Slavery and the West: The Beginning

1. Unit 6 Civil War and Reconstruction

2. Chapter 15 Slavery and the West

3. The Beginning • The Missouri Compromise of 1819 divided the free and slave states evenly • President John Quincy Adams at the time called the bill, “A fire-bell in the night that awakened and filled me with terror.” It was “A mere preamble – A title page to a great tragic volume”

4. New Western Lands • In the 1840’s new territories brought back the slavery issue • Texas, along with New Mexico and California were new states that needed to decide on slavery • Representative David Wilmot came up with the Wilmot Proviso, which stated that slavery should be prohibited in lands that might be acquired from Mexico

5. Debate • John C. Calhoun of South Carolina countered with a proposal that stated that neither congress nor and territory government had the right to ban slavery • Neither Wilmot’s nor Calhoun’s proposal passed, but it created a heated debate in congress between the two sides

6. The Free Soil Party • With neither candidate taking a stand on slavery, antislavery Whigs and democrats formed a new party • The Free Soil Party wanted, “Free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men.” • The party nominated former president Martin Van Buren, but he would lose to Whig candidate Zachary Taylor.

7. California • President Taylor wanted to avoid the slave debate on California and New Mexico altogether • He eventually decided to have the states apply for statehood, and have the people of those states vote and if they wanted slavery.

8. Southern Anger • With Cal, Ore, Utah, and NM leaning toward becoming free states, the southern states became upset • If the four states became free states, the southern slave states would be outnumbered in the Senate. • As tensions increased, the South talked about having their states secede, or or leave the United States

9. A New Compromise • Henry Clay came up with a five part plan: • 1. California would be Free • 2. New Mexico could have slavery • 3. The New Mexico-Texas border dispute would go in favor of New Mexico • 4. The Slave Trade (Not Slavery) would be banned in Washington D.C • 5. A Stronger Fugitive Slave Law

10. The Great Debate • Calhoun, now 70 and too weak to read his own speech, believed the only way to save the Union was to protect slavery • Daniel Webster (Mass) gave a speech three days later in support of the plan urging people to vote for it not as a Northern man, but as an American • A compromise would need to be met

11. Compromise of 1850 • Clay’s plan could not pass in it’s original form • President Taylor opposed Clay’s plan, but got ill in office and died, becoming the second president to die in office • New President Millard Fillmore supported some kind of compromise • Senator Stephan A. Douglas divided Clay’s plan into a complex series of measures that could be voted on separately

12. Compromise of 1850 • President Fillmore urged Whig representatives to simply abstain, or not cast votes on measures they opposed • Five separate bills were passed in August and September, in the compromise of 1850, which contained the five points of Clay’s plan. • The president consider this to be the final settlement of the slave issue. Unfortunately, Fillmore would be proved wrong

13. Section 2 A Nation Dividing

14. The New Controversy • The Fugitive Slave Act required all citizens to help catch runaway slaves, or pay up to $1,000 or be jailed. • Slaveholders increased their efforts on catching free slaves, including slaves free for years in the North

15. A New Controversy Ctd… • The hate for slavery rose in the North. People continued to buy freedom for slaves in the South • Juries refused to convict those of breaking the fugitive slave law • Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” which showed the evils of slavery. It sold more than 300,000 copies its first year.

16. Revisiting Missouri • New President Franklin Pierce, a democrat hoped to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law • A new problem emerged with the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, both were above the 36’30 degree line established in the Missouri Compromise • In this debate, violence would ensue

17. Douglas Decides • Douglas new Southerners would object to Kansas-Nebraska becoming free states. • He proposed popular sovereignty – or allowing the people to decide or vote on slavery • The Kansas Nebraska Act was passed, and Texas governor Sam Houston said, “This will upset the country form Maine to the Rio Grande

18. Conflict in Kansas • Although only 1,500 people lived in Kansas, 6,000 votes were cast for slavery • Thousands of proslavery voters from Missouri crossed the border just to vote in the election. • These Missourians traveled in armed groups and became known as Border Ruffians

19. Bleeding Kansas • In May 1856, 800 slavery supporters attacked the town of Lawrence, the anti slavery capital and burned down the hotel and the home of the governor • Soon, forces opposed to slavery retaliated

20. John Brown • John Brown was an abolitionists believed God had chosen him to end slavery. • Brown and his sons attacked proslavery people and seized and killed 5 proslavery members • Newspapers began referring to a “Civil War” in Kansas. A Civil war is a conflict between people of the same country.

21. Violence in Congress • Charles Sumner, an abolitionist lashed out in a speech against proslavery people in Kansas • He repeatedly criticizes Andrew Butler of South Carolina • Preston Brooks, a cousin of Butler, walked into the Senate Chamber two days later

22. Bleeding Congress? • He hit Sumner over the head and shoulders over and over with his cane. Sumner fell to the floor, bleeding and unconscious • His injuries were so severe he did not return to congress for several years. • This, along with bleeding Kansas revealed rising hostilities in the nation.

23. Section 3 Challenging Slavery

24. Take off your Whig • In 1854, antislavery members of the Whigs, democrats, and free-soil parties to form the Republican Party • The Republicans began to challenge pro slavery Whigs and Democrats in the state and congressional elections of 1854

25. Sectionalism Forms • Republicans showed strength in the North, as ¾ of the Northern Democrats lost their seats in congress to republicans • Meanwhile, in the South Republicans had almost no support • The Democrats were slowly becoming a Southern party

26. Election of 1856 • Democrats did not nominate President Pierce again because of the Kansas troubles, and nominated James Buchanan of Pennsylvania instead • Southern votes voted in Buchanan, and beat Republican candidate John C. Freemont. • Two days later, the supreme courts made a decision that changed the face of slavery

27. The Dred Scott Case • Dred Scott was a slave of a doctor in Missouri that moved North. When the doctor died, he wanted to be free, because he had lived on free soil • Eleven years later, the case reached the Supreme Court, and the public waited to hear the decision on slavery and the right to have slaves in the new territories

28. Shocking Decision • Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney, said Scott was still a slave, and had no right to bring a lawsuit. Taney did not stop there • He said Scott’s presence on free soil did not make him free, because an enslaved person was considered property.

29. Shocking Decision Ctd • Taney also wrote Congress had no right to prohibit slavery in any territory. He stated the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. • He also said popular sovereignty was unconstitutional, and in effect the decision meant that the Constitution protected slavery.

30. Reaction • Republicans and other anti slavery groups called the decision “A wicked and false judgment,” and, “The greatest crime ever committed in the nations courts”. • Fredrick Douglas hoped the decision would cause a chain of events that would lead to the overthrow of the entire slave system.

31. The Lincoln Douglas Debates • Democrat Stephan Douglas was considered a candidate for president in 1860, but was challenged for his senate seat in Illinois by little known Republican, Abraham Lincoln • The two would travel across Illinois, with Lincoln speaking out against slavery and Douglas defending the right for people to have slaves

32. The Lincoln Douglas Debates • Douglas defended slavery, because he believed ending slavery would divide the country and destroy the union. • However, Douglas took an image hit, because Lincoln cleverly narrowed the country into two sides, “The men who think slavery is wrong and those who do not think it is wrong. The Republican Party thinks it is wrong.”

33. Lincoln Emerges as a Leader • Douglas won reelection to the Senate in 1858, however he lost support in other areas. By saying voters could keep slavery out of a territory if they wanted, he lost support from the South. • Lincoln lost the debates, but now the nation was paying attention, and he became a serious Republican candidate for president.

34. The Raid on Harpers Ferry • John Brown returned to the spotlight by leading 18 men on a raid of Harpers Ferry Virginia for weapons. • Brown hoped the weapons could be given to slaves to spark an uprising • Marines under captain Robert E. Lee captured Brown before he could pull this off. 10 men, including 2 of his sons died

35. All out Sectionalism • Brown was found guilty of murder and treason and was hung on Dec. 2, 1859 • Although some republicans denounced Brown for being violent, to many Northerners, Brown was a hero • The South saw this as a Northern conspiracy against them, and now the South was on the edge of leaving the Union.

36. Section 4 The Union Cracks

37. Election of 1860 • The big question in this election was, “Will the Union break up?” • Antislavery sentiment was higher than ever in the North, while Alabama was one state that stated, “They would secede if a republican was elected president” • Many Democrats wanted to preserve the Union, but their party was divided

38. Democrats Split • Northern Democrats chose Stephen Douglas, but he was an enemy of the Southern Democrats since the Lincoln-Douglas debates • Southern Democrats chose John Breckinridge of Kentucky, who had the position slaves were property not to be moved into the territories

39. Republicans Vote Lincoln • Lincoln was chosen over Senator William Seward of New York. Seward was a long leader of the Republican party, but Lincoln was more moderate, or not as extreme in his beliefs, as Seward • A forth candidate, John Bell of Tennessee was nominated by the North and South by the Constitutional Union Party. This party took no position on slavery whatsoever.

40. The Outcome • Lincoln Wan a clear majority of electoral votes (180 of 303) but only 40% of the popular vote. The democrats two candidates split their parties votes. • The Vote was along purely sectional lines. • Lincoln’s name did not even appear on many Southern ballots, but he won every Northern State • Breckinridge took the South, Bell took the Border States, and Douglas only managed Missouri.

41. The Beginning of the End • Although Lincoln had promised not to end slavery, the South feared the republican government would not protect Southern rights and liberties. • On December 20th 1860, South Carolina held a special convention and voted to secede. • Secession is to withdrawal from the Union

42. Attempt at a Compromise • John Crittenden of Kentucky proposed a series of amendments to the Constitution, that would protect slavery south of the 36’30 line. • Republicans saw this as unacceptable. Lincoln saw this as a threat, “Now we are told, the government shall be broken up, unless we surrender to those we have beaten.”

43. Birth of the Confederacy • By the first of Feb, 1961, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia had joined South Carolina and seceded. • Calling themselves The Confederate States of America, they chose Jefferson Davis, a senator from Mississippi, as their president

44. Why?! • Southerners justified this because of States’ Rights. They saw the Constitution as a contract among the independent states. • They felt the North had broken this contract, by refusing to enforce the Fugitive slave act and denying the south equal rights in the territories.

45. Southern Reactions • Southerners welcomed secession, and people from Charleston celebrated in the streets. • Papers from Atlanta stated the South “will never submit” and would defend its liberties no matter what • Other Southerners were scared of war and sad their country had broken up. Robert E. Lee stated, “I see that only a fearful calamity is upon us”

46. Northern Response • Some abolitionists preferred to leave them alone. One republican newspaper stated, “Let the erring sisters depart in peace” • Lincoln would have none of it. His issue was whether in a free government the minority have the right to break up the government whenever they choose

47. Lincoln takes office • Although he won the election in November, he did not take office until March • President Buchanan thought the Southern states had the right to secede, Lincoln completely disagreed • He vowed to hold federal (Government) property in the South, and at the same time, he pleaded with the South for reconciliation.

48. Fort Sumter • The South tested Lincoln’s vow to hold federal property • Lincoln received a message from Fort Sumter that is was surrounded by Southern Troops, and they needed supplies (Food). No shots had been fired, but the Confederates demanded surrender

49. Fort Sumter Ctd • Lincoln informed Governor Francis Pickens of South Carolina that he was sending in supplies, and that Union forces would not fire on any Southerners • Confederate President Jefferson Davis made a historic decision. He ordered an attack on the Fort before supplies arrived.

50. Beginning of the Civil War • High Seas prevented Union relief from arriving, and the fort surrendered. No one was killed, although thousands of shots were fired • Lincoln called for 75,000 troops to fight to save the union. • Meanwhile, the border states, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas voted to join the confederacy. • The Civil War had begun