1. Missouri Compromise
1.1. As America began moving west the issue of whether or not slavery should be allowed in the new states forming out west became an issue. The first state in which this became an issue with Missouri. It's addition to the United States threatened to upset the balance between slave states and free states. In 1820, Senator Henry Clay persuaded Congress to approve the Missouri to approve the Missouri Compromise. The Missouri compromise stated: 1. Maine was admitted as a free state 2. Missouri was admitted as a slave state 3. Louisiana territory north of Missouri's southern border was free 4. Southern slave owners gained the right to pursue escaped fugitives into free regions.
2. Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852, it was a novel about kindly Uncle Tom, an enslave man who is abused by the cruel Simon Legree. The book became a best seller in the North. It shocked thousands of people who had been unconcerned with slavery before reading the book. The book caused people to view slavery as a human, moral problem and not just a political issue. White southerners were outraged.
3. The Kansas-Nebraska act
3.1. Senator Stephen Douglas pushed through the Act in 1854 which led the nation closer to war. He wanted to see a rail road built from Illinios through the Nebraska Territory to the Pacific Coast. He suggested creating two new territories the Kansas Territory and the Nebraska Territory. Both were above the Missouri Compromise Line and would become free states which upset the Southern States. To win support, he suggested that the issue of slavery be resolved by popular sovereignty. This would undo the Missouri Compromise.
4. Uncle toms cabin
5. Gold was found in California and thousands moved to the area. Soon the territory had enough people to be admitted as a state. Since it was above the Missouri Compromise line, people felt it would be a free state. This angered the south and they threatend to secede. The compromise would end the debate over slavery forever. This proposal produced one of the greatest debates in American political history. President Taylor opposed the compromise but died and the new President Millard Fillmore supported it. Congress passes fie series of billa in September,1850 that become known as the Compromise of 1850. 1. California was admitted to the Union as a free state 2. Slave trade was banned in the Nations Capitol 3. Congress declared that it could not regulate the slave trade between slave states 4 Popular Sovereignty would be used to determine the issue of slavery in the rest of the Mexican Cession 5. The South received a new Fugitive slave law.
6. The fugitive slave act
7. Allowed special goevernment officials to arrest any person accused of being a runaway slave. Suspects had no right to a trial to prove that they had been falsely accused. All it took was a slaveholder or any deprive witness to swear that the suspect was a slave holder's property. The law also required nothern citizens to help capture accused runaways if authorities requested assistance.
8. In the election of 1848, the controversy over the wilmot proviso led to the devolpment of the Free-Soil Party. Democrats nominated Zachary Taylor and the free-soil party nominated former democratic president Marin Van Bren Senator Cass suggested that the people in each new territory should decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery. Zachary Taylor, a hero of the Mexician-American war won the election not to allow slavery.
9. Election of Zachary Taylor
10. The compromise of 1850
11. Missouri Compromise
11.1. 1860
12. Wilmot Proviso
12.1. 1848
12.1.1. Wilmot Proviso
12.1.1.1. Since the Missouri Compromise did no apply to the large territory gained from Mexico in 1848,Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania proposed the congress ban slavery in all territorys that might become part of the united states as a result of the Mexician American War. The proposal passsed in the house but failed in the Senate.
13. Free-Soil Party
13.1. 1848
13.1.1. Free-soil party
14. Election of Zachary Taylor
14.1. 1848
15. The Compromise of 1850
15.1. 1850
16. The Fugitive Slave Act
16.1. 1850
17. Uncle Tom's Cabin
17.1. 1852
18. The Kansas-Nebraska Act
18.1. 1854
19. "Bleeding Kansas"
19.1. 1855
19.1.1. Bleeding Kansas
19.1.1.1. Both pro slavery and anti slavery settlers flooded to kansas to try and win the majority. Thousands of people from Missouri entered Kansas in March of 1855to vote illegally in the election of a territorial legislature. Kansas had 3,000 voters but almost 8,000 people voted. Of the 39 people elected, all but 3 supported slavery. Antislavery settlers refused to accept the results and held another election. Kansas now had two governments. Violence broke out. In April, a proslavery sheriff was shot when he tried to arrest anti slavery settlers in the town of Lawrence. He returned the next month with 800 men and attacked the town. Three days later near Antietam Creek and murdered five proslavery men and boys. This started widespread fighting in Kansas.
20. Bloodshed in the Senate
20.1. 1859
20.1.1. Bloodshed in the senate
20.1.1.1. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was leading abolitionist senator and made fiery speeches denouncing the proslavery legislature in Kansas. In one of his speeches he singled out Andrew butler who was and elderly senator from South Carolina who was not present when he gave his speech. A few days later his nephew, Congressman Preston Brooks, marched into the senate chamber and beat Sumner with a heavy cane until he fell to the floor bloody and unconscious. Summer never really recovered from his injuries.
21. Republican Party
21.1. 1854
21.1.1. Republican Party 1854
21.1.1.1. The Whigs party split in 1854 and many northern Whigs formed a new political party called the Republican Party. Their main goal was to stop the spread of slavery into the western territories. Their antislavery stand attracted many northern Democrats and Free-Soil members. The party quickly became very powerful. In the first congressional elections held just a few months after the party was created, 1854 of 245 candidates were elected to the House of Representatives. Democrats also lost control of two northern state legislatives. Two years later the party ran its first candidate for president, John C. Fremont.
22. Election of 1856
22.1. 1856
22.1.1. The election of 1856
22.1.1.1. First Republican candidate John C. Fremont waged a strong anti-slavery campaign and won 11 of the 16 free states. Democrat James Buchanan won the election.
23. Dred Scott vs. Sanford Case
23.1. 1857
23.1.1. Dred Scott vs Sanford case
23.1.1.1. Dred Scott was an enslaved person who had once been owned by a U.S Army doctor. They had lived Illinois and Wisconsin for a short time where slavery was illegal. They settled in Missouri. With the help of an antislavery lawyer. Scott sued for his freedom because he argued that he was free because he lived where slavery was illegal. The case reached the Supreme Court delivered its verdict in the case on March of 1857, three days after President Buchanan took office. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote the decision foe the court. Scott was not a free man for two reasons: 1. Scott had no right to sue in federal court because African Americans were not citizens; 2. merely living in free territory does not make an enslaved person free. Slaves were property and property rights were protected by the United States constitution. The ruling also said that Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in any territory. Thus, the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. Southerners ere happy because slavery was spreading in all territories. Northerners were upset because now slavery could spread to the west.
24. The Lincoln and Douglas Debates
24.1. 1858
24.1.1. The Lincoln and Douglas debates
24.1.1.1. Lincoln was chosen as the senate candidate for Senate against Senator Douglas in 1858. Lincoln and Douglas were political and personal rivals. Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of Public Debates. Thousands gathered to hear them speak. Newspaper reported what each man said throughout the nation. Douglas defended Popular Sovereignty and said each state had the right to decided fir or against slavery. He painted Lincoln as a dangerous Abolitionists who wanted equality for African Americans. Lincoln took a stand against the spread of slavery. He predicted that slavery would die out on its own but in the meantime Americans had an obligation to keep it out of the western territories. Douglas won the elections but Lincoln was now known throughout the nation.
25. John Brown Attacks Harper's Ferry
25.1. 1859
25.1.1. John brown attacks harpers ferry
25.1.1.1. John Brown was driven out of Kansas after the pottawatomie Creek Massacre and returned to New England. He began a plot to free people in the south that were enslaved. In 1859, Brown and a small to New England. He began a plot to free people in the south that were enslaved. In 1859, Brown and a small group of supporters attacked the town of Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Hid goal was to take control of the guns that the U.S Army had stored there. He thought that enslaved African Americans would support him. He would give them weapons and led a revolt. He gained control of the guns but troops commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee surrounded Brown's force before they trail, he sat quietly as the court found him guilty of murder and treason. He was sentenced to death in Southerns were shocked that Northerners thought this about a person who tried to led a revolt against them.
26. Political Parties Divide
26.1. 1860
26.1.1. Political parties divide 1860
26.1.1.1. The Republican Party split into two parties during the election of 1860 because Northern Democrats refused to support slavery in the territories. Some Southerners wanted to fix the problems between the North and the South and formed the constitutional Union Party. They wanted to protect slavery and keep the nation together.
27. Election of 1860
27.1. 1860
27.1.1. Election of 1860
27.1.1.1. Republicans chose Abraham Lincoln to run for president in 1860. Northerns Democrats chose Vice President John Breckinadge of Kentucky. The Constitutional Union nominated John Bell of Tennessee. The election showed just had fragmented the nation had become. Lincoln won every free state and Breckinadge won all slave states except four. Bell won Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Douglas won Missouri. Lincoln received 40% of the popular vote but received enough electoral votes to win the election and became president.
28. Southern States Secade
28.1. 1860
28.1.1. Southern states secade
28.1.1.1. Lincoln's election mad the South feel that they no longer had a voice in the national government. They believed that the President and Congress were against their interest especially slavery. South Carolina seceded first when news of Lincoln's election reached the state. They called for a special convention. On December 20, 1860 the convention passed a declaration that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and the other states under the name of the United States of America is hereby dissolved. 6 more states followed South Carolina out of the Union.
29. The Confederate States of America
29.1. 1861
29.1.1. The confederate states of America
29.1.1.1. In February of 1861, the leaders of the 7 seceding states that left the Union met in Montgomery, Alabama to from a new Nation that they called the Confederate States of America. By the time Lincoln took office in March, they had written a constitution and named former Senator Jefferson Davis as president.
30. The Crittenden Plan
30.1. 1861
30.1.1. The Crittenden plan
30.1.1.1. A plan developed by Senator J. Crittenden of Kentucky to compromise with the South one last time. It was presented to Congress in late February, 1861 while the South was forming its new government but it did not pass.
31. The Economy of the North and South
31.1. 1800s
31.1.1. The economy of the north and south
31.1.1.1. The North was industrial with factories and paid for little. The souh was agriculual with large cotton fields and small farms. Slave labor was used in he south.