Sectionalism
Two Nations?
The Case Against Slavery
Largest difference between the North
and the South was the issue of
slavery
 1850’s – many white northerners
dislike institution of slavery

– Went against the principles of the U.S.
– Went against the Protestant Christian
faiths
Most whites in America were still
prejudice, whether they supported
slavery or not
 Personal Liberty Laws

Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

By Harriet Beecher Stowe
– Daughter of Lyman Beecher
– Sold millions of copies worldwide

Story
– Eliza Harris
– Uncle Tom (protagonists)
– Simon Legree (antagonist)

Reaction to the fictional novel
– Northerners take as an accurate
portrayal, fear slavery will ruin
America
Images from Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Southern Views on Slavery

Southerners felt Uncle Tom’s Cabin
was exaggerated and untrue
– Plantations were like happy families

Reaction against Uncle Tom’s Cabin
– Claimed planters cared for their labor unlike
northern factory owners who did not care
for their labor
– The Impeding Crisis of the South by Hinton
R. Helper
 Anti-slavery/Anti-black
 Argued slavery was bad for poor whites
 Banned in South, used as Republican
propaganda
– Cannibals All! by George Fitzhugh
 Claimed southerners were true
representatives of the Revolution
Differences Between North and
South

North
– Urbanization
 In 1860, 9 of the 10 largest
cities
 More diverse (Irish and
Germans)
– Railroads
 By 1860, 70%
– Telegraph
 Along railroad lines
– Factories
 110,000 by 1860
 Producing $1.6 billion a
year

South
– Rural
– Railroads
 Only 9,000 miles in
1860
– Had more slaves
and more cotton
Politics of Slavery
Election of 1844
Democrats
(170)
Whigs
(105)
Liberty
(0)
Candidates
James K.
Polk
Henry
Clay
James
Birney
Issues
(slavery)
Compromise:
Add Texas and
Oregon
Take no
public
position
Against
the spread
of slavery
Polk’s Goals
Expand American
Territory: Add
California
 Restore the
Independent Treasury
 Lower the Tariff
 Add Oregon: “Fiftyfour, Forty or Fight!”

Effects of the Missouri Compromise

Did not settle whether slavery would be legal in the
territories
– Tried to keep a balance of free and slave states

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
– Most of lands gained from Mexico south of 36 30 N line
– Northerners fear more slave states
– Southerners feel free citizens could take their property
wherever they want

Free Soil Party – members from both Whigs and
Democrats shift to oppose slavery in the territories
– Help get Zachary Taylor (Whig) elected in 1848
Election of 1848
Democrats
Whigs
Free Soil
(127)
(163)
(0)
Candidates
Lewis Cass
Zachary
Taylor
Martin Van
Buren
Issues
(slavery)
Popular
sovereignty
Silent on the
issue
Oppose the
expansion of
slavery
Missouri Compromise Map
Compromise of 1850 Map
The Compromise of 1850

California asks to be admitted as a free
state in 1849
– Free or slave?

Henry Clay (Kentucky) proposes the
Compromise of 1850
– California admitted to the Union as a free
state (N)
– Texas gives territory to New Mexico (N) and
gets $10 million from the fed. government
(S)
– Popular sovereignty in New Mexico and Utah
Territories (C)
– Abolition of the domestic slave trade in D.C.
(N), but slavery still allowed (S)
– Fugitive Slave Law instated (S)
Opposition to the Compromise

John C. Calhoun (S.C.)
– Gives speech (through James Mason)
on March 4, 1850
– State’s rights – right for states to
nullify acts or withdrawal from the
union
– Felt it was the government’s job to
protect people’s rights to own property
William Seward (favors abolition)
 Jefferson Davis (why?)
 Zachary Taylor (will it matter?)

In Favor of the Compromise




Henry Clay (well of course
he does)
Stephen Douglas
Millard Fillmore (who?)
Daniel Webster
– Gives a speech to Congress
on March 7, 1850
– Supports the compromise to
protect the Union
– Lost support of abolitionists,
gained support of northern
businesses
Congress Approves the
Compromise





Zachary Taylor would have probably
vetoed, but dies suddenly in July
Millard Fillmore takes over as president
and the compromise passes
In reality, only settled California’s
admission into the Union
Southerners upset about California
Northerners upset about the Fugitive
Slave Act (more “personal liberty laws”)
Fugitive Slave Law
Resoundingly hated in
the North even by
those who do not
favor abolition
 Underground Railroad
activity increases


http://www.nps.gov/boaf
/fugitiveslavelaw4.htm
Election of 1852
Candidates
Issues
(slavery/
Comp. of
1850)
Democrats
(254)
Whigs
(42)
Free Soil
(0)
Franklin Pierce
Winfield
Scott
Joseph Hale
The Comp. of The Comp. of The spread of
1850 is the
1850 is OK
slavery is
final word on
for now
unacceptable
slavery
Events of the Pierce Presidency



1853-Gadsden Purchase (we
kind of forgot that part when
we were grabbing half of
Mexico)
1853-Ostend Manifesto
(Southerners trying to secretly
buy Cuba?)
1854-Kansas-Nebraska Act
(Darn you Stephen Douglas,
see the next slide)
The Kansas-Nebraska Act


Gadsden Purchase and
transcontinental railroad push issue
Stephen Douglas (Dem. – Illinois)
– Wanted to connect Chicago with the
west
– Wanted to run for President, needed
Southern Democrat support

Introduces the Kansas-Nebraska
Act in January 1854
– Split Nebraska into Kansas & Nebraska
– Popular-sovereignty – letting people in
a territory decide if slavery would be
allowed
– Would require repealing the Missouri
Compromise
– Passes after nine months
The Creation of the
Republican Party
Party develops against slavery
 Demanded the repeal of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act and the
Fugitive Slave Act
 Gained support from anti-slavery
Democrats, Whigs, and Free
Soilers
 Direct ancestor of the modern
Republican Party

Election of 1856
Democrats
(174)
Republicans
(114)
Native
Americans
(the “KnowNothings”)
(8)
Candidates
James
Buchanan
John C.
Fremont
Millard
Fillmore
Issues
Popular
Sovereignty
Oppose
extension of
slavery
Oppose
sectionalism
Oppose
immigrants
Election of 1856 Results
Buchanan’s Presidency
Tariff of 1857 (rates
lowered to 20%)
 Panic of 1857

– Inflation from gold rush
– Grain surplus (end of
Crimean War)
– Overspeculation in land
and RR’s
– North hurt, but price of
cotton remains high, so
South relatively
unharmed
The System Fails
Violence Begins

“Bleeding Kansas”
– Free soilers – rush into Kansas
to make it a free state
 Antislavery capital of Topeka
– Proslavery citizens of Missouri
come to Kansas
 Proslavery capital of Lecompton
– “Sack of Lawrence”
– “Pottawatomie Massacre”
 John Brown

“Bleeding Sumner”
– Senator Charles Sumner
(Mass.)
 “The Crime Against Kansas”
– Preston Brooks (S.C.)
Slavery and National Politics

Election of 1856
– James Buchanan (Democrat) defeats John
C. Fremont (Republican) and Millard
Fillmore (Whig/Know-Nothing)
 South may have seceded if Fremont had
won (“fire-eaters”)

The Dred Scott Decision
– Scott v. Sandford – March 1857
– Chief Justice Roger B. Taney rules against
Scott
 Slaves were not citizens, could not sue
 Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional
because of 5th Amendment

The Lecompton Constitution
– Proslavery citizens of Kansas try to admit it
as a slave state
– Buchanan supports
– Congress refuses to pass
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Stephen Douglas vs. Abraham
Lincoln for Senator of Illinois
 Debates between Stephen
Douglas and Abraham Lincoln
over the issue of slavery in the
territories

– Douglas supports popularsovereignty
– Both have similar views of African
Americans
Lincoln’s “House Divided
Speech”
 Freeport Doctrine – splits
democratic party
 Douglas wins senate election in
1858, but Lincoln becomes
known more nationally

John Brown’s Raid
October 16, 1859, raid on the
federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry,
Virginia
 Wanted to take weapons and give
them to slaves
 Colonel Robert E. Lee helps
capture
 Brown hanged

– Northerners call him a martyr
– Southern say he is a tool of the
Republicans
A Nation Divided Against
Itself
Election of 1860

Democrats split nomination
– Southern Democrats – John C. Breckinridge
– Northern Democrats – Stephen Douglas


Constitutional Party chooses John Bell of
Tennessee
Republican Party chooses Abraham Lincoln
– William Henry Seward was original choice, but
was considered too radical involving abolitionism
– Know the platform!
The Election

In the South
– Race was between Bell and Breckinridge
– Lincoln’s name not on most southern
ballots

In the North
– Race was between Douglas and Lincoln

Lincoln wins the election with 180
electoral votes, but with only 39% of the
popular vote
Election of 1860
Northern
Democrats
(12)
Southern
Democrats
(72)
Republicans
(180)
Const.
Union
(39)
Candidates
Stephen
Douglas
John C.
Breckinridge
Abraham
Lincoln
John
Bell
Issues
(slavery)
Popular
Sovereignty
Support Dred
Scott decision
and defend
slavery
No extension of
slavery and
support Whig
economic policies
Preserve
the Union
Election Results: South Threatened
to Secede if Lincoln Won
Election of 1860 Map
The Lower South Secedes
South angry that Lincoln
wins without an electoral
vote from the South
 Secessionists – people
that supported southern
states seceding from the
Union
 South Carolina secedes
on December 20, 1860
 Georgia, Alabama,
Florida, Mississippi,
Louisiana, and Texas
soon follow

The Confederate States of America
Delegates meet in February 1861 in
Montgomery, Alabama to create a new
government
 Montgomery the original capital and
Jefferson Davis the President
 Buchanan does nothing about succession
 Lincoln refused to honor the Confederacy

– Crittenden amendments
The Civil War Begins

Fort Sumter
– Federal fort in the harbor of
Charleston, South Carolina
– Fort was running out of supplies
– Should Lincoln re-supply the
fort or let it fall to the
Confederacy
 Send supplies, not troops

April 12, 1861
– General Beauregard told to
demand surrender
– Major Anderson refuses and
Beauregard attacks
– Anderson forced to surrender

War Declared between the two
nations
– Virginia, North Carolina,
Tennessee, and Arkansas join
Confederacy