Aim #34: How did the Compromise of 1850 increase sectional tensions?
Do now!
1. Have out homework “Disunion”
2. Please take all FOUR handouts and have out discussion questions from yesterday
3. Answer question #s 1 and 2 on Calhoun/Webster handout
The Fugitive Slave Law said what???
Sounds like a CAT-astrophe!!!
The Compromise of 1850 revolved around
the issue of allowing California into the
Union as a free state which would upset
the balance between free and slave
states.
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Senator Henry Clay presenting the Compromise of 1850
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(I) Background
a. The debate over whether Congress had the authority to regulate slavery
in the territories resolved itself through a series of enactments known
as the Compromise of 1850
b. Henry Clay (Senator – KY) and Stephen Douglas (Sen-IL) drafted the
Compromise which brought a temporary end to slavery which was causing
a strain in Congress
c. Daniel Webster made his famous “7th of March speech” which called for
the North to support the compromise
***Look at question on notes and answer it now ***
Henry Clay, Senator from
Kentucky, who put together
the Compromise of 1850.
Senator Daniel Webster of
Massachusetts who spoke out in favor
of the compromise. "I wish to speak today, not as a Massachusetts man, nor
as a Northern man, but as an American,
and a member of the Senate of the
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United States.”
Background – continued-
d. Compromise was designed to reconcile the political differences that
divided the antislavery and proslavery factions of Congress and the nation.
e. The measures, sometimes referred to collectively as the Omnibus Bill
dealt chiefly with the question of whether slavery was to be sanctioned or
prohibited in the regions acquired from Mexico.
(II) WHAT DID THE BILL SAY?
a. 2 of the 5 measures represented concessions by the South to the North
including:
1. Authorizing the abolition of the slave trade in Washington D.C. (not
slavery, just the slave trade)
2. Admission of California as a free state
b. The 3rd bill (there were 5), a substantial concession to the South was the
Fugitive Slave Law which provided for the return of runaway slaves to their
masters
c. 4th measure: territory east of California ceded to the US by Mexico was
divided into the territories of New Mexico and Utah and they were open to
settlement by both slave holders and antislavery settlers
d. 5th measure: dealt with Texas as a slave state
Protests and
political
action
against the
Fugitive
Slave Law
Several Northern
states passed
additional “personal
liberty” laws designed
to counter the
Fugitive Slave Law.
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Fugitive slave Anthony Burns,
whose arrest and trial in Boston
under the provisions of the
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850,
incited riots and protests by white
and black abolitionists and
citizens of Boston in the spring of
1854. The reaction to his arrest
showed the depth of feeling
against the law and slavery
itself.
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Burns arrest, trial and
return to slavery in
Virginia was protested by
an estimated 50,000
angry citizens who lined
the streets of Boston as
an army of soldiers
escorted Burns to the
waterfront.
This engraving depicts the
scene of Burns' march.
Men in a window, along
with the angry mob
outside and on top of the
surrounding buildings,
shout out "Kidnappers”.
A Black church raised
$1300 ($27,442 in 2003
dollars) to purchase Burns'
freedom. In less than a
year Anthony Burns was
back in Boston.
The issue of slavery, symbolized by the Fugitive Slave Law, was fatally dividing the
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nation.
The
Compromise
of 1850
made this
disappear.
A group of
chained
slaves
driven past
the nation's
Capitol on
their way to
be sold at a
slave
auction.
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An emotional condemnation of the Fugitive Slave Act. The print shows a group of four
black men--possibly freedmen--ambushed by a posse of six armed whites in a cornfield.
One of the white men fires on them, while two of his companions reload their muskets.
Two of the blacks have evidently been hit; one has fallen to the ground while the
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second staggers, clutching the back of his bleeding head. The two others react with
horror.
A satire on the antagonism between Northern abolitionists on the one hand, and Secretary of State Daniel Webster and other
supporters of enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Here abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison (left) holds a slave woman in one
arm and points a pistol toward a burly slave catcher mounted on the back of Daniel Webster. The slave catcher, wielding a noose and
manacles, is expensively dressed, and may represent the federal marshals or commissioners authorized by the act (and paid) to
apprehend and return fugitive slaves to their owners. Behind Garrison a black man also aims a pistol toward the group on the right,
while another seizes a cowering slaveholder by the hair and is about to whip him saying, "It's my turn now Old Slave Driver." Garrison:
"Don't be alarmed Susanna, you're safe enough." Slave catcher: "Don't back out Webster, if you do we're ruind." Webster, holding
"Constitution": "This, though Constitutional, is "extremely disagreeable." "Man holding volumes "Law & Gospel": "We will give these
fellows a touch of South Carolina."Man with quill and ledger: "I goes in for Law & Order." A fallen slaveholder: "This is all "your" fault
Webster." In the background is a Temple of Liberty flying two flags, one reading "A day, an hour, of virtuous Liberty, is worth an 13
age of
Servitude" and the other, "All men are born free & equal.
Stowe’s newspaper serial was published in book form as Uncle Tom’s Cabin on
March 20, 1852. It was by far the most successful anti-slavery book ever
written. Within two years Uncle Tom’s Cabin had sold 2,000,000 copies
worldwide. Performances of a play based on the novel drew audiences
numbering in the hundreds of thousands. For many Northerners who had no
personal experience with slavery, the novel personalized the evils of
slavery. Most white Southerners denounced the book as an inaccurate and
unfair portrayal of their “peculiar institution.” Northern and Southern authors
wrote at least 25 proslavery and “Anti-Tom” novels between 1852 and the
beginning of the Civil War in 1861. The book had a tremendous impact on how
Northerners viewed slavery.
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According to legend, when Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher
Stowe in 1862 he said:
"So you're the little
woman who wrote the
book that started this
Great War!"
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(III) RESULT OF THE COMPROMISE
a. North got better deal
1. California tipped Senate in favor of the North
2. Popular sovereignty in NM and Utah probably favored the North
(IV) FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW (look at handout and answer question #3)
(V) ABOLITIONIST AND NORTHERN RESPONSE
a. Abolitionists angered by the terms of the law
b. Vigilante committees helped African Americans emigrate to Canada and
vigilante groups used violence to protect accused fugitive slaves
c. Northern states passed a series of personal liberty laws
1. These laws prohibited the imprisonment of runaway slaves AND
guaranteed that the accused would have jury trials
d. Court cases dragged out cases of runaway slaves for years
e. The free black communities of the North provided fugitive slaves with
sanctuary
f. result: some 15,000 free blacks emigrated to Canada, Haiti and the British
Caribbean and Africa after adoption of the law
NOW…LOOK AT VALUE SCALE AND MARK
YOUR ANSWERS
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 WAS
0
5
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_______________________________________________________
A complete
a complete
Failure
success
Explain your answers