The Coming Crisis
Out of Many Chapter 15
Expansion & Growth
• Per capita income doubled from 18001850(no longer in the “developing”
category)
• Territory had tripled since 1800
• Number of states had almost doubled
between 1800-1850 (16 to 31)
• Rapid urbanization
• Nationalism increased
• Population=5.3 Mil to 23
mil
Manifest Destiny
• Based on the belief of American
superiority of democracy
• Revolutions of 1848 in Europe only
increased American role as a democratic
nation setting the example for others
• Yet, internally we were struggling with our
expression and actions of democracy
Cultural Life & Social Issues
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet
Beecher Stowe
• Frederick Douglass –
Autobiography
• Writers focused on social criticism
– Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson
– Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman
Melville, Henry David Thoreau
• “American Renaissance”
Read Aloud: Narrative of the
Life of Fredrick Douglass, An
American Slave
• As I read, take note and imagine what it
was like to be Fredrick Douglass.
• Pay attention to the tone and emphasis on
his detail of being a slave.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Sold more
Political Parties & Slavery
• Third Parties: reform, nativism, religion
– Liberty Party – anti-slavery
– Free Soil Party: no spread of slavery
• advocating the rights of non-slaveholding whites
• Formed from Whigs and Liberty parties
• Sectional Leaders
– Daniel Webster: New England
– John C. Calhoun: South
– Henry Clay: West
John C Calhoun
Henry Clay
Daniel Webster
States’ Rights & Slavery
• Slaves are property: Constitution protects
property & property owners
• Slavery promotes democracy by making
sure only the qualified had the power to
vote
• Slavery was a blessing to an inferior race
– Paternalistic care for the workers
• Slavery created the national prosperity
Northern Fears of “The Slave
Power”
• Both North and South favor expansion and
“manifest destiny” but have different aims
• Each think the other is infringing on basic
civil rights
• Conspiracy to make the entire country a
slave country
– South demanded equality in the Senate
– South wanted Senate veto power over
presidential candidates
Two Communities, Two
Perspectives
• Both North and South:
– were committed to expansion, but each
viewed manifest destiny in its own terms; and
– shared a commitment to basic rights and
liberties but saw the other as infringing on
them.
Debate & Compromise
• Gold Rush forces the issue when CA
wants to become a free state
• Video Zachary Taylor
• Zachary Taylor dies
• Millard Fillmore – more interested in
compromise
• Video on Milliard Fillmore
Compromise of 1850
• California is admitted as a free state
• Fugitive Slave Law passed (Primary
Source 15-1)
• Outlawed slave trade in D.C.
• Popular sovereignty for all territories
• Redrew border of Texas/New Mexico
The Fugitive Slave Act
• Captured slaves were at the mercy of the slave
catchers – no legal right to defend themselves in
court
• Federal government enforced it
• Many blacks must now go to Canada for
freedom
• Convinced many in the North that slavery was a
moral wrong – fugitives wrote of their
experiences
• Mobs in North tried to hinder
apprehension of suspected
runaways
Escaped slave Anthony Burns
The Election of 1852
• Franklin Pierce –
Democrat & winner
• Winfield Scott – Whig
• John Hale – Free Soil
• Tension at national
conventions reveal
cracks in the major
political parties
• Growing strength of
third parties
“Young America”
The Politics of Expansion
• Advocates free trade, social reform & expansion
– John O’Sullivan “Go West Young Man”
• 1854: Commodore Matthew Perry opened trade
with Japan
• Ostend Manifesto: proposed the U.S. buy or
seize Cuba from Spain for expansion of slavery
• Filibusters – individuals who became involved in
the Caribbean and advocated the U.S.
acquisition of territory there
Stop: Review Learning Targets
• Assign: Pages 505-515
• Learning Targets
Lunch Bunch:
Discuss learning of Chapters 13 and 14.
Discuss DBQ Essay
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Proposed by Stephen Douglas – needed
transcontinental railroad to go through
Illinois
• Effectively repealed the Missouri
Compromise line
• Negated treaties with Native Americans
• Kansas become battleground for sectional
politics
• Gave momentum to the Republican Party
Bleeding Kansas
• Violence between pro-slavery settlers and
anti-slavery settlers
• Competing governments
– Beecher’s Bibles
– New England Emigrant Aid Society
– Missouri pro-slavery migration
The Politics of Nativism
• Backlash against immigration – particularly
the Irish
• The American Party – Know-Nothings
– Limit immigration
– Little impact because of division on slavery
issue
• Anti-Masonic Party
– Single issue
– Never gained wide support
The Republican Party & The
Election of 1856
• Republicans – national stage in this
election
• James Buchanan – Democrat – won but
did not get a majority of the popular vote
• John Freemont – Republican
• Millard Fillmore – American “KnowNothing” Party
• Split the country – North and South
The Dred Scott Decision
• Missouri Compromise is unconstitutional
• Federal government could not interfere with the
movement of property in the territories
• Blacks are not citizens whether free or slave
• North – more fear that the South wants to control
the country
• South – feels vindicated in their
position on slavery
The Lecompton Constitution
• 4 state constitutions drafted before Kansas
was admitted as a state
• Pro-slavery – supported by President
Buchanan
• Turned down by Congress – ripped apart
the Democratic Party
• Sumner – Brooks beating in the Senate
• Paved the way for Lincoln’s election in
1860
The Panic of 1857
• Bank failure in Ohio due to embezzlement
caused British investors to remove money
from U.S. investments
• Falling grain prices
• Collapse of land speculation programs
based on future railroad expansion
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• 1858
• Illinois Senate race – Douglas
wins
• Douglas accused Lincoln of
favoring social equality for
blacks – not true
• Lincoln – House divided
speech - “half-slave, halffree”
• Popular Sovereignty
John Brown Background
• Age 12 – saw a slave beaten, became an
abolitionist
• North Elba, New York – Underground
Railroad
• Kansas – Pottawatomie Massacre – 5
dead – in response to sack of Lawrence
• Married twice: 7 children with first wife, 13
children with second wife – of the 20, only
12 lived to adulthood
John Brown’s Raid
• Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (West Virginia)
• 21 men – five blacks (3 free, 1 freed slave,
1 fugitive slave)
• Attack armory – 100,000 muskets & rifles
stored
• Trapped in armory by townspeople and
local militia
• 9 killed, 7 hanged – two died in Civil War
and three escaped
Impact of John Brown’s Raid
• Martyr to abolitionists
• Julia Ward Howe – John
Brown’s Body
• Symbol of violence to
Southerners
• Hardens the position of
both sides
The Election of 1860
• Lincoln – Republican – one extreme
• Breckenridge – Southern Democrat –
other extreme
• Douglas – Northern Democrat
• John Bell – Constitutional Union – no
position on slavery issue, former Whigs &
Know Nothings
• Stephen Douglas – only candidate with
national appeal
Narrow Victory
The South Leaves the Union
• South Carolina *** No surprise! – December 20,
1860
• Lincoln did not believe they should be permitted
to secede – State Suicide theory
• Buchanan as the lame duck president does
nothing
• By the time Lincoln takes office, 7 states have
seceded
• Jefferson Davis tries to portray this as a
peaceful, legal step
Establishment of the Confederacy
• Southerners divide along up-country, lowcountry lines
• Lincoln believed it was a crisis point for
democracy
– He decided to wait and see what happened before
acting
– Wanted to keep the union together
– If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I
would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the
slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing
some and leaving others alone I would also do that.
Lincoln’s Inauguration
• Death threats made him have to sneak
into Washington, D.C.
• Some Southern states had seized federal
property
• Pledged not to interfere with slavery where
it existed but was firmly against secession
and seizing property