Good Morning!!
1. NVC
2. HOT ROC: Slavery and the Constitution
3. Ante Bellum (Pre-Civil War) Tensions
4. John Brown raids Harper’s Ferry
Essential Question: Was John Brown a martyr or a
“misguided fanatic?”
Test on Tuesday NEXT WEEK
HOT ROC: Slavery
• Name ONE reason the Founders claim they
allowed slavery in the Constitution
• Name ONE reason the Historians claim the
Founders allowed slavery in the Constitution
Rising Tensions (1830-1860)
• Missouri Compromise
– 1820 Missouri enters union as
slave state, Maine enters as
free state
– Slavery banned in northern
part of Louisiana territory
– Maintains free state/slave state
balance
• Compromise of 1850
– California joins Union as a “free
state”
– Utah/New Mexico territories
open to slavery
– Fugitive Slave Law (must
return slaves to masters) to
appease South
Bleeding Kansas
• Kansas-Nebraska Act
(1854)
– Kansas and Nebraska
territories vote on
slavery = Popular
Sovereignty
– Pro-slavery and antislavery settlers move
to Kansas to
influence vote
– Mini civil war starts =
Bleeding Kansas
Come on, then, gentlemen
of the slave states. Since
there is no escaping your
challenge, we accept it in
the name of freedom. We
will engage in competition
for the virgin soil of Kansas,
and God give the victory to
the side which is stronger in
numbers, as it is in right.
--Senator William Seward of
New York
Enter John Brown
• Abolitionist Involved in
Underground Railroad
• Moves to Kansas to support antislavery cause
– Pottowatomie Creek Massacre:
organizes murder of 5 pro-slavery
settlers
• Dred Scott Decision: escaped
slave Dred Scott seeking freedom
– Federal government has no power
to regulate slavery in the new
territories
• 1859 Brown plans raid on Federal
armory at Harper’s Ferry
– Wants to arm slaves and start
revolt
– Raid fails, but Southerners
horrified
Was John Brown a martyr or a “misguided
fanatic”?
– Martyr: Someone who willingly suffers on behalf
of a belief or cause
– Fanatic: a person so obsessed with something
they are nearly crazy