Social Studies Survey
 Define the Wilmot Proviso
 Analyze the Dred Scott Case and its importance on
Slavery within American History
 Understand the importance of Henry Clay and his
ability to compromise
 Interpret the importance of the Fugitive Slave Clause
 Define the Kansas-Nebraska Act
 The war with Mexico
allowed the U.S. to expand
even farther west. With
new territories, came the
repeated question of
whether slavery should be
allowed to spread.
 Wilmot Proviso – proposal
by David Wilmot that said,
“ neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude shall
ever exist” in the western
territories.
 Wilmot Proviso passed in
the House of
Representatives, but never
came to a vote in the
Senate.
 John C. Calhoun of S.
Carolina argued that
property can be taken into
new territories – including
slaves.
 In 1823, the U.S. Supreme Court
supported Calhoun’s opinion in
the Dred Scott case.
 Dred Scott was a slave who had
been taken North with his
master for work. After returning
to Missouri, he sued his master
for his freedom. He argued that
he was no longer a slave since he
had lived in a free territory. The
Supreme Court ruled against
him. Slave owners could take
their property with them
anywhere in the country.
 Popular sovereignty – each new
territory would vote on whether
to allow slavery.
 Free Soil Party – opponents of
slavery and abolitionist members
of the Liberty Party joined
together. They believed that the
spread of slavery should not be
allowed on the “free soil of the
western territories.” Some
wanted to stop the spread of
slavery. Many wanted lands left
open to white farmers.
 1849 – gold is discovered
in California. There were
15 free states and 15 slave
states. If California enters
as a free state, it would
create a majority in the
Senate. Fearful
southerners begin to
consider secession.
 A series of compromises
were used to try to hold
the union together.
 1820 – Missouri Compromise –
Maine would enter as a free
state and Missouri would be
slave. Territories north of
Missouri would remain free.
 Compromise of 1850 –
California would be free.
There would be no restrictions
on slavery in the Mexican
Cession. The slave trade in
the District of Columbia
would be outlawed.
Southerners were allowed
greater power in recovering
escaped slaves.
 Fugitive Slave Act – slave
owners could point out
escaped slaves and have
them returned. No proof of
escape was needed. Federal
marshals were required to
help catch the slaves and
they could require ordinary
citizens to help.
•Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave
who made speeches against the new
law, published a newspaper called The
Liberator.
•Harriet Tubman – helped slaves escape
on the Underground Railroad.
•Levi Coffin – hid over 3,000 slaves in
Indiana and Ohio who had escaped
across the Ohio River.
•Harriet Beecher Stowe – wrote Uncle
Tom’s Cabin to depict the true face of
slavery – about the slave, Tom and his
cruel master, Simon Legree.
 Turn to your nearest neighbor and determine a way to
remember the two Harriets.
 Harriet Tubman –
 Harriet Beecher Stowe -
 Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) – There
was debate about whether to have a
northern or southern starting point
for the Transcontinental Railroad.
This led to debate over slavery in the
territories. This act proposed that
the new territory would be divided –
Nebraska would be free, Kansas
slave.
 Part of the Missouri Compromise
had to be repealed to allow for this.
 Bleeding Kansas – northerners rushed
to Kansas to create an anti-slavery
majority. People living along the
Missouri border rushed over to vote
illegally for a pro-slavery legislature.
March, 1856, Kansas had two governments.
One anti-slavery, one pro-slavery. Violence
erupted, 200 people were killed and there was
$2 million in property damage.

“We are not one people. We are two peoples.
We are a people for Freedom and a people for
Slavery. Between the two, conflict is
inevitable.”
- Horace Greeley, on
the Kansas-Nebraska
Act
“The two systems (slave
and free) are . . .
Incompatible. They
have never
permanently existed
together in one
country, and they
never can.
Sen. William H.
Seward
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