Slavery and the Road to Civil War

1. Slavery and the Road to Civil War Prelude to War

2. Popular Sovereignty • Allowing the people to choose whether to be a slave or free state • Letting people vote on it!

3. Compromise of 1850 • California applied for statehood • Would upset the equal balance between number of slave and free states • California would enter as a free state • Popular sovereignty would determine slavery in all other western territories • Texas agree to give up claims to area west of Rio Grande in exchange for $10 million • Washington D.C. abolish slave trade but not slavery • Fugitive slave law required northerners to return slaves to southern plantation owners

5. Significance • California made it 16 free states to 15 slave states in Senate • Set precedent against expansion of slavery in the west • Southerners agree to end slave trade in D.C. (the capital!) • Averted civil war for another 10 years • North able to develop industry – very important!

6. Reaction to Fugitive Slave Law • Northerners were horrified to find out they had to return slaves who had made it to free states • Mobs formed to attack slave catchers who tried to return slaves • Transformed abolitionism from radical idea to mainstream movement

7. Underground Railroad • Few slaves actually escaped all the way north • Southern plantation owners were furious that northerners were encouraging slaves to run away but some in south helped slaves to escape • Several thousand slaves escaped into the North and Canada • “Conductor” Harriet Tubman aka “Black Moses”

9. States’ Rights • Kansas-Nebraska Act: • Allowed people of Kansas and Nebraska to decide if their states would be free or slave- popular sovereignty • Overturned Missouri Compromise • “Bleeding Kansas” • Protest and killings over issue of slavery • Proslavery Missourians “Border Ruffians” crossed state line into Kansas to claim land, hoped to make Kansas a slave state • Rigged elections, recruited family and friends to cast illegal ballots, voted multiple times • Abolitionists from north create “free-soil” towns • Border Ruffians and free-soilers start own civil war in Kansas for power

11. States’ Rights • Dred Scott Decision: Slave who lived with his master in free state Sued to be free Supreme Court refused to hear case -only citizens can file suit, slaves were property -Missouri Compromise was illegal Incited further sectionalism in the country

12. Northern Backlash • Southerners praised decision while Northerners were horrified • Thousands protested • Some northern states nullified the decision

13. John Brown’s Raid 1859 • John Brown of Kansas • Abolitionist • Took twenty men to arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia hoping to start a slave rebellion • Did not mention this to slaves – none rose up • Brown and men trapped in arsenal by Federal troops • Brown arrested, tried and hung • Southerners glad he was punished • Became a national hero and patriot to Northerners

14. John Brown’s Raidon Harper’s Ferry, 1859

15. III. Slavery • Fugitive Slave Law (1793): • Required return of runaway enslaved people between states

17. Slavery • Slave rebellions were a constant concern • Ex. Nat Turner- killed owner’s family • Southerners tightened control!

19. Slavery • Uncle Tom’s Cabin • Published Harriet Beccher Stowe • Gave slavery a face for those who had never witnessed it firsthand