The Nation Breaking Apart
Notes in orange –please use your shortcuts and abbreviations
North and South
take Different Paths
Mason-Dixon Line
Separates:
North and South/ Free and Slave
The North
•
•
•
•
Manufacturing/ Industrial Economy
Large Urban Areas
High Tariffs help industry against foreign imports
Capital invested in manufacturing and transportation
(infrastructure)
• Slave Trade abolished in North and Slavery Illegal
since Revolution
• Abolitionist societies and newspapers (most people
ambivalent or racist)
• Large populations of Free Blacks,
could own property and had some
rights
The South
• Agricultural/ Plantation Economy
• Main Cash Crops: tobacco, sugar, or
COTTON
• Capital invested in slaves and in
over-seas markets
• Did not like Tariffs
• Economy relies on Slavery. Slaves viewed as property and labor
source. Slaves have no
property and no rights.
• Considered tariff’s and slavery
State’s Rights issues –Believed
in State’s Rights
The West
• Cheap land
• New states being formed according to NW
Ordinance
• Wanted govt to spend money on infrastructure
and transportation to keep them connected to
the East
Issue: State’s Rights
• Strict interpretation of the
Constitution
• Limited Federal Powers
• Autonomy of States
• South said that 10th amendment
gave them the right to keep their
slaves (State’s Rights)
Issue: Slavery
• First Began in Jamestown, Virginia
• South always trying to protect slavery by
controlling votes of Congress
• Increasing populations in the North
(immigration) means that North gets more
and more votes in Congress
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjOJzX54QYs
Problems of Sectional Balance in 1850
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Wilmot Proviso- tried to outlaw slavery
in new territories after War with Mexico.
Never passed senate.
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Free-Soil Party- “Free Soil, Free
Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men.”
Abolitionist political party.
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Missouri Compromise- (Henry Clay)
Missouri enters as slave state and
Maine as free state. All new states
above 36 ° 30 ° would be free
(maintained balance of power)
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Nullification Crisis- revolved around
state’s right to declare federal laws
unconstitutional. John C. Calhoun.
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1850 California Applies for statehood as
“free state” –would tip balance of power
Compromise of 1850
• Senator Henry Clay (The “Great Compromiser’) from
Kentucky offers compromise:
– Calif admitted as free state and slave trade abolished (pleased
Northerners)
– No laws regarding slavery for remainder of territories and
stronger fugitive slave laws (pleased southerners)
• Stephen Douglas of Illinois wins passage of plan
• Daniel Webster of Mass gives famous speech: Seventh
of March speech, characterizing himself "not as a
Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man but as an
American..." to support compromise
Compromise of 1850
Fugitive Slave Act
• Accused run-away slaves
held without warrant and
received no trial
• Commissioner received
$ for each slave returned
• Helping a slave punishable
by $1000 and 6 mos jail
– Southern slave catchers begin coming north,
sometimes capturing free African Americans
– North has a Moral Choice: obey law & support slavery
or break law?
Harriet Beecher
Stowe
(1811 – 1896)
So this is the lady
who started the Civil
War.
-- Abraham
Lincoln
“It's a matter of taking the side of
the weak against the strong,
something the best people have
always done.” --Harriet Beecher
Stowe
Uncle Tom’s
Cabin
1852
 Book about a slave’s
life
 Sold 300,000 copies in
the first year.
 2 million in a decade!
 Inspired people to
fight against slavery
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854
Stephen Douglas of Illinois
Popular Sovereignty- Allow people of state to decide for themselves
“Bleeding Kansas”
• Pro-Slavery and
Abolitionist groups flood
Kansas to vote the state
in their favor
•
They began fighting each
other and started a minicivil war
John Brown: Madman, Hero or
Martyr?
Mural in the Kansas Capitol
building
by John Steuart Curry
An abolitionist: He and his sons
murdered 5 pro-slavery farmers with
broad swords to try to stop them from
voting
“Bleeding Sumner”
Sen. Charles
Sumner
(R-MA)
• Sumner gave an
impassioned speech
about how he felt the
Southern Congressmen
were cheating
• Brooks attacked him with
a fireplace poker severely
wounding him.
Congr. Preston
Brooks
(D-SC)
Birth of the Republican Party, 1854
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Northern Whigs.
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Northern Democrats.
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Free-Soilers.
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Know-Nothings.
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Other miscellaneous opponents of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act.
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Wanted to Stop Spread of Slavery
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Lost 1856 election to Democrat James
Buchanan
1856
Election
Results
Watch Slave Narratives
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euqmlp3SJA
• Then write a 3-7 sentence reaction to what
you have read. What are the many ways
that slavery affected people and
communities.
Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857
• 1857: Landmark Supreme Court
Case which confirmed status of
slaves as property rather than
citizens.
• Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote
that slaves could not be heard in
court because not protected by
Constitution
• Said that Congress had no
authority over statehood, and each
state could decide for itself.-This
overturns the Missouri
Compromise
• South  North 
“Civil Disobedience”
• Henry David Thoreau wrote
this essay
• He refused to pay taxes to
support government that
allowed slavery and fought
aggressive war with Mexico
• People should not break laws
indiscriminately, but have
moral obligation to refuse laws
that are unjust
• Martin Luther King and
Mohammad Ghandi
• “Passive Resistance”
The Lincoln-Douglas (Illinois Senate)
Debates, 1858
“A House divided
against itself, cannot
stand.”
John Brown’s Raid
on Harper’s Ferry, 1859
•Brown wants to inspire a
slave revolt.
•Brown and 18 others kill
4 people in raid. Capture
arsenal and send word
out to slaves to join fight.
•No slaves come. Brown
captured tried for murder
and treason and hanged
•On his death day
abolitionists toll bells and
fire guns in salute
√ Abraham Lincoln
Republican
Stephen A. Douglas
Northern Democrat
John Bell
Constitutional Union
1860
Presidential
Election
John C. Breckinridge
Southern Democrat
1860 Election: 3 “Outs” & 1 ”Run!”
1860 Election:
A Nation Coming Apart?!
1860
Election
Results
Southern States Secede
• If voluntary union, then right to secede!
• December 20, 1860 South Carolina 1st
state to secede
• Miss, FL, AL, GA, LA, and TX soon join
»Form Confederate States of America
and elect Jefferson Davis as
President
»Confederate
Constitution
Secession!: SC Dec. 20, 1860
Crittenden Compromise:
A Last Ditch Appeal to Sanity
Senator John J.
Crittenden
(Know-Nothing-KY)
•Slavery would be prohibited
north of 36-30 line and be
protected south of line
•Did not pass congress
Fort Sumter: April 12, 1861