Protest & Violence
Chapter Focus Question: How did the Fugitive Slave Act and the Kansas-Nebraska Act
increase tensions between the North & South?
Resistance Against the Fugitive Slave Act

o Awarded $10 to judges who re-enslaved African – Americans, but $5 for judges
who set them free
 Passed the Personal Liberty Laws
o

The Underground Railroad

o A secret network of escape routes to the North
 Harriet Tubman

 Risks capture to lead 100s to safety

o She was never captured
1852
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
 Harriet Beecher Stowe
o
 Form of Propaganda
 Uncle Tom
o Kindhearted & saintly family man
o
 “Uncle Tom” today


o Eliza Harris

 Underground Railroad assists
o Simon Legree
o
o Brutalizes his female slaves
o
o
 Southerners begin writing their own novels portraying themselves as
Christian masters who take good care of their “charges”
Note: President Lincoln would later meet Stowe and made the following remark, “So, this
is the little lady that started a big war.”
Election of 1852
 Franklin Pierce elected 14th president
o
 A great disappointment
 A “Dough Face”


 Successes

 Failures
 Signs the Kansas-Nebraska Act
o
1854
The Kansas-Nebraska Act

o Replace with Popular Sovereignty
 Introduced by Stephen Douglas, Senator from Illinois
o
o Sets sights on Presidency
 Needs support of Southerners

 Tries to keep Northerners happy

o Not suitable for cotton
o Franklin Pierce signs into law
 Will be his downfall

Douglas’ Plan Backfires

o North is enraged
o
 Bleeding Kansas
Things Get Crazy in Kansas

o Both Northerners and Southerners were trying to outnumber each other

 Two Governments apply for Statehood
o

 Establish Emigrant Aid Society
o Send thousands of New Englanders to Kansas
o

 Border Ruffians
o Forced voters and government officials to take pro-slavery
oaths
May 21, 1856
 Pro-Slavery Ruffians raid Anti-Slavery town of Lawrence, Kansas
o
o
May 24, 1856
 Retaliation by John Brown
o
 Very religious
 Believed he was “God’s chosen instrument”
o
 Pottawatomie Creek


o Murderous attacks on both sides continue through the Fall of 1856
 Becomes known as “Bleeding Kansas”
Popular Sovereignty proves to be a disaster
May 22, 1856
Violence spreads to the Senate chambers
 Senator Charles Sumner, (Massachusetts)
o Most powerful Northern Republican
o
 “The Crime Against Kansas”
 Insults South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler

 Preston Brooks
o Member of House of Representatives
o
 Sumner survives but is never well again
1858
 President Franklin Pierce supports Kansas entering Union as a Slave State
o Congress will not support
o