SPONGE

3.What book made more and more Northerners opposed to slavery? (p.466)

4.How many southern states did Lincoln win in the election of 1860? (map-p.479)

Chapter 16

Slavery Divides the Nation – Chapter 16

• For 30 years (1820-1850), the Missouri Compromise kept the number of slave and free states even.

• However, in 1850, California tried to enter the Union alone as a free state, which would upset the balance.

– West of the Louisiana Purchase, territories could choose for themselves whether to become a free or slave state.

• It also looked as though Oregon, Utah and New Mexico would enter the Union as free states. Hopelessly outnumbered, many southern states wanted to leave the Union.

California Controversy

Clay vs. Calhoun

• By 1850, Henry Clay was a frail 73 year old, but he was still famous in Congress as the “Great Compromiser.”

• He faced a great challenge: Southern leader John C. Calhoun demanded that Congress allow the South to leave the Union. A war would surely erupt if southerners tried to Secede (leave) from the Union.

The Compromise of 1850• Clay created a plan called

the Compromise of 1850 that had several major parts:• In the Compromise of

1850, Congress declared that it could not ban the slave trade between slave states.

• However, the slave trade would be banned in Washington D.C.

The Compromise of 1850• California would enter the

Union as a free state, but…• Slaves that escaped to the

North would be returned to the South. Also, northerners who helped escaped slaves would be arrested and fined according to this Fugitive Slave law.

• Clay gave over 70 speeches in favor of his compromise.

The Fugitive Slave Act

• The compromise passed. It saved the Union and also settled some boundary disputes in the Mexican Cession, but it left northerners furious.

• There was now great pressure on northerners to turn in escaped slaves.

• At the same time, a new book called Uncle Tom’s Cabin led many northerners to oppose slavery

The Kansas-Nebraska Act• To make matters more intense, the

Missouri Compromise was also reversed in the 1850’s.

• Now, each territory in the Louisiana Purchase could choose for itself whether to become a free or slave state.

• A new law was proposed called the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Under this act, Nebraska territory was split into two parts: Kansas and Nebraska.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Under the old Missouri Compromise, northern territories like Nebraska and Kansas were free of slavery.

• The new Kansas-Nebraska Act would allow these territories to vote to become slave states.

• The idea that voters get to choose their own form of government is called popular sovereignty.

The Crisis Turns Violent

• Kansas now became a testing ground for popular sovereignty – voters would choose whether to become a free state or a slave state.

• However, proslavery and antislavery forces sent settlers to Kansas on election day to steal the election. These illegal voters were called Border Ruffians.

Border Ruffians

• Border Ruffians made Kansas a slave state in 1855 and made helping a slave escape a crime punishable by death.

• Antislavery settlers refused to follow the proslavery government – they elected their own leaders instead.

• Kansas now had two competing governments.

• The rivalry between proslavery and antislavery settlers in Kansas led to violence in 1855.

• Armed gangs from both sides roamed the territory looking for trouble.

• A proslavery band raided the small town of Lawrence in 1856.

Bleeding Kansas

• Abolitionist John Brown decided to strike back. He claimed that God had sent him to Kansas to punish supporters of slavery.

• Brown and his four sons dragged proslavery settlers from their beds and murdered them.

• This led to even more violence. The territory became known as “Bleeding Kansas” as the death toll skyrocketed.

Bleeding Kansas

Government Violence

•The battle over Kansas even spilled into the Senate; abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner was savagely beaten in Congress after criticizing Andrew Butler – a slave owning senator from South Carolina.

•Southerners who supported Butler sent him canes to show their support.

Dred Scott• Meanwhile, the supreme court

made a ruling that hurt the antislavery cause.

• Dred Scott, a slave whose master had moved to a free territory, claimed that he should now be free.

• However, in the case of Dred Scott v. Sandford, the Supreme court ruled that Congress had no right to outlaw slavery in the territories.

• The growing rage over slavery led to the birth of a new Republican party made up of northern Democrats, antislavery Whigs and Free-Soilers.

• The Republican party was created because people were dissatisfied with the weak stance that the Whigs and Democrats took on slavery.

The Republican Party

• The goal of the Republican party was to end the spread of slavery into the western territories – not to abolish slavery in the South.

• However, southerners still felt threatened by this new party, especially after the Republicans won 1/3 of the popular vote in the election of 1856.

The Republican Party

John C. Fremont – Republican candidate in 1856.

• In 1858, a little-known Illinois Republican named Abraham Lincoln challenged the famous Democrat, Senator Stephen Douglas, to a series of election debates.

• Though Lincoln did not believe African Americans were equal to whites, he did think slavery was evil. He opposed its spread to the territories.

The Republican Party

“There is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all

the natural rights [listed] in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness… In the right to eat the bread, without the leave of anybody else, which his own

hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man.”

• The men debated before huge crowds every week – their words were printed in papers across the country.

• Abe lost the close election, but grew famous from the debates. People respected this likeable, self-educated lawyer from the frontier.

• Two years later, the two men would run for office against each other again, but this time for President of the United States.

The Republican Party

• John Brown was still on the rampage in 1859. He left Kansas that year and led his followers to Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

• There, he planned to raid a federal arsenal (gun warehouse) and lead the local slaves in a bloody revolt.

• Brown did capture the arsenal, but local slaves did not come to his support.

John Brown’s Raid

• Brown was arrested by local Commander General Robert E. Lee. Brown was sentenced to death for treason and murder.

• Many abolitionists saw him as a hero because he died for his beliefs. White southerners were shocked to hear that northerners respected a man who tried to lead a slave revolt.

Hero or Villain?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuucLP3KrM4&feature=related

The Election of 1860

• In 1860, the Republicans and Democrats both nominated their candidates for President.

• The Republicans chose Abe Lincoln.

• While most Republicans celebrated Abe’s nomination, one delegate from Kentucky somberly remarked, “Gentlemen, we are on the brink of a great civil war.”

The Election of 1860

• The Democratic convention failed to elect a single candidate. They chose three candidates with three different positions on slavery.

Breckinridge – A pro-slavery southerner.

Douglas – A northerner who would not support

slavery.

Bell - Wanted a compromise between the two views to

save the Union.

The Election of 1860

• When the votes were counted, Lincoln had won the election without winning a single southern state.

• Southern votes did not affect the outcome at all; Southerners were outnumbered by northerners and outvoted as well.

• Lincoln’s name was not even on the ballot in most southern states.

The South Reacts

• To many southerners, Lincoln’s election meant that the South no longer had a voice in national government.

• They believed that Lincoln and Congress were against their way of life – especially slavery.

Secession• Senator John Crittenden of

Kentucky made one last effort to save the Union.

• He introduced a bill to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean.

• He also proposed a bill that would guarantee that slavery never be abolished in the South.

Secession

• John Crittenden’s bill to save the Union did not pass; slavery in the West was no longer the issue.

• Many southerners believed that the North had put an abolitionist in the White House and that secession was their only choice.

The Confederacy

• South Carolina became the first state to secede (1860.) Six other southern states followed within 2 months.

• They called their new government “The Confederated States of America” and elected Jefferson Davis as their President.

The Confederacy

• Most Southerners believed they had every right to secede.

• The Declaration of Independence said that, “…it is the right of the people to alter or abolish…” a government that denies the rights of its citizens.

• Lincoln, they believed, would deny white southerners their right to own slaves.

The Civil War Begins

• Jefferson Davis ordered Confederate forces to begin seizing federal forts in the south.

• Lincoln could not allow the forts to be taken, but sending soldiers to defend the forts would guarantee a war.

• Lincoln might also lose the support of the 8 remaining slave states in the Union if he attacked.

The Civil War Begins

• When Lincoln took the oath of office he pledged to the South that there would be no fighting unless the South started it, but he warned that no state could lawfully leave the Union.

Bombardment of Fort Sumter• By April, 1861 the

Confederacy controlled nearly every fort in the South.

• One of the few forts to hold out was Fort Sumter, though supplies there were running low.

• When the Confederates demanded that the fort surrender, its commander refused.

Bombardment of Fort Sumter• Confederate guns then opened

fire on Fort Sumter.• When Union troops ran out of

ammunition, they were forced to surrender.

• People came from all around to see the bombardment, which looked like fireworks.

• Little did they know, when Confederate troops shelled Fort Sumter, the Civil War had officially begun.