Chapter 10
“And Black People Were at the
Heart of It”; The United States
Disunites over Slavery
I. Free Labor ~ Slave Labor

Slavery in the western lands
– Legal or outlawed?
– Divided the nation
• Southern white people supported slavery
• Northern white people opposed slavery in
territories
– Racism
– Competition for jobs
Free Labor ~ Slave Labor (cont.)
– Free labor
•
•
•
•
Slavery threatened white labor
Depressed wages for white labor
Labor: demeaned in the South
Labor: dignified in the North
The Wilmot Proviso

Mexican War
– Prohibited slavery in lands acquired from
Mexico
– Passed in House, failed in Senate
• Southerners enraged
– First step toward eliminating slavery
Election 1848
– Zachary Taylor
– Lewis Cass
– Martin Van Buren
• Free Soil Party, 1848
– Opposed slavery in territories
– Racist
– Abolitionist support
California and
the Compromise of 1850

Gold discovery lured thousands
– Applied for admission as a free state
• Southern whites opposed
 Compromise of 1850
– Henry Clay tried to give something to everyone
• California free state
– End slave trade in Washington
• Stronger fugitive slave labor law
– No restrictions on Utah and New Mexico
• See Map 10-1
The Compromise of 1850 (cont.)

John C. Calhoun
 Daniel Webster
 William Seward
 President Zachary Taylor
– Millard Fillmore

Stephen Douglas
– Bill divided in separate parts
• Won passage
Fugitive Slave Laws

Fugitive slave law, 1793
 Permitted recovery of escaped slaves
 Too weak to overcome northern resistance
– Personal liberty laws
– State officials not obligated to aid recovery
– Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 1842
• Nine states passed liberty laws, 18421850
Fugitive Slave Law, 1850

Everyone must help capture suspects
– Stiff fines or jail
 Documents from home state or testimony of
witnesses to claim runaway
 Commissioners
– Received $5 when declared captive free
– Received $10 for captives returned to bondage
• Claimed extra paper work
– 332 returned to slavery and 11 released
– See VOICES
II. Fugitive Slaves
William and Ellen Craft
 Shadrach
 The Battle of Christiana
 Government attempts failed to
prosecute those who fought officials or
aided the runaways

Anthony Burns

Escaped from a Virginia slave owner in 1854
– Arrested in Boston
• Placed under heavy guard
– Failed breakout
– U.S. troops sent to Boston
• Authorities refuse offers to buy Burns’ freedom
• Thousands watched as Burns marched to waiting ship
– Reaction
• Garrison burned a copy of Constitution on July 4th
• Compromise Whigs emerge as abolitionists
• No Boston jury would convict
Margaret Garner

Escaped to Cincinnati in 1856 with others
slaves
 Before arrested, she slits her daughter’s
throat
– Garner was disarmed before killing her two sons
– Basis of Tony Morrison’s novel Beloved
III. The Rochester Convention

African Americans, 1853
–
–
–
–

Called for greater unity among black people
Sought ways to improve their economic prospects
Asserted claims to citizenship
Equal protection
Frederick Douglass
– Called for vocational training
IV. Nativism and the
Know-Nothings

Rising anti-immigrant feeling
– Roman Catholic Irish and German
•
•
•
•

Alarmed native-born white Protestants
Fears of Catholic conspiracy
Added to political turmoil
Attacks on Catholic churches and convents
Know-Nothings
– Some political success
V. Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe
– Sold 300,000 copies in a year
– Made brutality of slavery personal
– Infuriated southerners
• False depiction of their way of life
– Stowe had never visited the Deep South
VI. The Kansas-Nebraska Act

Stephen Douglas, 1854
– Transcontinental railroad
• Divided territory
• Popular Sovereignty
–Repeal of Missouri Compromise
–Won southern support
The Kansas-Nebraska Act (cont.)
Destroyed Whig party
 Divided North and South
 Anti-Nebraska parties form
 Violence erupted in Kansas and
Congress

– “Bleeding Kansas”
– Brooks and Sumner
VII. Preston Brooks and
Charles Summer

Charles Sumner
– “Crime Against Kansas”

Preston Brooks
– Defends southern honor
VIII. The Dred Scott Decision

Questions for the court
– Could a black man sue in federal court?
– Did taking a slave to a state or territory where
bondage was prohibited free the slave?

Roger Taney
– Blacks not citizens.
– No rights the white man bound to respect.
– Missouri Compromise unconstitutional
Scott Decision: Reaction
Divided country
 Republicans horrified

– Meetings and rallies

Frederick Douglass
– Decision would help destroy slavery
IX. White Northerners - Black
Americans

Racism
– Most white northerners remain
– Indifferent, fearful, hostile toward people of color

Ohio, Illinois, Indiana white people
– Supported Fugitive Slave Law
– Opposed slavery expansion
– Free blacks in northern states
• Indiana, Iowa banned blacks, free or slaves, 1851
• Illinois, 1853
X. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Stephen Douglas
– Freeport Doctrine
•
•
•
•
Dred Scott
Popular Sovereignty
People could still decide
Positive law needed to protect slavery
XI. Abraham Lincoln
and Black People
Lincoln did not believe in racial equality
 Believed in the right to be paid for labor

XII. John Brown:
Raid on Harpers Ferry

John Brown
– Staunchly religious
– Attract and arm slaves
– Incite insurrection and end slavery
– Financial support
• Secret Six
– October 16th, 1859 raid begins
• Utter failure
• U.S. Marines wounded and captured Brown
Raid and Reaction

Increased tensions, North and South
 Southerners traumatized and terrified

– Northern approbation enraged southerners
– Justified long-held beliefs about northern agitation
Execution
– Brown becomes a northern hero
– Moved South closer to secession and end to
slavery
XIII. The Election of
Abraham Lincoln

Four candidates, 1860 election
– John Bell
– John C. Breckenridge
– Stephen Douglas
– Abraham Lincoln
• Democratic Party split ensured Lincoln’s
victory
• Not on ballot in most southern states
• Abolitionists feared Lincoln too tolerant of
slavery
XIV. Disunion

South Carolina secedes December 20th,
1860
– By February, seven Deep South states seceded
– Lincoln tried to calm southern fears
• “Only” dispute was over the expansion of slavery
– Promised to enforce the Constitution
• Not interfere with slavery where it existed
• Not tolerate secession
XV. Conclusion

Slavery
– Minor and major events between 1846-1861
• Involved black people and the expansion of
slavery
• Increasingly polarized Americans

No secession and no Civil War
– Without the agitation over slavery in the
territories