P5 | APUSH |Wiley | 1850s/Road to War: Note Guide, D___ Name:

America in 1850

· Victory in _________________________ War (1846-’48) + territorial expansion of the 1840s + gold rush in California (1848) + manifest destiny + market revolution + democratic culture national pride/self-confidence

· Population figures: approximately 23 million people lived in the U.S. in 1850; this included ____ million slaves and ____ million new immigrants

U.S. Expansion of the Era

CA Gold Rush (1848-‘9)

Gadsden Purchase (1854)

Cuba (1854)

Japan (1854)

· 1848-’9, Americans flocked to CA in hopes of striking it rich (“___________________”)

· Mining towns of CA helped bring about the idea of the “old American West” (gambling, drinking, fighting, prostitution)

· CA attracted a ______________________ group: whites, free blacks, Mexicans, Europeans, and Chinese; CA Native Americans were also present

· Led to violence, and in one case, genocide against the ______________________

· Purchased from _________________ for $10 million

· Provided the land necessary for a Southern transcontinental railroad (land to the north was too rocky)

· Purchase was made under the Pierce administration (’53-’57)

· Some Americans believed _________________________ applied to Spanish Cuba as well as western lands

· Cuban slave owners sought annexation to the U.S. so that slavery could continue (several slave revolts in Cuba in 1843 and ’44 threatened the institution)

· Pierce administration arranged for U.S. diplomats in Europe to compose the _________________________, which urged Pierce to seize Cuba and threatened war with Spain for Cuba

· Once the document was made public, it was met with fierce opposition from northerners; Pierce then rejected it

· Pierce was successful in efforts to broker an agreement with Japan to open that country up to trade with America (Treaty of Kanagawa, 1854)

· Though the Japanese were opposed to opening up their country to foreigners (who they deemed “alien barbarians”), they were forced to do so when America ___________________________________________________ if they didn’t comply

· (covered in detail in Period 6)

1. Review: What were some examples of U.S. expansion, pre-1848? List several:

Slavery & Politics

· The issue raised by the 1846 _________________________—whether slavery should be extended to the new territories—could no longer be ignored

· Whigs and Democrats, needing national appeal, couldn’t resolve the issue; by 1848, sectional interests were eroding the political glue of both parties; each had difficulty nominating candidates with national appeal

· Many came to believe that the place of slavery in the nation’s life had to be permanently settled; it was increasingly seen as the one issue that could not be settled through _________________________

2. Review: What was the Wilmot Proviso? Revisit earlier Period 5 documents to explain the proviso and its historical significance, despite the fact that it failed to become law:

3. Review: What slave compromises had been made in the nation’s history up to this point. List several:

Southern Perspectives

Northern Perspectives

· Congress did not have a constitutional right to prohibit slavery in the territories; slave owners had a constitutional right to the protection of their property wherever they moved

· Anything less than full access to the territories was increasingly viewed as warranting _________________________

· Southerners had been the strongest supporters of the Mexican-American War and still hoped to expand into Cuba

· Felt that the North “libeled” slave owners, bombarded the South with unwanted literature, and incited slaves to rebel or escape

· The North was viewed as ungrateful for the gift of Southern cotton (the “great engine of national growth from which the North benefited”) and hypocritical (“_________________________ slavery” argument)

· Maintained that slavery was a “_________________________”

· Northerners feared the “slave power”; a term used to describe a small group of rich slave owners who had seized political control of their own states and were trying to take over the national government in an illegitimate fashion in order to expand and protect slavery

· Northerners had objected to the Mexican-American War out of anti-[expansion of] slavery sentiment

· To Northerners, the South _________________________ free speech in the South and in Congress and—if they were genuine abolitionists—perpetuated the moral travesty of slavery

· The South was viewed as an economic backwater dominated by a small slave-owning aristocracy that deprived blacks and poor whites of their rights and fruits of honest work

· _________________________ (1852), the most successful American novel up to that point, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, had an immense impact on popular opinion, increasing anti-slavery sentiment

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852

· Stowe was a white antislavery activist, like _____________________

· Story contains vivid details of slavery, gathered by firsthand accounts

· ____________________ to Stowe: “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war.”

· See excerpt and questions on pages 9-10.

Free Soil Movement

· Opposed the ___________________________ of slavery into the territories because it would create more competition for Northern farmers who moved west

· Free labor meant that all workers should be “free” to labor as they see fit, competing in the market economy to improve their lot, economically and socially

· Some did not object to slavery on principle but believed that _____________________________________________________ by undercutting competition and maintaining large levels of inequality

· The “free-soil” movement portrayed the expansion of slavery as incompatible with free labor

· Free-soilers argued that _____________________ on free soil comprised a morally and economically superior system to slavery

Compromise of 1850

· An attempt at resolving the issue of slavery in the territories acquired by _________________: became a crisis when CA wanted to enter the Union as a free state

· Provisions were put together by Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Stephen Douglas

· _____ admitted as free state

· Remaining Mexican possessions to be decided by ______________________________________

· Slave traded ended in DC

· Much stronger fugitive slave law, which helped to unravel the Compromise

Color-code the Compromise of 1850 map pictured here

Politics of the Fugitive Slave Act

· Dramatically increased power of slave owners to capture escaped slaves

· Denied alleged runaways _________________________ or even the right to testify and imposed federal penalties on citizens who protected or assisted fugitives, or who did not cooperate with their return

· Many free blacks decided to emigrate to ______________________ to avoid being sold into slavery

· Northern reaction was fierce from both blacks and abolitionists; violence broke out in several states against slave catchers or federal marshals accused of “kidnapping”

· Some states argued the act violated their rights, passing _________________________ laws that guaranteed all residents, including alleged fugitives, the right to a jury trial; the Supreme Court invalidated this position in 1859, arguing that the Fugitive Slave Act was constitutional

· Northern opposition bred Southern suspicion that encouraged secessionist thinking

The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

· Americans wanted to settle in “_____________________ Indian Territory,” established by the Indian Removal Act of 1830

· Senator Stephen Douglas proposed opening those lands to “popular sovereignty,” which would allow the people of the new territories to decide for themselves if they would be a slave or free state

· The act narrowly passed; ________________________ the Missouri Comp. (1820), which barred slavery north of latitude 36°30′ (with the exception of MO)

· Indian rights were ___________________________; tribes were relocated to small reservations

· Both proslavery and antislavery white settlers began to _______________ and the battle of popular sovereignty began

· The act disintegrated the ___________________________; Southern Whigs were swept into the Democratic Party, and Northern Whigs reorganized themselves with other non-slave interests to become the Republican Party

Make sure you understand the progression of images to the right

“Bleeding Kansas,” 1856

· The first to claim land in Kansas were residents of nearby Missouri, itself a slave state

· Missouri citizens (“border ruffians”) repeatedly, and fraudulently, swamped Kansas elections in hopes of creating a _________________________ state

· Many Northern free-soilers, reformers and antislavery advocates moved to Kansas in hopes of creating a free state

· Kansas became a bloody battleground as the two factions fought over the state’s destiny in a _________________________ war

· Americans watched in horror as ____________________________ roamed the countryside, and burnings and killings became common

Kansas and the Lecompton Constitution, 1857

· The first election of officers to a territorial government in Kansas produced a lopsided proslavery outcome that was clearly the result of illegal voting by proslavery Missouri border ruffians

· Free-soilers protested by forming their own government, giving Kansas both a proslavery territorial legislature in Lecompton and a free-soil government in Topeka

· Free-soil voters boycotted an 1857 election of representatives to a convention called to write a constitution for the territory once it reached statehood

· As a result, the convention had a proslavery majority that wrote the proslavery Lecompton Constitution and then applied to Congress for admission to the Union under its terms

· President _________________________ endorsed the proslavery constitution because he feared the loss of Southern Democrats

· Unexpected congressional opposition came from _________________________, author of the legislation (Kansas-Nebraska Act) that had begun the troubles in Kansas in 1854, because it violated the principle of popular sovereignty; he argued that elections must be honest; in doing so, he lost the support of Southern Democrats, helping to splinter the party

· Congress refused the admission to Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution

· In a new referendum (vote of the people), the people of Kansas rejected the constitution; Kansas was admitted as a free state in 1861

Nativism & the Know-Nothing Party

· Cities saw increasing nativist sentiment and violence during the 1850s

· Nativism drew support from Whigs and members of a __________________________ open only to native-born Protestants who pledged never to vote for a ______________________

· When questioned about their beliefs, secret society members would attempt to maintain their secrecy by answering, “I know nothing” became a political party in 1850: the American, or ________________________, Party

· Party was partly a reaction to the Democratic party’s success in capturing the immigrant vote; immigrants were courted by the Democratic Party in the North, who would offer community services to immigrant neighborhoods to ensure their vote

· By 1855, the Know-Nothing Party had split into anti- and pro-slavery wings

· Supporters were more likely to be antislavery/freesoilers, since they were from the ________________ many would shift their support to another new party, the Republican Party, founded in 1854

4. Review: When, where, and why did nativism emerge in the U.S.?

The Republican Party, 1854

· Whig Party disintegrated; could not hold its northern and southern wings together

· Republican Party was completely sectional; only Northerners were members; very similar to the Whigs

· Embraced a westward-looking, expansionist, free-soil policy

· Members:

· Opposed the expansion of slavery for economic and political reasons

· Reformers

· Nativists

· Some abolitionists

· Supporters of the American System

5. Review: When and why did the Whig Party emerge? Explain a connection between the Federalists (1790s-1814ish), Whigs, and Republicans (circa 1854).

Attack on Senator Charles Sumner, 1856

· Senator Sumner (MA) suffered __________________________________ in a vicious attack by Congressman Preston Brooks of SC

· Sumner had given an antislavery speech that singled out Brooks’ uncle

· Brooks’ retaliation was a way to avenge an “intolerable affront to his uncle’s honor”

· Protest rallies were held in most Northern cities while Southern newspapers ________________________________, regarding the attack as a well-deserving whipping

Background to Dred Scott, 1857

· Dred Scott had been a slave all his life, primarily in Missouri (a slave state, as decided by the Missouri Compromise of 1820)

· His owner, John Emerson, had taken Scott to Illinois (a free state) and Wisconsin Territory (a free territory since it was _________________________ the Missouri Compromise line) during the 1830s

· Scott married another slave during this time and fathered a child (born in free territory)

· When Scott returned to Missouri he sued for his [and his wife and daughter’s] freedom on the grounds that residence in free lands ________________________________

Dred Scott Decision, 1857

· A Southern-dominated Supreme Court asserted that:

· Black people—slave or free—could not be _________________________

· Congress had no _________________________ over slavery in the territories because the federal government had no right to interfere with the free movement of property throughout the territories (thus, the _________________________ Compromise was unconstitutional)

· Though Chief Justice _________________________ intended to settle the controversy over the expansion of slavery, his decision served to inflame the conflict

· Northerners were troubled by the decision; it raised the possibility that other decisions could legalize slavery even in the free states (a view that _________________________ articulated in his debates for the Senate seat in 1858, which he lost)

6. Take notes on the Dred Scott video:

John Brown’s Raid, 1859

· White abolitionist, John Brown, led an unsuccessful effort to ______________________________

· Sparked secessionist rhetoric, increased tension between North and South, and spread fear amongst Southerners that Northerners aimed to destroy slavery in the South by ______________________________ rebellions

· The mourning that took place after Brown’s execution (1859) in the North was shocking to the South and raised fears of slave rebellions financed by the North

· “The aim of the present black Republican organization is the destruction of the social system of the Southern States.” – Southern newspaper

· Republican Party _______________________________ Brown, but Southerners didn’t believe them

The Election of 1860: Lincoln’s Victory

· Lincoln’s platform: no expansion of slavery; tariffs and internal improvements; a homestead act; denied that he and Republicans in general believed in social equality of blacks and whites

· Secession conventions were called in many states after Lincoln’s Republican victory; South = mass hysteria

· Northerners were shocked

· Lincoln affirmed that he had “no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so.”

· Southerners didn’t believe him; feared slave revolts, race war, and miscegenation

Abraham Lincoln

John C. Breckinridge

John Bell

Stephen Douglas

Republican

Southern Democrat

Constitutional Union

Northern Democrat

· Opposed expansion of slavery in western territories but denied racial equality of whites and blacks

· Supported free western lands, internal improvements, and higher tariff (Federalist/Whig principles)

· Lincoln thought to be moderate enough to dissuade Southerners from secession

· Did not campaign in the South

· United voters in the Northeast, Midwest, and Pacific coast behind free-soil principles

· Supported extension of slavery in western territories

· Did not campaign in the North

· Party formed in 1860 by former Whigs and nativists that emphasized allegiance to the Union and strict enforcement of national legislation

· Vague on slavery in territories

· Slavery in western territories to be determined by popular sovereignty

7. A Northerner who supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) would likely support the _____________________________ Party in the 1860 election.

8. A yeoman farmer interested in moving west and improving his lot would likely support the _____________________________ Party in the 1860 election.

9. A supporter of the Dred Scott decision (1857) and John Brown’s execution would likely support the _____________________________ Party in the 1860 election.

Southern Secession, 1860-’61

· To preserve black subordination and white supremacy, radical Southerners chose the dangerous enterprise of secession, which they felt was justified by the __________________________

· The seven states in the ___________________________, with the highest concentration of slaves, led the secessionist movement; SC, MS, Florida, AL, GA, LA, and TX all seceded after the election

· SC was the first and the vote was unanimous (this shouldn’t come as a surprise; think back to Calhoun’s nullification ordinance of 1832); the other 6 states had support from about 80% of delegates

· Organized mobs to attack Union supporters

· Eight other slave states—DE, MD, KY, MO, VA, NA, TN, AR—did not act after Lincoln’s victory, though the latter four states would secede after war broke out in 1861

· Due to Lincoln’s political maneuvering and, in some cases, his violation of rights, the slave states of ___________________________ remained within the Union

10. Review: How could the DOI be used to justify secession?

Color-code the Secession map pictured here

Reasons Cited for Secession

· Republican victory would lead to the emancipation of the slaves and ________________________________, despite what their party platform, and the president, said

· Northern states: 1) ___________________________________________________ (Fugitive Slave clause of Constitution and subsequent Fugitive Slave laws) and in fact have helped slaves escape; 2) encouraged slaves to escape by way of their books, pictures, abolitionist rhetoric; 3) disturbed the peace with abolitionist societies and Brown’s raid; 4) tried to deprive the South of equal “enjoyment” of _____________________________ (a reference to the Republicans wanting to prohibit the expansion of slavery); (etc.)

Reasons Cited for Secession—Primary Accounts

· “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world. . . . [A] blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. . . . There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union.” (Mississippi Secession Convention, 1861)

· “___________________ . . . was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution.” (Vice President of the Confederacy, Alexander Stephens)

· Read the letter below from Thomas Drayton to his brother Percival Charleston, November 7, 1860 (transcription from PA Historical Society):

11. What made Lincoln’s election to the presidency “worthy” of secession, from Drayton’s point of view? Do you think this was warranted based on the evidence?

Formation of the Confederacy, 1861

· Delegates from the seven seceding states met in Alabama to create the Confederate States of America and write a constitution, which was almost identical to the U.S. Constitution, with a few notable exceptions:

· ______________________________________

· “No law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed [by Congress].”

· Any territories added to the Confederacy would become ______________________________

· “In all such [added] territory the institution of negro slavery . . . shall be recognized and protected . . . ,; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves . . . . ”

· No _________________________ could vote

· “No person of foreign birth . . . shall be allowed to vote for any officer, civil or political, State or Federal.”

· This is somewhat surprising considering Democrats had courted the immigrant vote in the lead up to the Civil War; the inclusion of this clause indicates that Democrats courted immigrants for political purposes only; now that they wouldn’t need the immigrant vote to win elections (against Northerners), they could afford to become more nativist

· State legislatures could impeach a federal judge

· One term, 6-year president

12. What similarities and differences can you pinpoint between the Preambles of the U.S. Constitution and Confederate Constitution?

Jefferson Davis

· _________________________ was chosen as president of the Confederacy

· In his inaugural he argued that secession was legal and peaceful, quoting the _________________________: “…governments rest on the consent of the governed . . . and that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish them at will whenever they become destructive of the ends for which they were established.”

Davis’s Inaugural Arguments

· Confederacy’s actions were _________________________ by the DOI, the Preamble to the Constitution, and the “absence of wrong on [their] part”

· Southerners had “labored to preserve the government of [their] fathers. . . . As a ______________________, not a choice we have resorted to separation . . . .”

· Their secession should not be viewed as rebellion or act of revolution, since in each state, the government ____________________________________

· They had no intention to invade the rights of others; their policy is peace and ____________________________ for their agricultural pursuits

· Northerners had denied the rights to which Southerners were entitled

· Sectional conflicts have interfered with the pursuits of general welfare; homogeneity is essential

· Had hope that the Confederacy would be let go in peace; the Confederacy would only fight if their secession was denied and integrity/jurisdiction of their territory attacked

Lincoln’s Responses to Secession

· Options: compromise, let them go in peace, or use force

· Lincoln decided to wait for the other side to strike the first blow while simultaneously refusing to give up federal powers over ___________________________________

· Could not rationalize letting the South go; too much was at stake (_________________________________________________)

Lincoln’s Inaugural Arguments

· The South was being hyperbolic and _____________________ in their secession; he, and the Republican Party, had no intent to interfere where slavery already existed

· Secession is not lawful and the way it’s being done here, leads to __________________________________________, one of the two extremes

· He would uphold the law in states where rebellion took place and hold, occupy, and possess places belonging to the U.S.

· The South would have to start the war

· No constitutional right was ever _____________________ to a Southerner

13. Whose arguments do you find more valid, Davis or Lincoln? Explain.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) Excerpt

The daughter of a famous evangelical preacher, Lyman Beecher, Stowe herself became a national influence with her success as an author, abolitionist, and social commentator. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” indirectly helped put the issue of slavery on the national agenda, both politically and socially. Since the Missouri Compromise of 1820, politicians had been successful keeping slavery relatively low on the political radar. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” heightened the existing tensions between the North and South, so much so, that President Lincoln would later credit Stowe for her role in instigating the Civil War.

What follows are excerpts from “Chapter 45: Concluding Remarks,” where Stowe gives insights into her motivations for writing the book. Appealing to Christianity and family values, Stowe pleads for both Northern and Southern readers to recognize their own duties to bring about the abolition of slavery.

For many years of her life, the author avoided all reading upon or allusion to the subject of slavery, considering it as too painful to be inquired into . . . . But, since the legislative act of 1850, when she heard, with perfect surprise and consternation, Christian and humane people actually recommending the remanding escaped fugitives into slavery, as a duty binding on good citizens,—when she heard, on all hands, from kind, compassionate and estimable people, in the free states of the North, deliberations and discussions as to what Christian duty could be on this head,—she could only think, These men and Christians cannot know what slavery is; if they did, such a question could never be open for discussion. And from this arose a desire to exhibit it in a living dramatic reality. She has endeavored to show it fairly, in its best and its worst phases. . .

To you, generous, noble-minded men and women, of the South[:] Have you not, in your own secret souls, in your own private conversings, felt that there are woes and evils, in this accursed system, far beyond what are here shadowed, or can be shadowed? Can it be otherwise? Is man ever a creature to be trusted with wholly irresponsible power? And does not the slave system, by denying the slave all legal right of testimony, make every individual owner an irresponsible despot?

. . . And now, men and women of America, is this a thing to be trifled with, apologized for, and passed over in silence? Farmers of Massachusetts, of New Hampshire, of Vermont, of Connecticut, who read this book by the blaze of your winter-evening fire,—strong- hearted, generous sailors and ship-owners of Maine,—is this a thing for you to countenance and encourage? Brave and generous men of New York, farmers of rich and joyous Ohio, and ye of the wide prairie states,—answer, is this a thing for you to protect and countenance? And you, mothers of America,—you, who have learned, by the cradles of your own children, to love and feel for all mankind,—by the sacred love you bear your child; by your joy in his beautiful, spotless infancy; by the motherly pity and tenderness with which you guide his growing years; by the anxieties of his education; by the prayers you breathe for his soul's eternal good;—I beseech you, pity the mother who has all your affections, and not one legal right to protect, guide, or educate, the child of her bosom! By the sick hour of your child; by those dying eyes, which you can never forget; by those last cries, that wrung your heart when you could neither help nor save; by the desolation of that empty cradle, that silent nursery,—I beseech you, pity those mothers that are constantly made childless by the American slave-trade! And say, mothers of America, is this a thing to be defended, sympathized with, passed over in silence?

Do you say that the people of the free states have nothing to do with it, and can do nothing? Would to God this were true! But it is not true. The people of the free states have defended, encouraged, and participated; and are more guilty for it, before God, than the South, in that they have not the apology of education or custom. . . On the shores of our free states are emerging the poor, shattered, broken remnants of families,—men and women, escaped, by miraculous providences from the surges of slavery,—feeble in knowledge, and, in many cases, infirm in moral constitution, from a system which confounds and confuses every principle of Christianity and morality.

They come to seek a refuge among you; they come to seek education, knowledge, Christianity. What do you owe to these poor unfortunates, O Christians? Does not every American Christian owe to the African race some effort at reparation for the wrongs that the American nation has brought upon them? Shall the doors of churches and school-houses be shut upon them? Shall states arise and shake them out? Shall the church of Christ hear in silence the taunt that is thrown at them, and shrink away from the helpless hand that they stretch out; and, by her silence, encourage the cruelty that would chase them from our borders? If it must be so, it will be a mournful spectacle. If it must be so, the country will have reason to tremble, when it remembers that the fate of nations is in the hands of One who is very pitiful, and of tender compassion.

Do you say, "We don't want them here; let them go to Africa"? That the providence of God has provided a refuge in Africa, is, indeed, a great and noticeable fact; but that is no reason why the church of Christ should throw off that responsibility to this outcast race which her profession demands of her. To fill up Liberia with an ignorant, inexperienced, half-barbarized race, just escaped from the chains of slavery, would be only to prolong, for ages, the period of struggle and conflict which attends the inception of new enterprises. Let the church of the north receive these poor sufferers in the spirit of Christ; receive them to the educating advantages of Christian republican society and schools, until they have attained to somewhat of a moral and intellectual maturity, and then assist them in their passage to those shores, where they may put in practice the lessons they have learned in America.

There is a body of men at the north, comparatively small, who have been doing this; and, as the result, this country has already seen examples of men, formerly slaves, who have rapidly acquired property, reputation, and education. Talent has been developed, which, considering the circumstances, is certainly remarkable; and, for moral traits of honesty, kindness, tenderness of feeling,—for heroic efforts and self-denials, endured for the ransom of brethren and friends yet in slavery,—they have been remarkable to a degree that, considering the influence under which they were born, is surprising.

The writer has lived, for many years, on the frontier-line of slave states, and has had great opportunities of observation among those who formerly were slaves. They have been in her family as servants; and, in default of any other school to receive them, she has, in many cases, had them instructed in a family school, with her own children. She has also the testimony of missionaries, among the fugitives in Canada, in coincidence with her own experience; and her deductions, with regard to the capabilities of the race, are encouraging in the highest degree.

The first desire of the emancipated slave, generally, is for education. There is nothing that they are not willing to give or do to have their children instructed, and, so far as the writer has observed herself, or taken the testimony of teachers among them, they are remarkably intelligent and quick to learn. The results of schools, founded for them by benevolent individuals in Cincinnati, fully establish this.

. . . A day of grace is yet held out to us. Both North and South have been guilty before God; and the Christian church has a heavy account to answer. Not by combining together, to protect injustice and cruelty, and making a common capital of sin, is this Union to be saved,—but by repentance, justice and mercy; for, not surer is the eternal law by which the millstone sinks in the ocean, than that stronger law, by which injustice and cruelty shall bring on nations the wrath of Almighty God!

1. For what reason(s) do you suspect Stowe included this chapter in her book?

2. How did Stowe attempt to appeal to Southerners in this excerpt? Northerners?

3. Based on this excerpt, what role did religion play in Stowe’s book?

4. Based on this excerpt, how did Stowe feel about the African race?

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