Expansion westward

Growing abolitionist sentiment in the

North

Failure of compromise

Fugitive Slave Act complicates

enforcement across the country

Kansas-Nebraska border feud illustrates

the growing trend toward violence.

Major compromises over slavery:• Missouri Compromise of 1820:

Missouri asks to be allowed in to the Union – Whigs

oppose, Southern Democrats support.

Maine allowed in as a result – 1 free, 1 slave state

enter the Union simultaneously.

Slavery banned north of 36’ 30 line.

Compromise of 1850: • Stronger Fugitive Slave Act

• South denies the Wilmot Proviso which would have banned slavery in territories acquired from the Mexican-American War

• California enters as a free state

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 stated

that any escaped slaves had to be

returned to their owners in the South, or

those complicit could face a fine.• Violates the rights of freed blacks

• Stokes fears of Slave Power in the North

• Further ignites abolitionist sentiment

Repeals 36’ 30 line of Missouri Compromise of 1820.Act intends to create states of Kansas and Nebraska to allow for transcontinental railroad.Slavery would be settled by popular sovereignty:• The decision to be a slave or free state would be left to

the residents of the state.• All males eligible to vote could vote pro- or anti-slavery• Leads to Bleeding Kansas

Many believe this to be the unofficial start

of the Civil War.

Pro- and anti-slavery forces battle in

Kansas. Lawrence under siege by anti-

slavery forces.

John Brown and a group of abolitionists

raid a pro-slavery event. Hack five men to

death with swords on May 24, 1855.

Potttawatommie Creek Massacre.

Republican party forms in aftermath of Bleeding Kansas – party of anti-slavery.Republican Party will forward Abraham Lincoln as a candidate for president in 1860.South Carolina first to secede upon Abraham Lincoln’s election.The Democratic Party splits in to Southern Democrats and Northern Democrats. SD’s want federal protection of slavery; ND’s favor popular sovereignty.

Four candidates –• Abraham Lincoln: Republican, anti-slavery.

• John Bell: Constitutional unionist, concerned with

upholding the Constitution and protecting slavery.

• Stephen Douglas: Northern Democrat. Favors

popular sovereignty in order to settle slavery.

• John Breckinridge: Southern Democrat from

Kentucky. The gov’t must protect slavery.

Lincoln wins the election with only 40% of

the vote – despite not winning a single

vote in the Southern states.

Within a month, South Carolina secedes

from the Union.

“We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the ordinance adopted by us in convention on the twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the "United States of America," is hereby dissolved.”