The Sectional Crisis (1820-1860)
• Question:
What were the reasons and events that
divided Americans so severely that by
1861, they would take up arms against one
another?
Point #1:
North & South developed quite
differently from the earliest settlements
North
Economy developed
around manufacturing,
shipping, commerce,
small artisans
• “modern” factory system
born in the 1820’s at
Lowell, MA
South
Economy developed
around agriculture
By the 1820’s cotton
became #1 crop
By the early 19th century, the industrial north
had most of the nation’s industry,
transportation network, and population.
With expansion westward, North also grew
majority of nation’s basic food crops.
The South had a narrow economy
dependent upon cotton.
The slavery issue
• Cotton became so dominant a crop, it was called
“King Cotton”
• South needed cheap labor to produce cotton
…slavery since the 1600’s
• Early 1800’s, Southerners apologized for it as a
“necessary evil”
• By the 1830’s, no longer apologized…now
defended it as a “positive good” (JC Calhoun’s
speech)
What about slavery in
the new territories?
1st clash: Missouri
•
Applied for admission in 1819
Missouri Compromise (1820)
1. Maine in as free state…Missouri as slave
2. Rest of Louisiana Territory split into 2
spheres: 1 free & 1 slave….dividing line
was 36o 30’ north latitude
3. Problem of slavery in federal territories
was solved…or was it?
Missouri Compromise (1820)
The Tariff Issue
• What is a tariff ?
1. Duty (tax) placed by gov’t on imported
goods
2. Makes foreign goods more expensive
than American-made
3. Tariff intended to protect American
industry
The Tariff Issue
• Several tariffs passed by Congress to protect
northern industry from British-made goods
• Southerners needed cheap goods from Europe
• The Tariff of 1828 was the real
problem…Southerners called it the “Tariff of
Abominations”
• South Carolina declared the state’s right to
nullify the Tariff…that the Tariff was “null and
void within the state’s boundaries…”
States’ Rights ?
• Argument that dated back to Art. of Confed.
• the real issue: states’ rights v. federal
rights…which holds ultimate authority?
• With Sen. John C. Calhoun leading, So.
Carolina threatened to secede from the Union
• Congress passed the Force Bill…
– Gave Pres. Andrew Jackson authority to use
military, if necessary, to enforce collection of the
tariff on imports
– Congress agreed to phase out the Tariff over
several years & S. Carolina backed down
Next Crisis: Land won from
Mexico….slave or free?
• David Wilmot (PA) offered this on the
floor of the Senate in 1846:
• “slavery…shall never exist in any part of
any territory obtained from Mexico”
• The Wilmot Proviso never became law
but the slavery issue had become a national
debate
New Crisis: California
• Gold discovered in 1848…population
exploded overnight
• By 1850, CA ready for admission to US
• How to settle the slavery issue since part of
CA was north, part south of 360 30’ ?
• Henry Clay (“Great Compromiser”)
offered this:
The Compromise of 1850
1. CA in as a free state
2. Utah and N. Mexico Territory to be
divided into 2 separate territories…
slavery to be decided by “popular
sovereignty”
3. Tough fugitive slave law to be
adopted
Fugitive Slave Law
1. Added to the Compromise to placate
southerners
2. Tougher laws on runaway slaves
3. (many had run away using the safe
houses of the Underground RR to
escape to freedom in the North)
4. Punishment for those who helped
runaways
Abolitionists
•Opposed to slavery…wanted to see it
“abolished” (ended)
•William Lloyd Garrison published
powerful and influential newspaper
The Liberator
that continued the fight to end slavery
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Published in 1852…publicized horrors of
slavery
• Became best-seller in the North and in
Europe
• Served to further “polarize” public opinion
on the slavery debate
•
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
• Stephen A. Douglas (Dem. From Illinois)
intro’d bill in Congress that would divide the
territory west of Missouri into 2 territories:
Nebraska and Kansas
• To get southern support for a northern RR route,
he also proposed popular sovereignty to decide
the slavery issue in the 2 new territories (if
passed, it would repeal the Missouri Comp.)
Kan.-Neb. Act (cont’d)
• Congress passed the Act in 1854…what
would happen?
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
“Bleeding Kansas”
• From both sides of the slavery issue,
people rushed into Kansas to sway the vote
• Kansas became a bloody, violent
battleground b/t pro and anti-slave forces.
Dred Scott Decision (1857)
•
Who was Dred Scott and what was the
case about?
• Supreme Court ruled that:
1. Scott had no right to sue (not a citizen)
2. Missouri Compromise was
unconstitutional…violated right to
property (5th Amendment)
Summary
• As election of 1860 drew near, North and
South were deeply & impossibly divided
• Southerners feared Northern abolitionists
would destroy southern culture and
economy (in short, everything!)
• Slavery had become the “lightning rod”
issue