Transcript Lesson 2 File

US Laws Regarding Slavery
1. U. S. Constitution:
* 3/5s compromise [I.2]
* fugitive slave clause [IV.2]
2. 1793  Fugitive Slave Act.
3. 1850  stronger Fugitive Slave Act.
“The Slave Power Conspiracy”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The planter aristocracy - a very small percent of southern society controlled the social, political, and economic power of the south.
From the first presidential election to the election of Lincoln,
Southerners controlled the federal government most of the time. The
only presidents who were re-elected were slave-owning Democrats.
The South held disproportionate political power under the Constitution.
All states had 2 senators, regardless of population (northern pop
growing!), 3/5 Compromise: gave slave states an average of 20 more
Representatives after each census than they would have had on the
basis of a free populace. Slaves states had about 30 more electoral
votes than their share of the voting population would have otherwise
allowed.
For the entire 72 years, the majority of Supreme Court justices were
Southerners and most were slave owners. 2/3 of the Speakers of the
House and Presidents Pro Tem of the Senate were Southerners.
From 1800-1860 when the Democrats were the predominate political
party - the party of states rights - they used their power to pass federal
laws designed to strength slavery as a national institution.
Southern Influence on Federal Law
• In 1835, after Congress failed to pass a law prohibiting the
Post Office from sending “incendiary publications” through
the mails, Jackson and those who followed tacitly allowed
such suppression.
• In 1836, Congress banned debating slavery issues in the
house. (Was not lifted until 1845.) The 1836 “gag rule” simply
meant that Congress would accept anti-slavery petitions, thus
not stepping on First Amendment issues. But they would then
immediately be set aside with no discussion. During a 4month session in 1838-39, the House received 1,496 antislavery petitions bearing 163,845 signatures.
• In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed.
Missouri Compromise
In 1819, Missouri requested admission to the Union
as a slave state. There are 11 slave states, 11 free
states.
• South says North conspiring to destroy the Union,
end slavery
• North says South trying to extend slavery
• Henry Clay of Kentucky
•
(Speaker of the House)
How could this cause
disunity?
– Worried of talk of disunion, civil war
North
• Is the Union falling apart?
South
The Missouri Compromise
• To keep the peace, Congress orchestrated a
two-part compromise, granting Missouri’s
request but also admitting Maine as a free
state. It also passed an amendment that drew
an imaginary line across the former Louisiana
Territory, establishing a boundary between
free and slave regions that remained the law
of the land until it was negated by the KansasNebraska Act of 1854.
The Missouri Compromise banned slavery
above the 36º30' latitude lines.
Nat Turner Revolt, 1831
– Preacher from Virginia who planned revolt for several
years
– In 1831, slaughters 55 whites (women & children included)
in 48 hours
• 200 innocent blacks killed in retaliation
– Impact
• Laws passed censoring abolitionist papers
• Laws passed limiting black education & religious
practices
Sources and Accounts
How significant do you think
this evident would be on the
Union?
The Wilmot Proviso, 1846
• By the standards of his day, David Wilmot could be
considered a racist.
• Yet the Pennsylvania representative was so adamantly
against the extension of slavery to lands ceded by
Mexico, he made a proposition that would divide the
Congress. On August 8, 1846, Wilmot introduced
legislation in the House that boldly declared, "neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist" in
lands won in the Mexican-American War. If he was not
opposed to slavery, why would Wilmot propose such an
action? Why would the north, which only contained a
small, but growing minority, of abolitionists, agree?
Stop Slave
Power!
It never became law…but
demonstrates growing tensions.
Repercussions
• But in the repeated votes on the bill, party discipline
broke down and sectional loyalties asserted
themselves
• Wilmot was a Democrat and northern Democrats and
northern Whigs voted with him.
• Southern Democrats and southern Whigs voted against
the bill.
• Congressmen voted on the Wilmot Proviso according
to whether they were from the North or South. Not
according which party they belonged to.
• The country was lining up North vs. South over the
issue of slavery
Free
States
Original
13
States
California (1850)
Wisconsin (1848)
Iowa (1846)
Michigan (1837)
Maine (1820)
Texas (1845)
Florida (1845)
Arkansas (1836)
Missouri (1821)
Illinois (1818)
Alabama (1819)
Indiana (1816)
Mississippi (1817)
Ohio (1803)
Louisiana (1812)
Vermont (1791)
Tennessee (1796)
Rhode Island
Kentucky (1792)
New York
Virginia
New Hampshire
North Carolina
Massachusetts
South Carolina
Connecticut
Maryland
New Jersey
Georgia
Pennsylvania
Delaware
Slave
States
The 1850 Compromise
• California was admitted to the Union as the 16th free
state.
• In exchange, the south was guaranteed that no federal
restrictions on slavery would be placed on Utah or New
Mexico.
• Texas lost its boundary claims in New Mexico, but the
Congress compensated Texas with $10 million.
• Slavery was maintained in the nation's capital, but the
slave trade was prohibited.
• Finally, and most controversially, a Fugitive Slave Law
was passed, requiring northerners to return runaway
slaves to their owners under penalty of law.
Who gained the
most?
North or South?
FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW
(1850)
• It was a law that REQUIRED citizens
to catch runaway slaves.
• If a person did not comply, they cold
be fined up to $1000 or put in jail for
SIX months.
• Judges received $10 if they returned
a slave and $5 if they freed them.
• MANY blacks who were free were
captured and sent back into slavery.
• Northerners HATED this law because
it forced them to become a part of
the system of slavery.
• Do you think they enforced it?
UNCLE TOM’S CABIN
(1852)
• This was a NOVEL written by
Harriett Beecher Stowe.
• It was written to show the EVILS of
slavery by telling the story of an
older slave who was whipped to
death by his owner.
• After reading it, MANY Northerners
began to change their view of
slavery.
• Southerners said the book was full
of LIES!
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/stowe/sto
we.html
KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT
(1854)
Democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas
of Illinois sponsored this bill.
Popular Sovereignty
• The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by
the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It
allowed people in the territories of
Kansas and Nebraska to decide for
themselves whether or not to allow
slavery within their borders. The Act
served to repeal the Missouri
Compromise of 1820 which prohibited
slavery north of latitude 36°30´.
• The Kansas-Nebraska Act infuriated
many in the North who considered the
Missouri Compromise to be a longstanding binding agreement. In the proslavery South it was strongly supported.
• After the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, proslavery and anti-slavery supporters rushed in to
settle Kansas to affect the outcome of the first
election held there after the law went into effect.
Pro-slavery settlers carried the election but were
charged with fraud by anti-slavery settlers, and
the results were not accepted by them.
• The anti-slavery settlers held another election,
however pro-slavery settlers refused to vote. This
resulted in the establishment of two opposing
legislatures within the Kansas territory.
• Violence soon erupted, with the anti-slavery
forces led by John Brown. The territory earned
the nickname "bleeding Kansas" as the death toll
rose.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
I. The Nebraska Territory was divided into two parts:
Nebraska (NE) and Kansas (KS).
Kansas-Nebraska Act
II. The people of each territory voted on whether or not to
allow slavery. (popular sovereignty)
* The Kansas-Nebraska Act violated the Missouri
Compromise. Both territories were north of 36 , 30’ N and
should NOT have been allowed to have slaves.
“Bleeding Kansas”
Before the vote on slavery:
• Northerners crossed the
border to keep KS a free
state.
• Southerners crossed the
border to make KS a slave
state.
• Both sides claimed
victory on the vote!
• John Brown orchestrated the murder of five
proslavery settlers along Pottawatomie Creek.
Four months of partisan violence ensued. Small
armies ranged over eastern Kansas.
• John W. Geary, appointed territorial governor in
September, managed to cool the "border war"
with the aid of federal troops. But Kansas had
hardly ceased bleeding--as became apparent in
1858 with the Marais des Cygnes massacre of five
free-state men and pronounced disorder in
several counties. Although Kansas in that year
once and for all rejected the proslavery
Lecompton constitution, such violence continued
on a smaller scale into 1861.
Violence in the Senate Chambers, May 22, 1856
• The Senate was not in session when South Carolina Representative
Preston S. Brooks entered the chamber to avenge the insults that
Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner. Sumner's "Crime Against
Kansas" speech of May 19-20 was sharply critical, of those who had
supported the "popular sovereignty" provisions of the 1854 KansasNebraska Act. Sumner was at his desk when Brooks began his attack,
striking the northern senator repeatedly with a walking cane, which
splintered with the force of the blows. Although two House members
intervened to end the assault, Sumner, who had ripped his desk loose
from the bolts holding it to the floor in his effort to escape, was
rendered unconscious. He regained consciousness shortly after the
attack, but it would be three years before he felt able to resume his
senatorial duties.
• The caning of Senator Sumner signalled the end of an era of
compromise and sectional accommodation in the Senate, further
heightening the discord that culminated in war after eleven southern
states seceded from the Union during the winter of 1860-1861.
The Election of 1856
James Buchanan
John C. Fremont
• Democrats nominate
Ambassador James
Buchanan
• Southern Whigs &
Know-Nothings form
American Party –
nominate Fillmore
• Conscience Whigs,
Antislavery Democrats
& Free Soilers form new
Republican Party –
nominate Fremont
DRED SCOTT DECISION
(1857)
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http://encarta.msn.com/media
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Dred Scott was a slave.
He had lived in a free territory with his owner.
His owner moved back into a slave state.
While there, the owner died.
Scott had ABOLITIONIST attorneys file a law
suit for him.
It went to the Supreme Court but he LOST.
The Court ruled he was NOT a citizen but
RATHER property and therefore he could not
file a lawsuit.
Also, they ruled that Congress could NOT ban
slavery in any of the territories.
This REPEALED the Missouri Compromise.
Southerners LOVED the ruling while
Northerners HATED it. It meant slavery could
spread into all the territories!
Dredd Scott v Sandford 1857
• People of African descent are not protected by
the Constitution. Therefore they cannot sue
in Federal court.
• As property, slaves cannot be taken from their
owners
• US Congress has no authority to limit slavery
Lincoln-Douglas Debate
• The Lincoln–Douglas Debates of 1858 were a
series of seven debates between Abraham
Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the Senate
in Illinois, and Senator Stephen Douglas, the
Democratic Party candidate. At the time, U.S.
senators were elected by state legislatures; thus
Lincoln and Douglas were trying for their
respective parties to win control of the Illinois
legislature. The debates previewed the issues
that Lincoln would face in the aftermath of his
victory in the 1860 presidential election. The
main issue discussed in all seven debates was
slavery.
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE
(1858)
• Douglas believed in
deciding slavery by popular
sovereignty.
• Lincoln believed that
slavery should NOT be
allowed to spread into the
territories.
• Lincoln ALSO believed the
Nation could not survive if
the fighting continued to
rip the Union apart with
the slavery issue.
"A House Divided"
• In his “House Divided” speech, Abraham Lincoln addresses how the election
of President Buchanan, the Nebraska Bill, and the Dred Scott decision will
affect the unity of the Nation.
• “In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and
passed. ``A house divided against itself cannot stand.'' I believe this
government cannot endure; permanently half slave and half free. I do not
expect the Union to be dissolved ---I do not expect the house to fall ---but I do
expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the
other.”
• “Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place
it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate
extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike
lawful in all the States, old as well as new---North as well as South. Have we
no tendency to the latter condition?”
RAID ON HARPER’S FERRY
(1859)
• John Brown was at it again!
• This time, he led five blacks and
thirteen whites into Harper’s Ferry.
• They planned to raid an arsenal and
start a slave revolt.
• Problem: No slaves “rose” to help.
• A number of his men died and Brown
was arrested by Robert E. Lee.
• Brown was tried and found guilty of
murder and treason. He was later
hanged.
• Some Northerners thought of him as
a “Martyr” (someone who dies for
his beliefs.)
Election of 1860:
Main Candidates
Abraham
Lincoln
(Republican)
John
Breckinridge
(Southern
Democrat)
Stephen
Douglas
(Northern
Democrat)
John Bell
(Constitutional
Union)
* Lincoln won the election.
ELECTION OF 1860
ELECTION OF 1860
http://www.multied.com/elections/1860.html
• Lincoln ran against Douglas in the
Presidential Election of 1860.
• The Southern states did not like Lincoln or
what he believed in. They overwhelmingly
supported Douglas yet Lincoln STILL got
elected.
• Southerners grew very angry. Said this
showed it did not matter what their
opinions were, the North had too much
power!
• Many Southerners talked of SECEDING from
the Union.