Confronting the
issue of slavery
8th Grade History
Mrs. Jamieson
How was the
abolitionist
movement set
back during the
mid 1800s?
fugitive slave Act
The Fugi8ve Slave Act of 1850 required all ci8zens to help catch runaway slaves. Anyone who aided a fugi8ve could be fined or imprisoned. People in the South thought the law would force Northerners to recognize their rights as slave owners. Instead, Northerners refused to enforce the law in the North. They taunted “slave catchers” to the point that most of them went back home.
fugitive slave Act
When Franklin Pierce became president in 1853, he intended to enforce the Fugi8ve Slave Act. His support for the law only made an8slavery supporters fight back stronger. Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass con8nued to aid slaves in escaping to the North along the Underground Railroad and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped fuel an8slavery feelings with its descrip8ons of slavery as a cruel and inhumane system. Dred Scott Decision
Un8l 1857, some slaves who lived in free states or territories were successful in suing for their freedom. The case of Dred ScoW, however, went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. On March 6, 1857, the Court announced a decision that shook the na8on.
Chief Jus8ce Roger Taney ruled that Dred ScoW was s8ll a slave. As a slave and not a ci8zen, he had no right to sue in the first place. Just because he had once lived on free soil didn’t make him free. Addi8onally, the government had no right to take away property.
How did the
Kansas-Nebraska
Act amplify the
growing tension
between north
and south?
Kansas-Nebraska Act
In 1854, four years a\er the most recent compromise, the dispute over slavery erupted in Congress again. Stephen A. Douglas, a senator from Illinois, hoped to encourage seWlement of the West.
His plan was to build a transcon8nental railroad. To do so, he proposed a plan to organize the region west of Missouri into the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska. He hoped to devise a plan that both North and South would accept, but instead, the plan reopened the conflict about slavery in the West. Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas and Nebraska both lay above the Missouri Compromise line. Knowing that admi_ng Kansas and Nebraska as free states would eventually happen and upset the South, Douglas proposed abandoning the Missouri Compromise line and le_ngs those who seWle the new territories vote on the issue.
Northerners protested strongly. However, Southerners supported the bill knowing that slaveholders from Missouri would likely seWle the new territory and bring proslavery ideas with them.
“Bleeding Kansas”
A\er the Kansas-­‐Nebraska Act passed, pro and an8slavery groups rushed into Kansas in hopes of establishing a legislature on their side. Each group established compe8ng governments and each group asked Congress for recogni8on. In May 1856, about 800 slavery supporters aWacked the an8slavery capital of Lawrence. They destroyed the town, burned buildings including the home of the governor, and tore down two an8slavery newspaper offices.
“Bleeding Kansas”
In response, John Brown (an aboli8onist who believed God had chosen him to end slavery) vowed to “strike terror in the hearts of proslavery people.” Brown led six men along PoWawatomie Creek where they found and killed five proslavery men.
The violence con8nued un8l October. Newspapers began to refer to it as “Bleeding Kansas” or “the Civil War in Kansas.” Violence in Congress
Violence was not limited to the new territories. Aboli8onist senator Charles Sumner delivered a speech en8tled “The Crime Against Kansas.” The speech aWacked proslavery senators including Andrew Butler of South Carolina.
Two days a\er the speech, Butler’s cousin Representa8ve Preston Brooks walked into the Senate chamber and began to hit Sumner on the head over and over with a cane. Before anyone could step in, Sumner fell to the floor bleeding.
How did the election
of Abraham Lincoln
set the stage for
civil war?
The Republican Party
In 1854 an8slavery Whigs and Democrats joined together to form the new Republican Party. They challenged proslavery poli8cians and chose candidates whose main message was that the government should ban slavery in new territories.
Their 1856 presiden8al candidate John C. Fremont lost to Democra8c candidate James Buchanan. In 1860, Republicans chose Abraham Lincoln as their presiden8al candidate.
Lincoln-Douglas
Debates
Before being nominated for president, Lincoln had ran against Stephen Douglas for the Senate. Short and powerful, Douglas was called “the LiWle Giant”. He disliked slavery but believed the issue would interfere with the na8on’s growth. Lincoln was a tall, intelligent, successful lawyer. He challenged Douglas to a series of debates, which Douglas reluctantly agreed to.
Lincoln-Douglas
Debates
Douglas claimed that Lincoln wanted African Americans to be fully equal to whites. Lincoln denied this. S8ll, he said, “in the right to eat the bread...which his own hand earns [an African American] is my equal and the equal of [Senator] Douglas, and the equal of every living man.”
Following the debates, Douglas won a narrow victory.
Election of 1860
When Lincoln ran for president in 1860, his plakorm was that slavery should be le\ undisturbed where it already existed, but that it should be excluded from the territories. Republicans also argued that secession of the South was merely a threat to frighten voters from choosing Lincoln. To many Southerners, Lincoln’s elec8on would signal that their proslavery posi8on was hopeless. Lincoln won a clear majority of electoral votes. Douglas came in second place. Secession
Although Lincoln had promised not to disturb slavery where it already was, the South feared that the Republican administra8on would not protect their rights. On December 20, 1860, the South’s longstanding threat to leave the Union became a reality when South Carolina held a special conven8on and voted to secede. By February, 1861, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia had also seceded. The Confederacy
On February 4, delegates from each state met in Montgomery, Alabama to form a new na8on and government. Calling themselves the Confederate States of America, or the Confederacy, they chose Jefferson Davis as their president.
The Southerners jus8fied secession by arguing that states had rights and that just as they had voluntarily joined the Union, they could voluntarily leave. Many states welcomed secession while others were heartbroken over the destruc8on of their country.
Lincoln’s
inauguration
Since the South seceded before Lincoln was even inaugurated, everyone wondered what he might say as he took office. In his inaugural address, Lincoln stated that:
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affec8on”. Lincoln did not intend to allow the South to simply break away.