WAIT, WAIT… DON’T TELL ME!

Chapter 10.2-4 Review

Sectionalism Intensifies What new law compelled Northern

citizens and law-enforcement officials to help recapture escaped slaves?

The Fugitive Slave Act – established as part of the Compromise of 1850

Sectionalism Intensifies How was this new law set up to favor the

interests of slaveholders?

People identified as escaped slaves under this law could not testify in court, nor appeal – and the reward was greater if the captured person was found to be a fugitive

Sectionalism Intensifies How did the Fugitive Slave Act create

further divisions between North and South?

Even Northerners who had been indifferent about slavery resented the law, and thought it was unfair – so many began openly defying the law (at times violently)

Sectionalism Intensifies According to Thoreau, what should

citizens do when faced with unjust laws?

In his essay, Civil Disobedience, Thoreau said that citizens had an obligation to disobey unjust laws and to take action to amend or overturn such laws

Sectionalism Intensifies How did Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book,

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, increase North/South tensions?

It dramatized the oppression, cruelty and horror of slavery – further influencing Northern readers against the South, and slavery

Sectionalism Intensifies Who was Harriet Tubman?

Having escaped from slavery herself, she helped organize and was a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad – bringing hundreds of other escaped slaves to freedom in the North and Canada

Sectionalism Intensifies What was the Underground Railroad?

A network of “safe houses” where those escaping from slavery could find food, shelter and assistance; songs and symbols along the way were “codes” to help them find their way

Sectionalism Intensifies What was the Gadsden Purchase, and

why was Secretary of War Jefferson Davis so in favor of it?

A section of land in the Southwest along the Mexican border, purchased from Mexico for $10m in 1853; Southerners like Davis wanted it as a land link for a Southern east/west railroad line

Sectionalism Intensifies Sen. Stephen Douglas of Illinois also

supported an east/west rail line – but he wanted it built in the North, starting at Chicago. What had to happen first, though?

The western territories had to be organized first, before a rail line could be built through them

Sectionalism Intensifies Why were Southerners so unhappy about

the proposed new “Nebraska” territory?

The old Missouri Compromise meant that the vast territory would be “free” – even though Douglas claimed it would be subject to popular sovereignty

Sectionalism Intensifies The Kansas-Nebraska Act was a

compromise offered to keep the peace (again). What were the terms of the Act?

The territory would be divided into two parts – Kansas in the south, Nebraska in the north – and popular sovereignty would determine whether each was “free” or “slave” territory

Sectionalism Intensifies Who were the “border ruffians?”

Armed pro-slavery men from Missouri who crossed

into Kansas, voted there illegally, and intimidated others into voting to support slavery

in Kansas

Sectionalism Intensifies Why might “Bleeding Kansas” be

considered the first battleground of the upcoming civil war?

It was the first time Americans took up arms against each other over the issue of territory and slavery

Sectionalism Intensifies The Kansas-Nebraska Act led to the

formation of a new political party. What groups came together to form this party, and what was it called?

Northern Whigs, anti-slavery Democrats, and the Free Soil party came together to form the new Republican party

Sectionalism Intensifies Who was Charles Sumner, and why

was he caned?

He was a Massachusetts senator who gave a fiery speech against slavery which also insulted Sen. Andrew Butler (SC); Butler’s cousin beat Sumner with his cane on the Senate floor to avenge the insult

Sectionalism Intensifies How did the Supreme Court’s decision in

Dred Scott v. Sandford further increase tensions over slavery?

Using the case to set judicial precedent, the Court ruled that property rights did not end at state borders; thus, the 1820 Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional

Sectionalism Intensifies Northerners weren’t happy with the Dred

Scott decision, but Southerners were. How did Southern states use the decision as leverage in the ongoing dispute over slavery?

They agreed not to secede from the Union as long as the North complied with the terms of the Court’s ruling

Sectionalism Intensifies What was the Lecompton

Constitution?

It was the constitution written by the pro- slavery legislature in Kansas as part of the process toward statehood; Pres. Buchanan hastily accepted it, believing once Kansas was a state the fighting there would stop

Sectionalism Intensifies Kansas was accepted into the Union as

a __________ state, but not until 1861.

A free state – the House blocked the pro- slavery petition for statehood and the matter went back to Kansas voters, who rejected the Lecompton Constitution on the second vote

Sectionalism Intensifies In the 1858 Congressional elections,

Illinios Sen. Stephen Douglas was challenged to a series of debates by his Republican opponent, _______________ .

Abraham Lincoln

Sectionalism Intensifies What did Lincoln mean when he said “a

house divided … cannot stand?”

He believed that ultimately, survival of the Union depended upon the nation either abolishing slavery entirely, or allowing it everywhere – the issue was too divisive

(and his personal view was that slavery was like a “cancer” on the nation)

Sectionalism Intensifies What did John Brown hope to gain by

seizing the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia?

An ardent abolitionist, he wanted to provide weapons to freed local slaves, and lead an armed uprising against Southern slaveholders

Sectionalism Intensifies John Brown was hanged for the raid at

Harper’s Ferry – but how did the raid itself further shape Northern and Southern views?

The North saw Brown as a martyr (Thoreau called him an angel!), but terrified Southerners feared a wider Northern conspiracy (“the enemy is at the door!”)

Sectionalism Intensifies How did the divisions among Democrats

affect the outcome of the presidential election in 1850?

Northerners supported Douglas and popular sovereignty; Southerners favored Breckinridge (who supported the Scott ruling, slave codes); this division gave Lincoln and the Republicans (whose strength was in the North) a clear advantage

Sectionalism Intensifies The Republican party platform took a

strong stand against slavery, and wanted it banned. True or false – and why?

False. The official party line was non- interference with slavery where it already existed, but to keep it from spreading to (western) territories where it did not yet exist

Sectionalism Intensifies How did Southerners react to Lincoln’s

election?

They took it as a sign that the abolitionists had won; South Carolina was the first state to secede soon after the election, with six others following by February, 1861

Sectionalism Intensifies What was Crittenden’s Compromise?

A last-ditch effort to avoid war, proposed by Sen. John Crittenden of Kentucky: constitutional amendments to guarantee slavery where it existed, and to restore the Missouri Compromise line west to California; Congressional Republicans blocked passage (with Lincoln’s support)

Sectionalism Intensifies What did the secessionist states do in

Montgomery, Alabama while the peace conference was going on in Virginia

They declared a new nation (the Confederate States of America), drafted a new constitution for the Confederacy, and elected Jefferson

Davis their president

Sectionalism Intensifies Lincoln’s inaugural address was hopeful,

saying there would be no war unless the South were the “aggressors.” What action did the South take which started the Civil War?

They took Fort Sumter, on an island off the South Carolina coast, before the Union could re-supply it; the fall of Fort Sumter signaled the start of the Civil War

Sectionalism Intensifies The Union was concerned about the loyalty

of the so-called “border states” – those between the Union states and those which had seceded. Why did Lincoln impose martial law in Baltimore, Maryland?

The new Confederate capital in Richmond, Virginia was too close for comfort; he wanted to prevent Maryland from seceding from the Union

Sectionalism Intensifies Put these events leading up to the Civil War

in the order in which they first occurred. (Answers appear in order on next slide)

Kansas-Nebraska Act/“Bleeding Kansas” John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry Disagreement on morality, legality of

slavery (including Uncle Tom’s Cabin) Southern states secede, form Confederacy Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling

Sectionalism Intensifies Put these events leading up to the Civil War in

the order in which they first occurred.

Disagreement on morality, legality of slavery (including publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin)

Kansas-Nebraska Act/“Bleeding Kansas” Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry Southern states secede, form Confederacy