Ch 14:
Compromise to
Secession 1850-1861
Questions to think
about…
S1: How did the Fugitive
Slave Act lead to the
undoing of the
Compromise of 1850?
S2: Why did the Whig
Party collapse after the
Kansas-Nebraska Act
while the Democratic
Party survives?
S3:How did the
Republican doctrine of
free soil unify
northerners against the
South?
S4: Why did southerners
conclude that the North
was bent on
extinguishing slavery in
the southern states?
1848: After the
war
• 15 slave &mexican
15 free states.
• Options:
o Missouri Compromise: run
line straight to the Pacific.
o Allow new territories to
determine slave status.
• California & Utah ask to
become free states.
• 9 southern states
protested admitting CA &
UT
•
Compromise of
1850
Henry Clay proposed:
1. Admit California free.
2. Divide Mexican land:
•
New Mexico & Utah territory
to decide slave status.
3. Settle TX/NM border
dispute favoring NM.
4. Compensate TX by paying
off its debts.
5. Not allow slavery in D.C.
6. Pass new fugitive slave
laws.
• Congress passed the
compromise.
Fugitive slave
act
• Federal marshals sent
to find runaways.
• Northerners helped
slaves hide and escape
to Canada.
• 9 states passed liberty
laws against act.
• Southerners angered
over North refuse to
follow act.
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin—Harriet
Beecher Stowe
• 1853—sold 1.2 million
copies.
Kansas-Nebraska
Act
• Whigs & Democrats
• Needed Southern
divided on slavery issue.
support.
• Whig, Stephen K.
• Rejected Clay’s Missouri
Douglas proposed the
Compromise.
Kansas-Nebraska Bill
• Allowed states to
• Wanted to settle the
decide slave status.
region to link the
• Gave the South Kansas
Transcontinental
(near the slave state of
Railroad.
Missouri).
Political unrest
A. Southern Whigs joined Democrats in voting for
K-N Act
B. Northern Whigs & Free Soilers turned into the
American, or Know-Nothings (Republicans)
C. Whigs fall apart!
D. Know-Nothings:
1. Disliked Catholics, immigrants, and slaveryextention.
2. Western slavery equaled limited free labor.
3. Later pulled apart by issue of slavery.
E. Republicans:
1. Supported Missouri Compromise & free-soil ideas.
Rush to Kansas!
• Pro & Anti-slavery citizens moved to Kansas to
decide the state’s fate for slavery.
• Thousands from Missouri illegally entered the
state to vote pro-slavery.
• Kansas government in Lecompton was corrupt
and tried to shut out the free-soilers.
• Free-soilers create a new government in Topeka.
• Civil War broke out! Pierce supported Lecompton
and Northern Democrats & Republicans
supported Topeka.
Dred Scott Case
A. Dred Scott v. Sandford—Scott’s master took
him from Missouri (slave state) to Illinois (free
state).
1. After master died, sued for freedom because he
now lived in a free state.
B. Ruling: slaves free or slave were not citizens,
Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, the
Fifth Amendment was violated because
property owners have protection of property.
C. Republicans rejected this decision!
Harper’s ferry &
John
A. 1859 John
Brown led a brown
group of 21 men from
MD to VA
B. Wanted weapons @
U.S. Arsenal at Harpers
Ferry.
C. Goal: destroy slavery in
S.
D. Tried and convicted of
treason against VA. "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the
crimes of this guilty land will never be
purged away but with blood."
Election of 1860
A. Democrats
1. N: against slavery—
Stephen Douglas
2. S: for slavery—John C.
Breckenridge
B. Republicans: Lincoln
1. Slavery stay in the S
and against admitting
slave states.
2. South threatens to
secede if Lincoln
president.
C. Constitutional Union
Party: John Bell
1. Keep the Union
together.
D. 1860—SC, AL, MISS, FL,
GA, LA, and TX secede
from the Union when
Lincoln is elected.
E. Lincoln rejects
Crittenden
Compromise—
supports slavery south
of the MS Compromise
Line.
Federal Fort in
Confederate
Territory
• Fort Sumter overtaken by Confederates in 1861.
• The first conflict of the Civil War.