Chapter 15, Section 1
Significant Events &
Effects of those Events

 PLEASE USE GRAPHIC ORGANIZER
 EVENT #1: MISSOURI COMPROMISE OF 1820
 EFFECTS:
 DIVIDED THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE INTO
EITHER SLAVE OR FREE REGIONS.
 SLAVERY WAS PROHIBITED NORTH OF
LATITUDE 36° 30’, BUT MISSOURI BECAME A
SLAVE STATE.
Significant Events &
Effects con’t.

EVENT #2: THE US ADDS MORE THAN
500,000 SQ. MILES OF LAND AS A RESULT
OF THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR.
THIS LAND IS KNOWN AS THE MEXICAN
CESSION.
EFFECT: A BITTER DEBATE OVER
SLAVERY ERUPTED. SHOULD THIS NEW
LAND BE FREE OR SLAVE?
Significant Events &
Effects, con’t

 EVENT #3: WILMOT PROVISO (1848)
 EFFECT: A DOCUMENT THAT ATTEMPTED TO
BAN SLAVERY IN THE MEXICAN CESSION. IT
STATED: “NEITHER SLAVERY NOR
INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE SHALL EVER EXIST
IN ANY PART OF THE TERRITORY.”
 (THE WILMOT PROVISO NEVER BECAME LAW.
IT PASSED IN THE HOUSE OF REPS, BUT FAILED
IN THE SENATE.)
Significant Events &
Effects, con’t.

 EVENT #4: COMPROMISE OF 1850
 EFFECTS:
 CALIFORNIA ENTERED THE UNION AS A FREE
STATE.
 THE REST OF THE MEXICAN CESSION WAS DIVIDED
INTO 2 TERRITORIES: UTAH & NEW MEXICO
WHERE SLAVERY WOULD BE DECIDED BY POPULAR
SOVEREIGNTY.
 WASHINGTON, DC OUTLAWED THE SLAVE TRADE.
 A NEW FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW WAS ESTABLISHED.
Significant Events &
Effects, con’t.

 EVENT#5: FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT OF 1850
 EFFECTS:
 MADE IT A CRIME TO HELP RUNAWAY
SLAVES.
 SLAVES COULE BE ARRESTED IN FREE
TERRITORIES.
 SLAVEHOLDERS COULD TAKE SUSPECTED
FUGITIVES TO US COMMISSIONERS WHO
DECIDED THEIR FATE.
Significant Events &
Effects, con’t

EVENT #6: ANTISLAVERY
LITERATURE AND SLAVE
NARRATIVES PUBLISHED.
EFFECTS:
PEOPLE WERE EDUCATED ABOUT
THE EVILS OF SLAVERY AND THE
PLIGHT OF SLAVES.
Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe
“I wrote what I did because as a woman, as a mother, I was oppressed
and broken-hearted with the sorrows and injustice I saw, because as a
Christian I felt the dishonor to Christianity - because as a lover of my
country, I trembled at the coming day of wrath.”
Critical Thinking
Evaluate how the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act, and antislavery
literature affected the slavery debate.
Use your SS n/b to write your evaluation.