Transcript Senator John C. Calhoun, Compromise of 1850

Divisive Politics
of Slavery
“I have, Senators, believed from
the first that the agitation of the
subject of slavery would, if not
prevented by some timely and
effective measure, end in
disunion. … The agitation has
been permitted to proceed…
until it has reached a period
when it can no longer be
disguised or denied that the
Union is in danger. You have thus
had forced upon you the greatest
and the gravest question that can
ever come under your
consideration: How can the
Union be preserved?”
- Senator John C. Calhoun,
Compromise of 1850 (pg. 156)
Missouri Compromise, 1820
Characteristics of the Antebellum* South
1. Mainly agrarian (farms).
2. “Cotton Is King!”
a. 1860 5 mil. bales a yr.
(57% of total US exports).
3. Very slow development of industrialization.
4. Basic financial system.
5. Inadequate (not good enough)
transportation system.
* pre-Civil War era
Southern Society (1850)
6,000,000
Plantation Owners
[wealthy whites]
The “Plain Folk”
[middle class & poor white farmers]
Black Freemen
250,000
Black Slaves
3,200,000
Total US Population  23,000,000
[9,450,000 in the South = 40%]
Please write these questions
below last Friday’s notes &
answer them
 What was the Southern economy based on?
 What was the main cash crop of the South?
 What does Antebellum mean?
 What percentage of the South were African
Americans?
 What percentage of the U.S. population lived
in the South (total)?
Slave-Owning Families (1850)
Southern Population
1860
1820
Changes in Cotton Production
Compromise of 1850
 California wants to become a state (slave-free)

Pro-slave southerners angry
 Henry Clay, “The Great Compromiser,” writes a
compromise.



CA would be a free state.
stronger fugitive (escape) slave laws written
New territories (NM & UT) would are given
popular sovereignty.
 People in those states vote to decide
whether to be slave or free
Compromise of 1850
The Underground Railroad
 See page 159.
 A network of routes slaves used to
escape from the South
 Harriet Tubman, a former slave,
was the most famous helper.
 She helped 300 slaves escape.
Runaway Slave Ads
Harriet
Beecher
Stowe
(1811 – 1896)
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, 1852
 Book written by Harriet Beecher Stowe
 Discussed the worst parts of slavery
 Slavery is a moral issue
“So this is the
lady who started
the Civil War…”
 Abolitionists get angry!
 Southern slave owners get angry!
Kansas and Nebraska Act
 KA & NB want to become states
 The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
 divided the territory into two states
(Nebraska & Kansas).
 Allowed popular sovereignty in both
states.
 Pro-slave
vote!
& abolitionist rush to Kansas to
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854
Bleeding Kansas- Mini Civil War?
 In 1855, a vote was held in KS to establish the
slavery policy.
 Violence broke out between abolitionists and
proslavery people.
 North and South angrier with each other
“Bleeding Kansas”
The Crime Against Kansas =
Violence in the Senate
 Charles Sumner spoke against slavery to the
senate.
 He is attacked by the nephew of a pro-slave
senator
 Sumner has brain damage & cannot serve for
3 years
Political Parties
 Whig party falls apart

(split on slavery): former Whigs look for a new party
 American/Know-Nothing Party: nativists





anti-immigration, split on slavery
Democratic Party: pro-slavery
Republicans: abolitionist
Liberty Party: abolitionist
Free Soil Party: opposed slavery b/c slavery
competed w/ the cheap labor of whites.

Many were racists.
Dred Scott vs. Sanford, 1857
 Dred Scott, a slave, was taken into
free states
 Dred Scott sued for freedom
because he had been illegally
enslaved.
 Supreme Court: ruled against Scott

Cited 5th amendment: protecting slave
owners’ property rights
Son of a slave owner, Chief Justice Taney.
Most of the Justices on the Supreme Court
were from the South.
Lincoln-Douglas Debate, 1858
 Senate race between Steven Douglas and
Abraham Lincoln
 Both opposed slavery
 Douglas – supported popular sovereignty
 Lincoln – slavery is immoral.

Wants to stop it from spreading,
but not outlaw it already in
effect
Anti-Slavery Rebellions!
 Nat Turner: VA slave who,
w/ 50 other slaves, killed 60
whites. (1831)
 John Brown: attempted to
start a slave uprising (1859)



he, w/ 21 other men, to raid a
Federal arsenal of weapons in
Harper’s Ferry VA.
failed.
He was tried and executed.
Lincoln Becomes President,
1860
“A house divided against
itself cannot stand”
Pres. Abraham Lincoln
 Didn’t want slavery to expand, but would allow
it to continue in the states that already had it
◊ Dec. 1860: S. Carolina secedes from the Union
Followed by 11 other states
◊ VA splits, creating W. VA= Union State
(1863)
The Confederate States of
America
 Formed by States that
Seceded
 Jefferson Davis is
named President
 They write a new
constitution allowing
slavery
The Union and Confederacy
They are slave states, but stay with the Union
Please write and answer the following
questions below your notes
1. Which state had to do with the Compromise of
1850?
2. Which laws became stronger b/c of the Compromise
1850?
3. What does popular sovereignty mean?
4. Due to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, what happened?
5. What did Harriet Beecher Stowe do?
6. Who was Dred Scott?
7. Who was the 1st President of the Confederate States
of America?