Issue of Slavery

• Cotton was found to be a more profitable crop to produce than tobacco, and an increasing demand in England for cotton resulted in the move into the newer territories of Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas.

• “Neither southerners, who used slaves as field laborers and servants, nor northerners, who supplied slaves and food to the southern and Caribbean plantations and consumed the products of slave labor, questioned the economic value of slavery.” (Reader’s Companion to American History)

The Most Famous Rebellion• In Southampton County, Virginia, during

August 1831, Nat Turner organized a rebellion that lasted 12 hours in which they went from home to home killing any white residents to be found.

• However, many homeowners were away at a revival.

• Before it was over, about 80 slaves had joined with Nat whom they called the “prophet” as he saw visions in the heavens and recited scripture.

• Approximately 60 whites were murdered and an unknown number of slaves.

• Turner escaped only to be captured, tried, and executed later.

• The Virginia legislature debated abolishing slavery following the event which horrified whites throughout the South for fear of slave uprisings everywhere.

• Slavery was vigilantly patrolled in the South, which made the possibility of rebellion unachievable.

• All the insurrections occurred outside of the larger plantation belt.

Underground Railroad• Underground Railroad network used by abolitionists to take slaves to freedom.

• Harriet Tubman was a “conductor” helped over 300 slaves to freedom

William Lloyd Garrison• William Lloyd

Garrison was a pioneer abolitionist

• Considered a “radical” leader

• Wrote the an anti-slavery newspaper called The Liberator

Frederick Douglas• Born into slavery• Was taught to read• “Knowledge is the

pathway from slavery to freedom”

• Read The Liberator• Created The North Star

Missouri Compromise 1820• Missouri is admitted to the Union as a slave

state • states north of 36 30 cannot be admitted as

slave states. • Prior to Missouri’s request for admittance as a

state, there was an equal balance between free and slave states. (22 States: 11 free, 11 slave)

• Admitting Missouri as a slave state would have upset the balance of power in Congress.

• Solution: Maine admitted as a Free State

• Arguments ranged from Congress having the power to deny slavery to the idea of popularity sovereignty, states having the right of choice as the original 13 states.

• The compromise held the Union together for over thirty years.

Wilmot Proviso

• An amendment to a military appropriations bill• “No territory gained from Mexico will ever be

permitted to have slavery.”• Met with resistance from South• Widens the divide between North and South

Compromise of 1850• With the accession of more land from

the War with Mexico, What do you do with the issue of slavery in the new territories?

• Plantation owners viewed the new territories as a solution to the problem of overworked fields throughout the South. –Move to the West and expand

plantation operations there.

• The Northerners, however, saw in the West a solution to relieve economic burdens from immigration from Europe, economic problems, and divisions in class structure.

• Debate reached a compromise when speeches from Clay, Calhoun, Webster, and Stephen Douglas

• Solution:– California is a free state– admitting Utah and New Mexico territories with the

question of slavery to be determined through popular sovereignty-”let the people decide”

– ending the slave trade in Washington, D.C.– Tougher, enforced fugitive slave law– Texas debt paid, border w/ New Mexico settled in

New Mexico’s favor

Kansas-Nebraska Act• The Kansas-Nebraska Act was partly the

result of deep opposition in the North against the possibility of slavery in the new territories or admission of any more slave states into the Union.

• Opposition resulted in the forming of a new party, the Republican Party, which appealed to Whigs and Democrats alike.

• The purpose:1. preserve the Union against sectionalism2. stop armed resistance over the issue of

slavery.

• Their solution was to secure popular sovereignty in the new territories allowing them to form government “with or without slavery.” [Appendix to the Congressional Globe, page 131]

• Therefore, on January 4, 1854, Stephen Douglas, interested in completing a transcontinental railroad benefiting his state, introduced a bill organizing the territory of Nebraska.

• There were objections from other senators because of the 36 30 resolution. (Missouri Compromise)

• The compromise presented by Douglas was to split the territory into Kansas and Nebraska and let the states decide on the issue of slavery, popular sovereignty.

• However, the act only increased tensions and complexity between North and South.

Bleeding Kansas• John Brown leads abolitionists to Kansas

against “Border Ruffians” who came from MO and voted illegally to make KS legislature vote to become slave state.

• over 200 people were killed in violent fighting

Dred Scott Decision• Slave taken to free

state where master dies

• Still considered a slave therefore had no rights

• Not a citizen and can not sue the gov’t

Uncle Tom’s Cabin:Harriet Beecher Stowe

• Uncle Toms Cabin – shows great moral issue of slavery heightened feelings of abolition in the North and hatred towards the south

• Lincoln,” here’s the little lady who started this war.”

Caning of Sumner• Charles Sumner (Mass.) verbally attacked

senator Andrew P. Butler (SC) for two days on the senate floor.

• - Butler’s nephew, Preston Brooks, walked into the chamber to Sumner and said,” it is a libel on South Carolina and Mr. Butler who is a relative of mine.”

• -   Began to beat Sumner on the head with a cane

• Southerners showered Brooks with new canes “ HIT HIM AGAIN!”