Transcript Unit5P31850stoDredScott

SOL 6e
Sectionalism in the 1850s
California Crisis
• In 1848 Gold was
discovered. People
flocked to California
• The territory applied
to become a free
state
• But there would be
NO slave state to join
it
Secession
• Southern politicians threatened secession
(leaving the union) unless the future of slavery was
guaranteed
• Henry Clay (“the Great Compromiser”) came
along AGAIN to save the day
The 1850 Compromise
• President Taylor
believed that
California should be
able to join the
union as it
wanted…he
threatened to veto
the Compromise
• After he died,
Fillmore signed the
compromise
The 1850 Compromise
Fugitive Slave Act
• This became the most controversial part of the
1850 Compromise
• Southerners wanted a strong fugitive slave law
because more and more slaves were escaping to
the North via the Underground Railroad
• What was the Fugitive Slave Act:
– All runaways had to be returned (no matter when they
escaped)
– It became illegal to aid runaway slaves
– Accused runaways were denied a jury trial.
Magistrates were paid more to convict…
The Underground Railroad
Free blacks and
Northern
abolitionists
organized an
escape network
called the
Underground
Railroad.
The map shows
the routes
“conductors”
used to lead
enslaved blacks to
freedom.
The Underground Railroad
A fugitive slave from
Maryland, Harriet
Tubman, was called the
“Black Moses” because
she led so many people
to freedom on the
Underground Railroad.
Fugitive Slave Act
• Horror stories of former slaves
taken back to the Deep South were told
throughout the North
• In 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe
wrote a novel about slavery and the
Fugitive Slave Act, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• This book more than ANY abolitionist
caused Northern public opinion to turn
against slavery. The book became a
runway bestseller
Primary Sources
• Fugitive Slave Act Sources
Personal Liberty Laws
• Laws enacted in many northern states to protect
free blacks and fugitive slaves from southern slave
catchers. Early laws required a formal hearing
before a local court. When these kinds of provisions
were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme
Court in Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842), new laws
prohibited state officials from helping slave
catchers. What were the Northern states doing
here?
• This is nullification…
Pierce Video Clip
Pierce and Expansion
• 1. Commodore Perry and Japan – North
• 2. Gadsden Purchase – South
• 3. Expansion into Central America – South
Pierce and Expansion
• As president, Pierce followed an expansionist
foreign policy. He sponsored private US citizens in
their attempts to take over Honduras and Nicaragua
• In 1854 the Secret Ostend Manifesto was made
public. This was a secret government plan to take
over Cuba
• This convinced many Northerners that a slaveowner’s conspiracy existed
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Americans realized
that California needed
to be joined to the
Eastern states. A
railroad would do this
• Both the North and
the South wanted the
railroad…why?
• Remember, the South had pushed for the
Gadsden Purchase, so they could build a railroad
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Stephen Douglas a Northern Democrat from Illinois
wanted the railroad to go through Illinois…but what could
he give the South?
• He decided to sacrifice the Missouri Compromise
Review: The Missouri Compromise
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• The Kansas Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise
• It created two territories in the Northern Louisiana Purchase,
Kansas and Nebraska
• The issue of slavery in those territories would be decided by
“popular sovereignty”. Many Northerners hated this deal. The
act led to the death of the Whig Party. A new party was formed
to stop the spread of slavery: The Republican Party
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• When Congress passed the K-N Act, they assumed
Nebraska would become a free state and Kansas would
become a slave state
• Southerners became outraged when New England
abolitionists organized a society to colonize Kansas…why?
Bleeding Kansas
• Settlers from the North
and South poured into
Kansas
• Border Ruffians
– Illegal votes
– Illegal proslavery
government (Lecompton)
– Abolitionists set up their
own government at Topeka
• Violence broke out in 1856
– Lawrence
– Pottawatomie Massacre
Bleeding Kansas
• Reporters called the violence “Bleeding Kansas”
• Start of the Civil War?
The 1856 Election
• Performance of Republican Party
• Sectionalism
Violence Reaches Washington, DC
• Congressmen angrily discussed events in Kansas.
Both North and South blamed each other
• Charles Sumner’s speech toward Andrew Butler
• Preston Brooks
– Northern reaction
– Southern reaction
Violence Reaches Washington, DC
The President Relies on the Supreme Court
• James Buchanan
• Dred Scott v Sandford
• Buchanan’s hopes
– Remove sectionalism
– Move on
The President Relies on the Supreme Court
• YOU ARE THE JUDGE!
The Dred Scott Decision
• 1. Dred Scott, as a black man, was NOT a citizen;
therefore he could not bring the lawsuit
• 2. Slavery was protected by the 5th amendment
because slaves were property
• 3. THEREFORE…slaves could be taken
ANYWHERE
– Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional
– Congress could NOT pass laws restricting slavery
Reaction to the Dred Scott Decision
• Most Democrats were happy –
the decision seemed to say that
slavery could go ANYWHERE
• Most Republicans thought
that the court had made a
mistake and simply ignored the
issue.