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The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad wasn’t really underground, nor a railroad. Instead, it was a series of secret networks and paths the helped slaves get to freedom. It ran all the way from Alabama and the Deep South to Canada, at which point they were free. The workers on the Railroad, also known as agents, were a mix of abolitionists, such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, and escaped slaves like Harriet Tubman. The purpose of the Underground Railroad was to help escaping slaves safely get to freedom. -
Abolitionist: John Brown
John Brown was an abolitionist who was also a failed businessman. He failed in many different states over a very long period of time. This meant that he didn’t have access to a lot of money. Brown was born on May 9, 1800 in Connecticut. He worked on the Underground Railroad for his entire life after seeing a slave boy being beaten. He led the attack at Pottawatomie where 5 men were killed in one night. He also was the leader of the raid on Harper’s Ferry. -
Abolitionist: John Brown
He obviously believed in using violence in solving the issue of slavery. He planned to arm slaves and take back the south. His plan failed and he was caught and hanged after that, but he was already an icon for abolitionists. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an agreement made about the territory of Missouri joining the country as a slave state. James Tallmadge, from New York, had an idea that in the territory of Missouri should have no more slaves than it already had and that the slaves that it already had would be released at the age of twenty-five. -
Missouri Compromise Pt. 2
However, William Pinkney, from Maryland, thought that other states that were in the union had done so with no special requisites or conditions. He argued that Missouri should be able to keep the slaves and join the union as a slave state. On March 3, 1820, Congress passed the Missouri Compromise. Missouri could keep its slaves and enter the union as a slave state. To keep things even, Maine would also join the union as a slave state. -
Missouri Compromise Pt. 3
Also, to keep problems from rising in the future, they agreed that in the Louisiana Territory, territories that wanted to become states north of the 36’30’ would be free; states south of the line would be slave states. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
On August 22 and 23, 1831, in Southampton, Virginia, on the Travis plantation, the lives of slaves were changed forever. The slave preacher Nat Turner was about to do something terrible. He gathered together slaves from his plantation and rose up against his master, Mr. Travis, killing him and his family. This in itself would’ve been sad, but what happened next made it all worse. Turner and his band of followers moved on to the next plantation...and the next. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion Part 2
All the time gathering more and more slaves, ending up with between 60 and 70 slaves total. All of them willing and able to fight for their freedom. Throughout a two day killing spree, Nat Turner and his followers killed 60 plantation owners and their families. After two days, the Virginia Militia moved in with 3,000 men and captured Turner and the other runaway slaves. Many were tried and found guilty, then executed, although some were set free. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion Part 3
Turner himself was executed by hanging after being found guilty. This act by Turner made the suspicions of white people towards black slaves turned into fears. After the rebellion, more than 200 slaves were killed by mob violence; white people who feared for their lives. The government itself began passing laws limiting what both black slaves and free black people could do. This was a terrible time to be a slave. -
Compromise of 1850
After the Gold Rush of 1849, California finally had enough people to apply for statehood, which it did. This sparked a debate that started the setup for the Civil War. The same man who came up with the Compromise of 1820 came up with this compromise, which held the country together for a little longer. The deal, finally decided on January 29, 1850, was as follows. California was admitted to the U.S. as a free state and Washington D.C. outlawed the slave trade, which settled the abolitionists. -
Compromise of 1850
To settle the pro-slavery people, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. This act required citizens to report escaped slaves and bribed officials to send them back to the South. In addition to that, there would be more officials to carry out the law. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
In January of 1854, another debate was going on. Stephen Douglass, a Senator from Illinois with ambitions to become president, wanted to score points with both northerners and southerners. He proposed that Americans forget the 36’30 line that was part of the Missouri Compromise. Instead, he thought they should depend on ‘popular sovereignty”, or letting the people decide whether or not to be a slave state. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act Pt. 2
He figured that because of the soil on the Great Plains was poor for cotton that the people of the two territories would choose to be free states without contest. The act was passed on May 30, 1854, but instead of fixing a problem, it simply created chaos. -
Bleeding Kansas
On May 21, 1856, an event known as Bleeding Kansas was taking place in the Mid-West. Two years ago, the Kansas-Nebraska Act had been passed, letting states decide for themselves whether they were a free or slave state. This provoked action in Kansas. People from its neighbor Missouri frolicked to the state to make sure that it would become a slave state. At the same time, anti-slavery people came from New England to swing it the other way. This promised violence, and delivered. -
Bleeding Kansas Pt. 2
On the 21, looting in the anti-slavery town of Lawrence sparked a fire that would last all summer. Perhaps the most violent act of that summer was committed by abolitionist John Brown. He and his sons took five proslavery men from their beds and, in front of their families, killed them with swords at Pottawatomie Creek. Kansas ended up being voted a free state. -
Dred Scott Case
Between the years of 1846 and 1857,slave Dred Scott was appealing to the Supreme Court for his freedom. He stated that being that his master had taken him to a free state and a free territory, that meant he was free since there were no slaves in those states. On March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that since slaves were technically property, the 5th amendment prevented the government from taking them away. -
Dred Scott Case Pt. 2
Furthermore, they deemed that the 36’30 line was unconstitutional and took it away, officially ending the Missouri Compromise. The final straw was when the court ruled that no person of african descent had never and never would be citizens of the U.S. and couldn’t appeal to any court. This was the beginning of the end. -
Raid on Harper's Ferry
The abolitionist John Brown made his final appearance on October 16, 1859 at Harper’s Ferry in Virginia. He planned to take the arsenal there, arm the slaves, and end slavery once and for all. They took the arsenal but that’s when it all went wrong. No slaves rallied to his cause, but he attracted the attention of the the military, who responded led by Robert E. Lee. Nine of the twenty-two people at the arsenal, including two of Brown’s sons, were killed. -
Raid on Harper's Ferry Pt. 2
He and the rest of his group were captured and convicted of treason. Brown was hanged. As a reaction, the south’s militia was greatly improved and the rift between the North and the South was widened. -
Presidential Election of 1860
The presidential election of 1860 was the only time in U.S. history that one side opposed the leadership picked by the system set up by the Founding Fathers. There were four main candidates running for office and all of them had different views on slavery. The first candidate was John Bell. He was from a small party called the Constitutional Union and the man supported slavery,but didn’t wave it in people’s faces. He held the border states of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. -
Presidential Election of 1860 Pt. 2
The next candidate was John Breckinridge. He was a Democrat, supported slavery openly and held all of the South in the election. The main battle was between Democrat Stephen Douglas and Republican Abraham Lincoln, although it wasn’t much of a battle. They held a series of verbal debates throughout the U.S., which were the basis for today’s debates. Stephen Douglass supported popular sovereignty, or letting the states choose for themselves, while Lincoln was against the spread of slavery. -
Presidential Election of 1860 Pt. 3
Douglas was dead last in the election, with Missouri and Southern New Jersey. On November 6, 1860, Lincoln eventually won the election with all of the northern votes. This set up the stage for the South’s secession.
