Act stating that
slaves who ran away to free
states would be returned to
their owners.
The Georgia Platform
• Issue = Georgians held a convention to discuss
the Compromise of 1850.
• Result = the delegates accepted the
Compromise of 1850 and decided not to
secede (not to leave the USA).
• Many Georgians did not like the Compromise
of 1850; however, Georgia politicians (Howell
Cobb, Alexander Stephens, & Robert Toombs)
encouraged the people of Georgia to accept it.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Issue = In 1854, Kansas and Nebraska wanted to
join the USA.
• Result = Both of these territories could vote on
whether to allow or ban slavery.
• Northerners did not like the Kansas-Nebraska Act
because the Missouri Compromise had already
banned slavery north of 36°20’ latitude, in 1820.
• Arguments and fights broke out over Kansas and
Nebraska between the proslavery and free
soilers groups.
Political Cartoons
Political Cartoons
Dred Scott Case
• In 1834, Dred Scott, a slave was taken by his
owner from the slave state of Missouri to the free
state of Illinois.
• Then they went to live in the free state of
Wisconsin.
• Issue = When Dred Scott’s owner and him moved
back to Missouri (slave state), Dred filed a lawsuit
against his owner.
• Result = In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
that Dred Scott did not have the right to sue his
master, because he was a slave.
Election of 1860 Political Cartoom
Election of 1860 Political Cartoon
Reference
Blankenship, G. and Wood, V. (2009). Georgia:
CRCT Test Prep, 8th Grade Georgia Studies.
Atlanta, GA: Clairmont Press, Inc.