15-01 Road to Civil War 1820-1861

Slavery and the West

The Missouri Compromise

A growing number of Northerners wanted to stop slavery. Southerners, even those who did not like slavery, were against interference in the South's affairs.

These differences between the North and the South grew into sectionalism, or an exaggerated loyalty to a particular region of the country.

Henry Clay, the Great Compromiser, got the Senate to pass The Missouri Compromise in 1820. It admitted Missouri as a slave state, Maine as a free state, and banned slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of 36°30'N latitude.

Conflicting Views

Just after the Mexican Warbegan, Representative David Wilmot proposed that slavery should be prohibited in any lands that the U.S. might get from Mexico. The Wilmot Proviso made Southerners furious.

California

When California applied for statehood, its statehood became mixed up with other issues in Congress.

Abolitionists wanted to ban slavery in

Washington D.C.. Southerners wanted a law requiring that runaway slaves be returned to their masters.

The greatest concern was still over the balance of power in the Senate. As tension grew, some Southerners began talking about seceding from, or leaving, the United States. SLAVE FREE

The Compromise of 1850

In January 1850, Henry Clay came up with a five-part plan to settle the issues that divided Congress.

• Admit California as a free state• Allow slavery in New Mexico and Utah Territories• New Mexico gets the land claimed by both Texas and New Mexico• Ban slave trade, but not slavery, in Washington D.C. (District of Columbia)• Make stronger fugitive slave laws

They finally agreed to compromise. Senator Stephen Douglas suggested they vote on each issue separately, Congress finally passed a series of five separate bills.

These laws, known as the Compromise of 1850, contained the five main parts of Clay's original plan. The president thought the problems between the north and the south were finally settled. He was wrong.

The Fugitive Slave Act

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required all citizens to help catch runaway slaves.

Some slaveholders captured runaways who had lived in the North for years and forced free African Americans into slavery. The law convinced more northerners that that slavery was evil and they would not help enforce the law.

Harriet Beecher Stowe• Stowe called the Fugitive Slave Act a

“nightmare abomination.” • Her most famous novel was about the evils

of slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published in 1852.

• Best Seller! 300,000 copies sold the 1st year• Had a huge impact on public feelings

against slavery.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• When Pres. Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe during the Civil War, he said, “so, you’re the woman who wrote the book that started this great war.”

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

In 1854, Senator Stephen Douglas proposed canceling the Missouri Compromise and letting the settlers

in the Kansas and Nebraska territories vote on whether to allow

slavery. He called this Popular Sovereignty

Many Northerners disagreed with the Kansas-Nebraska Act because it would allow slavery into areas that had been free for more than 30 years. Many Northerners became convinced that compromise with the South was no longer possible.

Conflict in Kansas

Right after the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, both proslavery and antislavery groups sent supporters into Kansas.

When elections took place in Kansas only about 1,500 voters lived there, but more than 6,000 people voted. Thousands of proslavery supporters had come from Missouri to vote in the election. By January 1856, there were two governments Kansas, one for and one against slavery.

"Bleeding Kansas"

In May 1856, 800 slavery supporters attacked the town of Lawrence, the antislavery capital. Antislavery forces retaliated.

When John Brown heard of the attack on Lawrence, he led four of his sons and two other men along Pottawatomie Creek, where they killed five slavery supporters.

Newspapers began referring to this as "Bleeding Kansas". The bloodshed continued for about six months until the governor finally brought in federal troops.

Violence in Congress

The violence in Kansas spilled over into Congress. Abolitionist senator Charles Sumner lashed out at proslavery forces in Kansas. He also criticized proslavery senators.

A distant cousin of one of the men he insulted, walked into the Senate chamber and beat Sumner over the head with a cane. Sumner’s injuries were so bad that it took him three years to recuperate.

The incident and the fighting in "Bleeding Kansas" showed the rising level of hostility between North and South. Many referred to this as the “Civil war in Kansas”-A civil war is a conflict between citizens of the same country.