Wedges of Separation1850-1860

Senator Stephen Douglas-Illinois

Frederick Douglass

Harriet Beecher Stowe

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin-1852

• Immensely popular in the north

• For those who could not read, several theater companies toured a stage adaptation during the 1850s

Senator Stephen Douglas-Illinois

“There are eleven hundred coming from Platte County to

vote and it that ain’t enough we can send five thousand-enough

to kill every God-damned abolitionist in the Territory”-

Senator David AtchinsonMissouri

John Brown

Senator Charles Sumner

Dred Scott

John Brown

“His zeal in the cause of freedom was infinitely superior to mine.

Mine was as the taper light; his was as the burning sun. I could live for the slave; John Brown could die for

him.”Frederick Douglass

Abraham Lincoln-1846

Abraham Lincoln-1860

“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure,

permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the

house to fall. But I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become

all one thing, or all the other.” Lincoln, 1858

“Let me tell you what is coming. You may, after the sacrifice of countless millions of

treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives win Southern independence. But I doubt it,

the North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive

people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction…they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of almighty

avalanche.” Sam Houston-1861