Conflict Over Slavery in the 1850s: Changing National Politics

1. Conflict Over Slavery in the 1850s: Changing National Politics

2. Objectives • Analyze how deepening sectional distrust affected the nation’s politics. • Compare the positions of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglason the issue of slavery. • Explain the effect of John Brown’s raid on the slavery debate.

3. Know-Nothings – members of an anti-immigrant movement Republican Party – political party founded in 1854 that opposed slavery Dred Scott – a Missouri slave who sued for his freedom Roger B. Taney – chief justice of the Supreme Court that ruled against Dred Scott Terms and People

4. Abraham Lincoln – Republican politician from Illinois who opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act Stephen A. Douglas – an Illinois politician, rival to Lincoln, who supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act Harper’s Ferry – Location of federal arsenal that John Brown tried to seize to arm a revolution against slavery Terms and People(continued)

5. What developments deepened the divisions between the North and South? By the mid-1850s, negotiation and compromise seemed unable to resolve a deep divide that had developed between sections of the nation. As westward expansion continued, these deep sectional differences threatened to tear the nation apart.

6. Politics reflected regional divisions. In the presidential election of 1856, there were five political parties.

7. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the case of Dred Scott, an enslaved man who sued for his freedom on the grounds that his owner had taken him to a free state. Within a year of the election, another event intensified the divisions in the nation over slavery.

8. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney handed down a controversial decision in March, 1857. • The court ruled against Scott, saying that slaves were property and as such were not allowed to sue in court. • The court further ruled that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. • The Dred Scott decision pleased the South, but angered the North and abolitionists.

9. In 1858, in a race for the Illinois senate seat, Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln debated the issue of slavery. The seven Lincoln-Douglas debates received national attention.

10. Lincoln and Douglas laid out their views.

11. Douglas won the Senate seat by a slim margin. The debates gave Lincoln the national recognition that would be important in the 1860 presidential election. Both candidates believed the issue of slavery had to be resolved peacefully, within the framework of laws.

12. His goal was toinspire local slaves to join a revolution that would defeat slavery.Most abolitionists (black and white) refused to join Brown, although a few sent money for guns. Radical abolitionist John Brown believed that violence was the best way to end the evil of slavery. In 1859, Brown organized a small party of men and attacked a federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.

13. John Brown’s raid failed in its purpose, but it intensified national division. • Brown was arrested, tried, and executed. • Although Lincoln and other Republicans condemned Brown, many northern abolitionists considered him a martyr. • Southerners were outraged that a man who had planned a slave revolt was hailed as a hero.

14. By the end of the 1850s, attempts at compromise over slavery had failed. The possibility of war between the North and South grew stronger.