Transcript Chapter 19 Assessment

Murderer or Martyr
“I am quite cheerful in view of my
approaching end, being fully
persuaded that I am worth
inconceivably more to hang than for
any other purpose.”
• What do you think Brown meant
by this statement?
• Considering all that you know
about John Brown, do you consider
him to be a murderer or a martyr?
Explain.
Chapter 19
Drifting Toward
Disunion
1854 – 1861
“A house divided
against itself cannot
stand. I believe this
government cannot
endure permanently half
slave and half free.”
(1858)
Lincoln said to Beecher Stowe in 1861,
Stowe
and
Helper:
Literary
“So you're
the little
woman
who wrote
the
book that made
this great war!”
Incendiaries
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
– Harriet Beecher Stowe’s vivid account of
the slave system became the best selling
book of the 19th century:
• Depicted the harsh reality of slavery
• The book became a vital antislavery tool
among abolitionists
• Hinton Helper’s Impending Crisis of the
South (1859)
– Helper was a white southerner who
argued that slavery hurt the South &
small farmers
– Southerners saw the book as a plot to
rally yeoman against the elite & end
slavery
Kansans had to chose between
two governments: one illegal
The
North-South
Contest
and
the other
fraudulent
for Kansas
• Northerners began to pour into Kansas
– Southerners were outraged, since they had supported the
Compromise of 1850 under the impression that Kansas
would become slave.
• Election day in 1855: Southerners from Missouri
flooded the polls and elected Kansas to be a slave
state
• Free soilers set up their own government in Topeka
in retaliation
• 1856: group of proslavery raiders shot up and burned
part of Lawrence
• Republicans benefited from the fighting by using
“Bleeding Kansas” propaganda to support their antislave cause
The voteThousands
revealed aof
pro-slavery
victory
pro-slavery
which led
to a violent
civilcrossed
war in the
Kansas
Missouri
residents
border & voted for slavery
Free-soilers from Kansas
voted against slavery
Kansas in Convulsion
• 1856: John Brown, a crazy man (literally), led a band of
followers to Pottawatomie Creek and hacked to 5 men to death
• 1857: Kansas had enough people to apply for statehood
– Those for slavery devised the Lecompton Constitution
• People were only allowed to vote for the constitution “with slavery” or
“without slavery.”
• If the constitution was passed “without slavery,” then those slaveholders
already in the state would still be protected
• Angry free soilers boycotted the polls and Kansas approved the constitution
with slavery
• Buchanan tried to push Kansas’ admission through despite the
fraud, but Stephen Douglas fought for a fair election
– Lecompton Constitution was then voted on as a whole
– Kansas was made a free territory, not a slave state
“Bully” Brooks and His Bludgeon
• Senator Charles Sumner was a vocal
antislaveryite, and his speeches condemned
all slavery supporters
• Congressman Preston S. Brooks decided that
since he couldn’t challenge Sumner to a duel,
he’d beat the senator with a cane like a dog
• The clash signifies how passions were
inflamed to a dangerous and violent level
SC Senator Preston Brooks beat Senator
Charles Sumner because of a speech
Sumner had made criticizing President
Pierce & Southerners who supported the the
pro-slavery violence in Kansas
“Old Buck” versus “The Pathfinder”
• Election of 1856 (first clearly sectional
presidential election in U.S. history)
– Democrats: James Buchanan, untainted by the
Kansas-Nebraska Act; lots of political experience
– Republican: John C. Fremont, fighter in the
Mexican-American War
– American Party/“Know-Nothing Party”:
Millard Fillmore
• organized by nativists
Southerners were relieved by the victory
but were threatened by the existence of a
party devoted to ending slavery
Northerners realized that the free-states had
a large majority in the Electoral College so a
Republican could become president by only
campaigning in the North
The Dred Scot Bombshell
• Dred Scot had been a slave whose
master had taken him north into
free territory, where he had lived for
many years.
• After his master’s death, he sued for
his freedom from his new master,
claiming that he had been in free
territory.
• The Missouri Supreme Court
agreed, freeing him, but the decision
was appealed to the U.S. Supreme
Court, which overruled the decision
The Dred Scot Bombshell
• In Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), Taney & the
Supreme Court ruled:
–
–
•
Dred Scott had no right to sue because blacks are
not citizens
Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in
western territories so the Missouri Compromise
is unconstitutional
Northerners complained; Southerners were
inflamed by northern defiance, and more
tension built
The Financial Crash of 1857
• Panic of 1857: Psychologically the worst panic
of the 19th century
– The panic was caused by inflation and
overgrowth of grain and nowhere to export it.
– The North was especially hard hit, but the South
rode it out with flying colors, seemingly proving
that cotton was king and raising their egos
– Also brought calls for a higher tariff rate
The Great Debate: Lincoln versus
Douglas
• Democrat Stephen Douglas ran against Republican
Abraham Lincoln for the 1858 Illinois Senate
• Lincoln challenged Douglas (great debater) to a
series of seven debates
• Most famous debate came at Freeport, IL
– “Freeport Doctrine”: Douglas said that no matter how
the Supreme Court ruled, slavery would stay down if the
people voted it down; the people had the power.
• Lincoln lost the election, but the debates gained
him a national reputation & reaffirmed the
Republicans’ uncompromising commitment to the
free-soil position
John Brown: Murderer or Martyr?
• John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, VA; he
& 18 men planned to end slavery in the
South by leading slave insurrections
– Slaves didn’t revolt, and Brown was captured
and convicted of treason and sentenced to death
• The South was happy, but abolitionists were
infuriated by his execution
John Brown:
Northern Martyr or Southern Villain?
The Disruption of the Democrats
• Democrats were fatally split:
– Northern Democrats nominated Stephen
Douglas who ran on a platform of popular
sovereignty
– Southern Democrats nominated John
Breckenridge who swore to protect slavery in the
West
• Ex-Whigs & Know-Nothings formed the
Constitutional Union Party & ran John Bell
& on a compromise platform
A Rail-Splitter Splits the Union
• The Republicans, sensing victory against their split
opponents, nominated Abraham Lincoln, not
William Seward
• Platform had an appeal to every important nonsouthern group to widen its appeal
–
–
–
–
–
For free soilers it proposed non-extension of slavery
For northern manufacturers, a protective tariff
For the immigrants, no abridgement of rights
For the West, internal improvements at federal expense
For the farmers, free homesteads
• Southerners threatened that Lincolns election
would result in Southern secession
The 1860 Election: A Nation Coming Apart
The Electoral Upheaval of 1860
• Lincoln won
with only 40% of
the popular vote
• South
immediately
launched a
campaign for
succession from
the Union
The Secessionist Exodus
• South Carolina had threatened to secede if
Lincoln was elected president
– They did so in December of 1860
– Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana, and Texas followed in the next six
weeks
• The seven seceders created the Confederate
States of America and chose Jefferson Davis
as president
Farewell to Union
• The seceding states did so for several reasons
– They feared that their rights as a slaveholding minority
were being threatened
– They were alarmed at the growing power of the
Republicans
– They believed that they would be unopposed despite
what the Northerners claimed
• The most significant underlying cause of the Civil
War was slavery (though economic differences also
contributed)
• The North & South argued for two very different
ideals of liberty & independence but by the 1850s,
the sectional ideologies made any form of
compromise impossible
Chapter 19 Assessment
The conflict over slavery in Kansas
a.
b.
c.
d.
Came about because the first settlers brought substantial numbers of slaves
to the territory
Was resolved by the Crittenden Compromise
Was temporarily resolved by the Compromise of 1850
Was greatly escalated by abolitionist-funded settlers and proslavery
“border ruffians” from Missouri
In the Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court
a.
b.
c.
d.
Avoided controversy by ruling that the slave Dred Scott had no right to
sue in federal court
Ruled that the Kansas-Nebraska Act was unconstitutional
Ruled that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the territories because
slaves were private property
Ruled that slaves could sue in federal court only if their masters permitted
them to do so
Chapter 19 Assessment
The conflict over slavery in Kansas
a.
b.
c.
d.
Came about because the first settlers brought substantial numbers of slaves
to the territory
Was resolved by the Crittenden Compromise
Was temporarily resolved by the Compromise of 1850
Was greatly escalated by abolitionist-funded settlers and proslavery
“border ruffians” from Missouri
In the Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court
a.
b.
c.
d.
Avoided controversy by ruling that the slave Dred Scott had no right to
sue in federal court
Ruled that the Kansas-Nebraska Act was unconstitutional
Ruled that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the territories because
slaves were private property
Ruled that slaves could sue in federal court only if their masters permitted
them to do so
Chapter 19 Assessment
The conflict over slavery in Kansas
a.
b.
c.
d.
Came about because the first settlers brought substantial numbers of slaves
to the territory
Was resolved by the Crittenden Compromise
Was temporarily resolved by the Compromise of 1850
Was greatly escalated by abolitionist-funded settlers and proslavery
“border ruffians” from Missouri
In the Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court
a.
b.
c.
d.
Avoided controversy by ruling that the slave Dred Scott had no right to
sue in federal court
Ruled that the Kansas-Nebraska Act was unconstitutional
Ruled that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the territories because
slaves were private property
Ruled that slaves could sue in federal court only if their masters permitted
them to do so