Slavery and the Federal Government's Right to Property

1. DO NOW IN YOUR OWN WORDS DEFINE THE TERM SLAVERY. DOES THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAVE THE RIGHT TO TAKE YOUR PROPERTY AWAY? EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWER

2. Chapter 4: The Union In Peril • Although many people escaped from slavery and headed north into free territory, even there they were not safe. Southerners believed that Article 4 Section 2, of the Constitution gave them the right to retrieve an enslaved person who fled across state lines. Some Northerners, however, held strong beliefs to the contrary and helped runaways. The war with Mexico only heightened these opposing viewpoints. The war opened vast new lands to American settlers, again raising the divisive issue of whether slavery could be allowed to spread westward.

3. ARTICLE 4 SECTION 2 OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states. A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another state, shall on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime.

4. Section 1: The Divisive Politics of Slavery Over the centuries, the Northern and Southern sections of the United States had developed into two very different cultural and economic regions. The distinction between North and South had its roots in the early 17th century, when the British colonists began settling Virginia in the South and Massachusetts in the North. Along with differences in geography and climate, the two regions were noticeable dissimilar in their religious and cultural traditions. However, it was the Southern dependence on the “peculiar institution” of slavery that increased tensions between the regions and that eventually brought them into conflict.

5. 1. North (Union) 2. industrialization 3. South (Confederates) 2. Northern Democrats and Whigs 1. industrialized; developing factories/urbanizing (cities) 2. mass production of products 3. agricultural (farming); reliant on slave labor Slavery and Westward Expansion: The South with its plantation economy, had come to rely on an enslaved labor force. The North, with its diversified industries, was less independent on slavery. As the North industrialized, Northern opposition to slavery grew more intense. The controversy over slavery only worsened as new territories and states were admitted to the union. Supporters of slavery saw an opportunity to create more slave states, while opponents remained equally determined that slavery should not be spread.

6. Spread of cotton plantations, rise in slave population in the South!!!! While the spread of cotton plantations boosted the Southern economy, it also made the demand for slave labor skyrocket. Congress had outlawed the foreign slave trade in 1808, but a high birthrate among enslaved encouraged slave owners---kept the population growing. Between 1820 and 1850, the number of slaves in the South rose from about 1.5 million to nearly 3.2 million, to account for almost 37% of the total Southern population. In a Southern white population of just over 6.1 million, a total of 347,725 families—about 30%--were slaveholders. Of this number, around 37,000 were plantation owners with 20 or more slaves. Of this number, around 37,000 were plantation owners with 20 or more slaves. Fewer than 8,000 of these planters held 50 or more people in slavery, and only 11 held 500 or more. Thus wealthy slaveholders who exploited large workforces were somewhat rare.

7. Due in large part to the gold rush, California had grown quickly and applied for statehood in December 1850. California’s new constitution forbade slavery, a fact that alarmed and angered many Southerners. They assumed that because most of California lay south of the Missouri Compromise line of 36 30, the state would be open to slavery. Southerners wanted the 1820 Compromise to apply to territories west of the Louisiana Purchase, thus ensuring that California would become a slave state. • 4. territory of California (1850) • 5. California’s constitution • 6. Southern reaction • 4. population grew quickly and applied for statehood • 5. forbade slavery • 6. began threatening secession (withdrawal from the Union)

8. Louisiana Purchase

9. Many Southerners assumed that because most of California lay south of the Missouri Compromise line of 36 30, the state would be open to slavery. Southerners wanted the 1820 Compromise to apply to territories west of the Louisiana Purchase, thus ensuring that California would become a slave state.

10. Slavery in the territories As the 31st Congress opened in December 1849, the question of statehood for California topped the agenda. Of equal concern was the border dispute in which the slave state of Texas claimed the eastern half of the New Mexico Territory, where the issue of slavery had not yet been settled. As passions mounted, threats of secession, the formal withdrawal of a state from the Union, became more frequent. Once again, Henry Clay worked to shape a compromise that both the North and the South could accept. After obtaining support of the powerful Massachusetts senator Daniel Webster, Clay presented to the Senate a series of resolutions later called the Compromise of 1850.

11. Clay’s compromise contained provisions to appease Northerners as well as Southerners. To please the North, the compromise provided that California be admitted to the Union as a free state. To please the South, the compromise proposed a new more effective fugitive slave law. To placate both sides, a provision allowed popular sovereignty, the right to vote for or against slavery, for residents of the New Mexico and Utah territories. • 7. Compromise of 1850 • 8. popular sovereignty • 7. admitted California as a free state; proposed a new effective fugitive slave law; created popular sovereignty (i.e. New Mexico and Utah) • 8. the right for citizens in a state/territory to decide for themselves (to vote for or against slavery)

12. To placate both sides, a provision allowed popular sovereignty, the right to vote for or against slavery, for residents of the New Mexico and Utah territories.

13. Popular Sovereignty • Popular sovereignty appealed strongly to many members of Congress because it removed the slavery issue from national politics. It also appeared democratic since the settlers themselves would make the decision. Abolitionists however, argued that it still denied African Americans their right not to be enslaved.

14. The Compromise of 1850

16. 9. Northerners 10. Fugitive Slave Act 9. opposed the Fugitive Slave Act 10. slave catchers needed no solid proof to point out alleged runaways; slaves not entitled to trial by jury To Northerners, one of the most objectionable components of the Compromise of 1850 was the Fugitive Slave At. Under this law, a slaveholder or slave-catcher had only to point out alleged runaways to have them taken into custody. Marshals could even deputize citizens on the spot to help them capture an alleged fugitive. The accused would then be brought before a federal commissioner. With no right to testify on their own behalf, even those who earned their freedom years earlier had no way to prove their case. An affidavit asserting the captive had escaped from a slaveholder or testimony by white witnesses, was all a court needed to order the person sent South. Furthermore, federal commissioners had a financial incentive to rule in favor of slaveholders; such judgments earned them a $10 fee, but judgments in favor of the accused paid only $5. In addition, anyone convicted of helping a fugitive was liable for a fine of $1,000 and imprisonment for up to six months.

17. The Underground Railroad Attempting to escape from slavery was a dangerous process. It meant traveling on foot at night without any sense of distance or direction, except for the North Star and other natural signs. It meant avoiding patrols of armed men on horseback and struggling through forests and across rivers. Often it meant going without food for days at a time. As time went on, free African Americans and white abolitionists developed a secret network of people who would, at great risk to themselves, hide fugitive slaves. The system of escape routes they used became known as the Underground Railroad.

18. 11. Underground railroad (1830s) 12. Conductors 11. organized secret network; key to many African American’s escape 12. transported runaways in secret, gave them food/shelter A key to many African American’s escape from the South was the Underground Railroad. This informal but well organized network of abolitionists began to expand in the early 1830s and helped thousands of enslaved persons flee north. “Conductors” transported runaways in secret, gave them shelter and food along the way, and saw them to freedom in the Northern states or Canada with some money for a fresh start. Conductors used secret signals to communicate about how to proceed safely—a hand lifted palm outwards, for example, or a certain kind of tug at the ear.

19. 13. Harriet Tubman (1850) 13. runaway slave who risked journey’s into slave states to rescue slaves The most famous conductor was Harriet Tubman, herself a runaway (born a slave in Maryland in 1820 or 1821). In 1849, after Tubman’s owner died, she heard rumors that she was about to be sold. Fearing this possibility, Tubman decided to make a break for freedom and succeeded in reaching Philadelphia. Shortly after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, Tubman resolved to become a conductor on the Underground railroad. Again and again, she risked journeys into the slave states to bring out men, women, and children. In all, she made 19 trips back to the South and is said to have helped 300 slaves—including her own parents---flee to freedom.

20. 14. Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852) 15. Uncle Tom’s Cabin 14. wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin 15. describes slavery and victims of Fugitive slave law Meanwhile, another woman brought the horrors of slavery into the homes of many Americans. The famous author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her exposure to runaway slaves and the tragic reports she heard later about victims of the Fugitive Slave Law inspired her to “write something that would make this whole nation feel what an accursed evil thing slavery is.” In 1852, Stowe published her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which stressed that slavery was not just a political contest, but also a great moral struggle. As a young girl, Stowe had watched boats filled with people on their way to be sold at slave markets. Uncle Tom’s Cabin expressed her lifetime hatred of slavery. The book stirred abolitionists to increase their protests against the Fugitive Slave Act, while Southerners criticized the book as an attack on the South. The furor over Uncle Tom’s Cabin had barely begun to settle when the issue of slavery in territories surfaced once again.

21. Uncle Tom’s Cabin In 1851, from her home in Brunswick, Maine, Stowe began writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin. After first running as a newspaper serial, the story came out the next year in book form an sold an astounding 300,000 copies. Stowe’s depiction of the enslaved hero, Tom, and the villainous overseer, Simon Legree, aroused passionate antislavery sentiment in the North. Southerners were outraged at Stowe’s novel, and some accused Stowe of writing distortions and falsehoods. Despite Southern outrage, the book eventually sold millions of copies. It had such a dramatic impact on public opinion that many historians consider it a cause of the Civil War.

22. Tension in Kansas and Nebraska The Compromise of 1850 had provided for popular sovereignty in New Mexico and Utah. To Senator Stephan Douglas, popular sovereignty seemed like an excellent way to decide whether slavery would be allowed in the Nebraska Territory. The only difficulty was that, unlike New Mexico and Utah, the Kansas and Nebraska territory lay north of the Missouri Compromise line of 36 30’ and therefore was legally closed to slavery.

23. Missouri Compromise of 1850

24. Douglas introduced a bill in Congress on January 23, 1854, that would divide the area into two territories: Nebraska in the north and Kansas in the south. If passed, the bill would repeal the Missouri Compromise and establish popular sovereignty for both territories. Congressional debate was bitter. Some Northern congressmen saw the bill as part of a plot to turn the territories into slave states. Southerners strongly defended the proposed legislation. After months of struggle, the Kansas-Nebraska Act became law in 1854. • 16. Nebraska territory • 17. Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) • 16. north of Missouri; asking for admission into U.S. as a state • 17. breaks Nebraska into two territories: Nebraska & Kansas; creates popular sovereignty; this Act would repeal the Missouri Compromise angering Northerners

26. Missouri Compromise of 1850

28. The race for Kansas was on. Both supporters and opponents of slavery attempted to populate Kansas in order to win the vote on slavery in the territory. By March 1855 Kansas had enough settlers to hold an election for a territorial legislature. However, thousands of “border ruffians” from the slave state of Missouri crossed into Kansas, voted illegally, and won a fraudulent majority for the proslavery candidates. A government was set up at Lecompton and promptly issued a series of proslavery acts. Furious over these events, abolitionists organized a rival government at Topeka in the fall of 1855. It wasn’t long before bloody violence surfaced in the struggle for Kansas, earning the territory the name “Bleeding Kansas” • 18. border- ruffians • 19. abolitionists • 18. from Missouri crossed into Kansas to vote illegally/won pro-slavery candidates • 19. organized a rival gov. at Topeka & violence surfaced

29. DO NOW What were the differences between the North and the South economically? Why did the Southerners want to increase the number of slave states? LOOK IN YOUR NOTES OR READ IN YOUR TEXTBOOKS ON PAGES 156-157 UNDER THE SECTION TITLED “DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH”

30. New Political Parties Emerge By the end of 1856, the nation’s political landscape had a very different appearance than it had exhibited in 1848. The Whig Party had split over the issue of slavery and had lost support in both the North and the South. The Democratic Party which had survived numerous crises in its history, was still alive, though scarred. A new Republican Party had formed and was moving within striking distance of the presidency.

31. Northern opposition to slavery in the territories was not necessarily based on positive feelings toward African Americans. It was not unusual for Northerners to be Free-Soilers without being abolitionists. Unlike abolitionists, a number of Northern Free-Soilers supported racist laws prohibiting settlement by blacks in their communities and denying them the right to vote. What Free-Soilers primarily objected to was slavery’s competition with free white workers, or wage-based labor force, upon which the North depended. They feared that such competition would drive down wages. Free-Soilers detected a dangerous pattern in such events as the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. They were convinced that a conspiracy existed on the part of the “diabolical slave power” to spread slavery throughout the United States. • 20. Free-Soil Party • 20. which opposed the spread of slavery onto “free soil” western territories • objected to slavery’s competition w/ free white workers or wage-based labor force

32. The Dred Scott Decision A major Supreme Court decision was brought about by Dred Scott, a slave whose owner took him from the slave state of Missouri to free territory in Illinois and Wisconsin and back to Missouri. Scott appealed to the Supreme Court for his freedom on the grounds that living in a free state Illinois—and a free territory---Wisconsin made him a free man.

33. The case was in court for years. Finally, on March 6th 1857, the Supreme Court ruled against Dred Scott. According to the ruling, Scott lacked any legal standing to sue in federal court because he was not, and never could be, a citizen. Moreover, the Court ruled that being in free territory did not make a slave free. The 5th Amendment protected property, including slaves. For territories to exclude slavery would be to deprive slaveholders of their property. • 21. Dred Scott • 22. Supreme Court • 21. slave whose owner took him from slave state Missouri to free territory; appealed to Supreme Court for freedom • 22. ruled against Scott claiming that the 5th Amendment protected property; including slaves

34. Reactions to Dred Scott Decision Sectional passions exploded immediately. Many Northerners showered a torrent of abuse upon the Supreme Court, in part because a majority of its justices were Southerners. Warnings about the slave states’ influence on the national government spread. Southern slaveholders, on the other hand, were jubilant. In their interpretations, the Dred Scott decision not only permitted the extension of slavery but actually guaranteed it.

35. Several months after the Dred Scott Decision, one of Illinois’s greatest political contests got underway: the 1858 race for the U.S. Senate between Democratic incumbent Stephen Douglas and Republican challenger Congressman Abraham Lincoln. The two men’s positions were simple and consistent. Neither wanted slavery in the territories, but they disagreed on how to keep it out. Douglas believed deeply in popular sovereignty. Lincoln, on the other hand, believed that slavery is immoral. However, he did not expect individuals to give up slavery unless Congress abolished slavery with an amendment. • 23. Stephen Douglas • 24. Abraham Lincoln • 23. incumbent Senator who believed in popular sovereignty • 24. believed slavery was immoral but did not want individuals to give it up unless Congress abolished slavery with an amendment

36. John Brown’s Raid • About a year after the Lincoln Douglas debates, national attention shifted to John Brown, a fervent abolitionist who opposed slavery not with words but with a gun. Brown had inflamed the violence in the Kansas conflict. After pro-slavery forces attacked the town of Lawrence, Brown took revenge by abducting and murdering five pro-slavery settlers living near Pottawatomie Creek.

37. 25. John Brown 26. insurrection 25. fervent abolitionist who opposed slavery violently 26. planned to incite a rebellion against slaveholders In 1850 Brown developed a plan to incite an insurrection, or rebellion, against slaveholders. He would first conduct a raid into the Appalachian foothills, then move southward in hopes of attracting enslaved African Americans as he went. In his efforts, Brown had encouragement and financial aid from several Eastern abolitionists.

38. JOHN BROWN’S RAID • To obtain weapons, Brown planned to seize the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). On the night of October 16, 1859, Brown and about 21 followers attacked the arsenal. To the terrified watchman, he announced, “I came here from Kansas, and this is a slave state”; I want to free all the (African Americans) in this state; I have possession now of the U.S. armory, and if the citizens interfere with me I must only burn the town and have blood.”

39. 27. Brown 28. court 29. north 30. south 27. had to surrender to U.S. Marines 28. tried and convicted him sentenced to death 29. saw him as a martyr 30. viewed him as a rebel Soon, however, Brown was facing a contingent of U.S. Marines rushed to Harpers Ferry from Washington D.C., and commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee. After 10 of his men were killed, Brown surrendered—less than 36 hours after his attack had begun. A Virginia court tried and convicted him and sentenced him to death. Many northerners viewd Brown as a martyr in a noble cause. For most Southerners however, Brown’s raid offered all the proof they needed that Northerners were actively plotting the murder of slaveholders.

40. As the 1860 presidential election approached, the Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln appeared to be moderate in his views. Although he pledged to halt the further spread of slavery, he also tried to reassure Southerners that a Republican administration would “interfere with their slaves, or with them, about their slaves.” Nonetheless, many Southerners viewed him as an enemy. • 31. 1860 presidential election • 32. Southern reaction • 33. Jefferson Davis • 31. Lincoln is elected • 32. secedes from the Union creating the Confederate States of America • 33. elected as president of Confederacy

41. DO NOW WHAT WAS THE COMPROMISE THAT ALLOWED CALIFORNIA TO BE ADMITTED TO THE UNION? HOW DID THIS COMPROMISE APPEASE (SATISFY) THE SOUTHERN STATES?

42. DO NOW WHAT DO THE OVERALL DATA SUGGEST ABOUT THE EVENTUAL OUTCOME OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR?

43. DO NOW WHAT DOES THE OVERALL DATA SUGGEST ABOUT THE EVENTUAL OUTCOME OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR?

44. Robert E. Lee was only one of hundreds of military officers who resigned to join the Confederacy. These officers enabled the South to organize an effective fighting force quickly. So too did the strong military tradition in the South. In 1860 seven of the nation’s eight military colleges were in the South. These colleges provided the South with a large number of trained officers to lead its armies. Just as the South had a strong military tradition, the North had a strong naval tradition. More than three-quarters of the United States Navy’s officers came from the North. At the same time, the crews of American merchant ships were almost entirely from the North. They provided a large pool of trained sailors for the Union navy as it expanded.

46. Section 2: The Civil War Begins: The Union and the Confederacy were unevenly matched. The Union enjoyed enormous advantages in resources over the South---more people, more factories, greater food production, and a more extensive railroad system. The Confederacy’s advantages included “King Cotton,” first-rate generals, and highly motivated soldiers. • 1. Union’s strengths • 2. Confederate’s strengths • 1. experienced navy; industrial economy; high population (22 million); provided troops w/ammunition & supplies; extensive railroad system • 2. highly motivated soldiers (motivated by personal rights); first-rate generals

47. Resources of the Union and of the Confederacy

48. The opposing economies • Although the South had many experienced officers to lead its troops in battle, the North had several economic advantages. In 1860 the population of the North was about 22 million, while the South had about 9 million people. The North’s larger population also gave it a great advantage in raising an army and in supporting the war effort.

49. The North’s industries also gave the region an important economic advantage over the South. In 1860 almost 90% of the nation’s factories were located in the Northern states. Thus, the North could provide its troops with ammunition and other supplies more easily. In addition, the South had only half as many miles of railroad tracks as the North and had only one line from Memphis to Chattanooga---connecting the western states of the Confederacy to the east. This made it much easier for Northern troops to disrupt the Southern rail system and prevent the movement of supplies and troops. • 3. railroads • 3. the South had only ½ as many railroad tracks making movement of supplies and troops difficult