A Divided Nation
New States = Big Problems
How did the admission of new states
to the Union fuel the debate over
slavery and states rights?
• Northern ideas
– Wilmot Proviso
• Ban slavery in lands gained
from Mexican American
War
– Free Soilers
• Slavery banned in ALL new
territories
– California
• Above Missouri
Compromise Line so should
be free state
– Slave trade
• Abolished in District of
Columbia
– Union
• Daniel Webster said must
be preserved, end
sectionalism
• Southern ideas
– Balance
• Equal number of free and
slave states
– Wilmot Proviso and Free
Soilers
• An attack on slavery
– Fugitive slave law
• Convince Northerners
slaveholders had property
rights
– California
• Would start new attacks
against slavery
– Constitutional amendment
or Secession
• John C. Calhoun said must
protect State Rights
– Popular sovereignty
• People vote if they want
slavery
Compromise of 1850
Compromise of 1850
• To please the North
– California becomes a free state
– Slave trade banned in the District of Columbia
• To Please the South
– Popular sovereignty would be used in lands of the Mexican
Cession
– New tough fugitive slave law
– Congress given no authority to control slave trade between
slave states
• Why it fails
– Resistance to the new Fugitive Slave Law, Northerners
convinced slavery is evil
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the book to
expose the evils of slavery
• 1000s of people soon realized that slavery
wasn’t a political issue but a moral issue for
the nation
• Southerners claimed the book was false and
misleading
Kansas –Nebraska Act
• Proposed by Stephen Douglas to settle regions
west of Illinois ( wanted a railroad from Illinois to
Pacific coast)
• Popular sovereignty would decide the slavery
issue in Kansas and Nebraska territories
• Supported by South because they believed
slaveholders in Missouri would move to Kansas
• Northerners opposed because both territories
were above the Missouri Compromise line
Bleeding Kansas
• Proslavery and antislavery groups flood to
Kansas to control the governments
• 1000s of Missourians vote illegally in elections
• Violence
– Two governments struggle for control
– Proslavery sheriff is shot in Lawrence KS.(April)
– 800 men attack Lawrence KS.( May)
– John Brown and followers raid Pottawatomie
Creek and kill 5 proslavery men and boys.
A New Antislavery Part
• Republican party
– Main goal to stop slavery’s expansion
– Quickly become a powerful political force
• 105 of 245 Representatives in the House
• Controlled almost all northern states
• 1856 – John C. Fremont runs for the presidency and
wins 11 of 16 free states
• Southerners see the new party as antislavery
Dred Scott Decision
• A slave Dred Scott sues for his freedom because he had
lived where slavery was illegal
• Supreme Court decision
– Couldn’t sue in federal court because blacks are not
citizens
– Living in a free territory does not make you free
– Slaves were property and property rights are protected by
the Constitution
– Missouri Compromise is unconstitutional
• Reaction
– South rejoiced because slavery is legal in territories
– North outraged
Lincoln- Douglas Debates: A New
Leader Emerges
• Abraham Lincoln
– Believes slavery is morally wrong
– Supported Wilmot Proviso and opposed expansion of
slavery
– Opposed the Kansas – Nebraska Act
– South considered Lincoln a dangerous abolitionist
– Stated that the nation could not remain half free and
half slave
– Believes blacks should have rights but not equality
– Believes blacks should be considered citizens
John Brown’s Raid
• Brown is leading abolitionist(radical & violent)
• Brown leads a raid in Kansas at Pottawatomie Creek
and kills five proslavery men, he is driven out of Kansas
• Brown then plans a raid in Virginia
– Seizes guns from the federal armory
– Plans to give guns to African Americans and lead a slave
revolt
– captured by Robert E. Lee, tried and found guilty of
treason and murder, put to death by hanging
• Brown seen as a hero in the North, Southerners
convinced that the North wants to destroy their way of
life
The Nation Divides
• Election of Abraham Lincoln sparks secession in
the South…… Why?
– They believed they had no voice in the federal
government
– Lincoln was set against the Southern way of
life/slavery
– Congress would follow the President’s lead and end
slavery’s expansion
– Republican party had a hatred for slavery and would
not stop at ending expansion but abolish it altogether
– Only choice was secession