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War With Mexico (Consequences)
-Mexico recognized the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas
-The United states took possession of the former Mexican provinces of California and New Mexico -
Underground Railroad
Fabled network of “Conductors” and “stations” was a loose network of Northern free blacks and courageous ex-slaves, with the help of some white abolitionists, who helped escaped slaves reach freedom in the North or in Canada -
Compromise of 1850
-Admit California to the Union as a free state -Divide the remainder of the Mexican Cession into 2 territories - Utah and New Mexico -Allow the settlers in these territories to decide the slavery issue by majority vote or popular sovereignty -Give land in dispute to Texas and New Mexico territory -Ban the slave trade in District of Columbia -Whites may hold slaves as before -
Fugitive Slave Law
-Drove a wedge between North and South -Law’s chief purpose was to track down runaway slaves who had escaped to a Northern state capture them and return them to their owners -Persons who claimed to be free African Americans and not runaway slaves were denied the right of trial by jury. -Anyone trying to hide a runaway slave was given heavy penalties -
Pro-Con Literature Pt. 1
Uncle Tom’s Cabin:
About a slave named Tom and his brutal white slave owner Simon Legree
Publication 1852
Author was Harriet Beecher Stowe, she herself had moved a generation of Northerners as well as many Europeans to regard all slave owners as monstrously cruel and inhuman
South obviously said the novel wasn’t true and just more proof that the north is prejudice against us -
The Kansas Nebraska Act
Kansas territory and Nebraska Territory Allow settlers in each territory to allow slavery or not These territories were located north of the 36*30’ line Southern slave owners had an opportunity to expand slavery, an opportunity that had previously been taken away from them by the Missouri compromise of 1820 Northern Democrats condemned the bill as a surrender to the “slave power.” Three months of bitter debate and the Act was passed by both houses of congress -
Bleeding Kansas
Stephen Douglas expected the slavery issue to be settled peacefully by the antislavery farmers from the Midwest. These settlers did in fact constitute a majority of the population Slaveholders from the neighboring state of Missouri set up homesteads in Kansas as a means of winning control of the territory for the South This paid for the transportation of antislavery settlers to Kansas. Fighting soon broke out between pro slavery and the antislavery groups -
Sumner Brooks Incident
1856, Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner verbally attacked the Democratic administration in a vitriolic speech. Intemperate remarks included personal charges against South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler. Butler’s nephew, Congressman Brooks, defended his absent uncle’s honor by walking into the Senate chamber and beating Sumner over the head with a cane Brooks explained that dueling was too good for Sumner, but a cane was fit for a dog -
Panic of 1857
-Mid Century economic boom ended with financial panic -Prices for Midwestern farmers, dropped sharply -Unemployment in the Northern cities increased -Cotton prices remained high so south was less affected -South continued to believe union with the North economy was not needed -
Pro-Con Literature Pt. 2
Impending Crisis of the South: Did not appear until 1857
Author is Hinton R. Helper
Used statistics to show the south that slavery weakened the south’s economy
Southern states quickly tried to ban the book -
Lecompton Constitution
Buchanan's first challenges as president - to reject or accept a pro slavery state constitution
- did not have much support
-Buchanan asked congress to accept the constitution but congress said no -
Dred Scott v. Sandford
- Scott was a slave in Missouri however he got taken to free soil where he lived for 2 years -Scott argued this made him a free man -Scott sued for his freedom -case worked its way through the court system till it got to the Supreme Court -Supreme court said that he cannot sue he is not a human he is property and who are they to deprive someone of their property?
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Lincoln - Douglas Debates
Lincoln - Against the expansion of slavery but not an abolitionist
Spoke of slavery as a moral issue Douglas - Slavery could not exist in a community if the local citizens did not pass laws (slave codes) maintaining it. -
John Brown's Raid
John Brown wanted to start a slave uprising in Virginia.
-led a small band of followers, including his sons and former slaves
- in an attack on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry
- plan was to use guns from the arsenal to arm Virginia's slaves, whom he expected to rise up in general revolt
- Federal troops under the command of Robert E. Lee captured Brown and his band after a two-day siege.
John Brown and six of his followers were tried for treason, convicted, and hanged. -
Election of 1860
-Democratic party broke apart - plan was to nominate Stephen Douglas on a platform of popular sovereignty and enforcement of the fugitive slave laws
-Republican party- platform that appealed strongly to the economic self-interest of Northerners and Westerners
-Fourth Political Party
-Called the constitutional Party - pledged enforcement of the laws and the constitution, above all, preserving the union
