Chapter 15: Pp. 448-466

Toward Civil War

Allowed Maine to join the Union as a free state and Missouri to join as a slave state

Banned slavery north of 36 30’ N latitude

Preserved the balance between the slave and free states in the Senate

The Missouri Compromise of 1820

Proposed by Henry Clay

3 PartsCalifornia becomes a free state, while the

rest of the new territories would have no limits on slavery

Slave trade, but not slavery itself is banned in Washington, D.C.

Stronger fugitive slave law

1. The Missouri Compromise of 1850

Compromise of 1850

1850Proposed by Henry Clay

Required all citizens to help catch runaway slavesAnyone who aided a fugitive slave could be

fined or imprisoned

2. The Fugitive Slave Act

EffectsSlaveholders tried to capture runaways

who had lived in freedom for yearsTried to seize free African Americans and

force them into slaveryThe Fugitive Slave Act convinced the North

of the evils of slavery

The Fugitive Slave Act

Some Northerners refused to cooperateHenry David Thoreau: “Civil Disobedience”

Antislavery groups tried to rescue African Americans being pursued by slaveholders

Some Northern juries refused to convict those accused of violating the Fugitive Slave Act

The Fugitive Slave Act

Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854Allow each territory to vote on whether to

allow slaveryPopular sovereignty: Allowing the people

to decide

Pro-slavery and antislavery groups rushed into Kansas to swing the electionPro-slavery legislature was electedAntislavery people refused to accept

proslavery lawsFormed their own state government

3. “Bleeding Kansas”

1856: 800 slavery supporters attacked the town of Lawrence

John BrownAbolitionist who believed God chose him to end

slaveryLed a group and killed 5 slavery supporters

Armed bands roamed the territoryNewspapers called the territory “Bleeding

Kansas”Federal troops were sent in to stop the fighting

“Bleeding Kansas”

1854Antislavery Whigs and Democrats joined

with Free-Soilers to create the Republican Party

Main Message: Government should ban slavery from new territoriesThe Republican Party had strong support

in the North and almost no support in the South

The Republican Party

Dred ScottEnslaved African bought in Missouri by an army

doctorDoctor moved in Illinois (free state) and then to

the Wisconsin Territory (free)Family returned to Missouri

In 1846, Scott sued for his freedomClaimed he should be free because he had once

lived in areas of the North where slavery was prohibited

11 years later, the case reached the Supreme Court

4. The Dred Scott Case

Supreme Court DecisionDred Scott was not a free personCongress had no authority to prohibit slavery in any

territoryBanning slavery was unconstitutional, as was popular

sovereigntyOverall, the Supreme Court decided that the

Constitution protected slavery

The Dred Scott decision divided the nation even moreThe Court had supported the South’s argumentRepublicans and antislavery groups called the decision “a

wicked and false judgment” and “the greatest crime” ever committed in the nation’s courts

The Dred Scott Case

John Brown led a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia

Arsenal: Storage site for weaponsBrown wanted to arm enslaved Africans

and start a revoltAbolitionists paid for the raid

Brown’s raid was defeated and he was hanged

Brown’s abolitionist ties confirmed Southerners’ fears of a great Northern conspiracy against them

The Raid on Harper’s Ferry (1859)

The Election of 1860Lincoln wins clear majorityLincoln’s name did not appear on many

Southern ballotsAbraham Lincoln had promised not to

abolish slavery where it already existed, but it should be excluded from the territories

Many Southerners did not trust the Republican Party (or Lincoln) to protect their rights

5. The Election of Abraham Lincoln

December 20, 1860South Carolina votes to secede from the

UnionThe Confederacy

February, 1861: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia had seceded

Confederate States of AmericaJefferson Davis- President

Secession

U.S. fort in Charleston HarborApril 12, 1861- Confederate forces open

fire and capture the fort

Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas join the Confederacy

Fort Sumter

“Stars and Bars”

1. Name the 5 causes of the Civil War2. What did the Fugitive Slave Act require? What did it

show Northerners? How did Northerners fight the Fugitive Slave Act?

3. What was the Republican Party’s main message?4. Describe the Dred Scott Case and the decision made

by the Supreme Court.5. Why did Southerners dislike Abraham Lincoln?6. What state was the first to secede from the Union?

When did this state secede?7. Name the states of the Confederacy.8. Who was the President of the Confederate States of

America?

Quiz