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. 2 Senator Henry Clay presenting the Compromise of 1850 3 (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 5 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. 8 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. 9 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 10 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. 11 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 12 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. 14 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!" 15 (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 10 _______________________________________________________ A complete a complete Failure success Explain your answers