Chapter 21A Dividing Nation:

On the Road to the Civil War

Missouri wants to become a state…. (so what’s the problem?) 21.2

Missouri applied for statehood with Alabama. The Northwest Ordinance (which banned slavery north of the Ohio River) says Alabama is clearly a slave state that would restore the balance between slave & free. Missouri was on both sides of the river & would upset the balance between slave and free…

The Missouri Compromise stated…(The Solution) 21.3

Congress agreed to a compromise that admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state…this was an important compromise because it KEPT THE BALANCE OF SLAVE & FREE!!!

It Didn’t Work Because…(Why it Unravels) 21.4

Abolitionists and Southerners were battling it out in Congress over slavery & fugitive slaves.

Meanwhile, slavery was still a question in the territories, & California wanted to become a state.

California Wants to Become a State…(So What’s the Problem?) 21.4

California wanted to enter the Union as a free state, and Southerners in Congress rejected their request because it would upset the balance between slave & free.

California wants to become a state and Congress is deadlocked & angry

Southerners were so mad about the California issue, they almost started a duel on the Senate floor!!

The Compromise of 1850 says…(The Solution) 21.5

• Cali comes in as free state (North happy )

• New Mexico, Utah opened as slave territories (South happy )

• Slave trade ends in D.C. (Abolitionists happy )

• Strong fugitive slave law (Slaveholders happy )

EVERYBODY HAPPY?!?! Not for long…

Compromise of 1850

It Doesn’t Work Because…(Why the compromise made no one happy)

21.6

Northerners not enforcing Fugitive Slave Law

Violence in Kansas between pro-Slavery settlers & John Brown

Violence in Congress when SC Senator Brooks attacked MA Senator Sumner

Bleeding Kansas

Violence in Congress

Dred Scott was Suing Because…(Who is this guy anyway?!) 21.6

Scott was a Missouri slave who had travelled to & spent time in Wisconsin with his owner. When he returned to MO, he sued for his freedom and it went all the way to the Supreme Court…

The Supreme Court Decision said two things… 21.7

First, the Justices had voted that Dred Scott did not have the right to sue because he was not a citizen – nor could he ever become one. (No African-American slave or free was considered a citizen)

Second, the Justices ruled that because slaves were property protected by the 5th Amendment, a slaveowner could not be denied their property…therefore the Missouri Compromise is unconstitutional!!

Dred Scott Decision