The Sectional Crisis

1. The Sectional Crisis 1848 - 1860

2. Missouri Compromise 1820 Missouri was admitted as a slave state, and Maine (Mass. territory), was admitted as a non-slave state. This kept the number of slave and free states equal at 12 each. All Louisiana Purchase territory north of the 36’30’’ line of latitude would exclude slavery.

3. Missouri Compromise 1820

4. William Lloyd Garrison • Radical white abolitionist • Published The Liberator, an antislavery newspaper in Boston (1831) • Founded the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833 • Burned the Constitution in 1844, calling it “an Agreement with Hell.”

5. William Lloyd Garrison Publisher of The Liberator

6. The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison, publisher Boston, Massachusetts 1831

7. Frederick Douglass • Born into slavery and escaped to the North • Published abolitionist newspaper, The North Star • Gave powerful speeches in the United States and Great Britain • Wrote autobiography which sold thousands of copies

8. Frederick Douglass

9. Harriet Tubman • Called “the Black Moses” • Escaped slave who was a major “conductor” on the Underground Railroad • Made over 30 trips helping over 300 slaves reach freedom

10. Underground Railroad A network of secret escape routes that led runaway slaves from the South to freedom in the North

11. Harriet Tubman “Black Moses”

12. Tubman Rescued Slaves

13. Mexican Cession • 1846 - U.S. wins the Mexican War • Mexico cedes 525,000 square miles of land in present-day New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, California, and Nevada

14. Wilmot Proviso and the “Free Soil” Movement 1846 – Before the Mexican-American was over Congressman David Wilmot, Democrat from Pennsylvania Proposed that slavery and the settlement of any free blacks would be prohibited in any new territory acquired from Mexico Appealed to abolitionists and racists

15. Democrats and Whigs Proviso is backed by both Democrats and Whigs in the North Opposed by both Democrats and Whigs in the South The two-party system begins to split along sectional lines based on the issue of slavery The Proviso is defeated and the issue is not resolved before the 1848 election

16. Election of 1848 Democrats – Senator Lewis Cass– proposed “squatter sovereignty” – allow the people of the new territories to vote on issue of slavery Whigs – General Zachary Taylor – slave holding Southerner – refused to take a stand on the slavery issue but promised to support whatever measures were taken by Congress on the issue Taylor wins

17. President Zachary Taylor

18. Territory gained in the Mexican Cession

19. California Gold Rush • 1849 – Gold discovered in California • Population booms from 15,000 to over 100,000 by late 1849 • Gives CA enough residents to become a state • San Francisco becomes a major financial and market center on the west coast

20. Gold seekers traveled west on the Oregon Trail then south along the California Trail - a 2000 mile trek

21. Gadsden Purchase • 1853 • Small area of flat land south of Arizona purchased from Mexico • Needed for the building of the railroad west

22. Gadsden Purchase

23. Video A Decade of Discord

24. Compromise of 1850 • A series of bills, meant to satisfy both northern and southern lawmakers • Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois key negotiator in getting separate pieces of legislation passed • California entered the Union as a free state • Squatters’ sovereignty (popular sovereignty) in New Mexico and Utah. Territorial legislatures would decide whether to be free or slave.

25. Compromise of 1850 Slave auctions and depots would be abolished in Washington, D.C. Fugitive Slave Act Fugitives denied a jury trial Fugitives could not testify in own defense Led to the kidnapping of and enslavement of legally free blacks Neither the South nor North entirely pleased with the plan

26. Harriet Beecher Stowe Wrote a novel in 1852 called Uncle Tom’s Cabin which told of the horrors of slavery When Abe Lincoln met her he reportedly said, “So this is the little lady who brought on this big war.”

27. Kansas-Nebraska Act • 1854 - Proposed by Stephen A. Douglas • Goal was economic growth, rapid settlement, and building of the transcontinental railroad • Would create territories of Kansas and Nebraska • Popular sovereignty would decide the issue of slavery

29. Kansas-Nebraska Act Direct violation of the Missouri Compromise which had banned slavery about the 36’30” line A few southern lawmakers demanded a repeal of the Missouri Compromise Douglas agreed

30. Consequences of the Kansas-Nebraska Act Northerners felt betrayed because land that had been closed to slavery was now open again Added to the Northern suspicion that there had always been a Southern conspiracy to spread slavery Douglas lost support of many Democrats who believed he had violated a sacred pledge to limit slavery (“independent Democrats”)

31. Consequences of the Kansas-Nebraska Act 66 northern Democrats lost their Congressional seats in the 1854 elections to Free Soilers and the new Republican Party Whig Party disintegrates as northerners and southerners cannot unite over slavery issue Republicans become the party of the North Democrats the party of the South

32. “Bleeding Kansas” • Over 1000 New Englanders were sent to Kansas to fight against slavery. • Many Southerners crossed into Kansas from Missouri to vote illegally for slavery. • By 1855 anti-slavery forces had created a second capital at Lawrence. • Many died in violent raids between pro and anti slavery groups.

33. “Bleeding Kansas”

34. Dred Scott • A slave living in Missouri • Filed suit against his owner • Claimed he should be free because he and his wife had once lived in a free territory

35. Dred Scott

36. Dred Scott Decision • 1857 Supreme Court ruled that • Scott had no right to sue in court because he was black and therefore not a citizen • Congress did not have the power to ban slavery in states or territories because slaves were private property

37. John Brown

38. John Brown’s Raid • White abolitionist from Kansas • 1859 - Led an attack on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia • Intended to give guns to slaves for an armed rebellion • Convicted of treason and hanged

39. Painting, depicting John Brown on his way to the gallows to be hung, stopping to kiss a black child (Did not really happen)