COMPROMISE
Causes of the Civil War 3.01
Missouri Compromise
• Added Maine as a free state and
Missouri as a slave state
• Split the Louisiana Territory
along the 36º 30’ parrallel
• North of line – slavery
prohibited
• South of line – slavery permitted
MISSOURI COMPROMISE LINE
Nat Turner’s Rebellion
• Led a slave rebellion
• Increased white Southern fears
about slave rebellions
• Silenced southern abolitionists
• SOUTHERN REACTION:
–Immediate retaliation killing over
200 innocent slaves
–Led to harsh fugitive slave laws
Harriet Tubman
• Most famous conductor of the
Underground Railroad
• Former slave, who led over 300 slaves
to freedom
• UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
–Loose network of whites and free
blacks in the South that assisted
runaway slaves to freedom in the
North
Mexican War 1848
• U.S. pays 15 million dollars for
California, Nevada, New
Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and
parts of Colorado and Wyoming
• ISSUE of tension – should
slavery be allowed in these
territories?
Compromise of 1850
• Admitted California as a free state,
while southwestern territories from
Mexico could decide on their own
• Banned the slave trade (NOT
slavery itself) in the Distict of
Columbia
• Fugitive Slave Act – required free
states to assist in capturing
runaway slaves
Fugitive Slave Act
•Passed in 1850
•Only had to point out a former slave,
they could not defend themselves
•No right to trial
•Judge was paid $10 if his decision was
in favor of the slaveholder
•Refusal of cooperation would
mean jail or fine for helping
runaway slaves
•Many freed African Americans
taken
•Further supported the
Underground Railroad
Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Author of
Uncle Tom’s
Cabin
• Gained
support for the
Abolitionist
Movement
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Popular sovereignty – the residents
of a territory vote to decide an issue
(in this case slavery)
• “Bleeding Kansas” – Kansas &
Nebraska were granted popular
sovereignty
–RESULT - violence between pro –
and anti – slavery groups
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Repealed the
Missouri
Compromise
line
• Led to the birth
of the antislavery
Republican
Party
“Bleeding Kansas”
•Kansas-Nebraska Act was barely
passed in 1855
•Missourians flooded Kansas territory
with slaveholders and they elected a
pro-slavery legislature
–Their constitution was known as the
Lecompton Constitution
•Abolitionists funded settlers to move
into the area and they made their own
constitution
•Pro-slavery settlers attacked the antislavery towns—this was known as
“Bleeding Kansas”
–200 were killed
–Caused $2 million in damage
•Kansas was entered as a free state
Caning of Charles Sumner
• Congressman Preston Brooks beat
Senator Charles Sumner with his
cane
• Brooks claimed he was defending
his uncle a pro-slavery senator from
South Carolina
• Violence in the senate represents
the tension between the North and
South
Dred Scott Case – 1856
• Dred Scott – slave from Missouri
• Owner took Scott above the
Missouri Compromise line into free
territory
• When his owner died Scott filed a
lawsuit claiming his freedom
because he had lived in a free
territory for several years
Dred Scott Decision – 1856
• Supreme Court ruled that slaves did
not have the rights of citizens
(SLAVES = PROPERTY)
– Therefore…
• Missouri Compromise line was
illegal because it restricted the
property rights of southerners
• Supreme Court has cleared the
way fro the expansion of slavery
Republican Party Emerges
• Many who opposed the extension of
slavery were outraged when the KansasNebraska Act repealed the Missouri
Compromise
• This anger caused many former Whigs,
members of the Free Soil Party, and a few
anti-slavery Democrats to work together
during the congressional elections of 1854
•These coalitions took many
different names but the most
popular was the Republican Party
•The party was officially organized
at a convention in Michigan in July
1854
Lincoln – Douglas Debates
• 1858 Senate race in Illinois
• Douglas
– Supported popular sovereignty, allowing
residents of a territory to decide the issue
of slavery
• Lincoln
– A house divided (half free, half slave)
cannont stand”
DOUGLAS WON THE SENATE ELECTION…
John Brown’s Raid
• GOAL - seize the federal
arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, give
the weapons to slave and start
a general slave uprising
• RESULT – unsuccessful, tried
and hung for treason
–Became a symbol of
FREEDOM
Election of 1860
Candidate
Party
View on Slavery
Abraham
Lincoln
Republican
Opposed the
spread of slavery
John C.
Breckinridge
Southern
Democrat
Pro slavery
Stephen
Douglas
Northern
Democrat
Popular
sovereignty
John Bell
Constitution
al Union
Ignored the issue
1860
Abraham
Lincoln is
elected
PRESIDENT
Election of 1860
• IMMEDIATE RESULT =
SOUTHERN STATES
SECEDED (left) FROM
THE UNION… LED BY
SOUTH CAROLINA