Chapter 15 A Divided Nation – Section 2 (pgs 483-487)
Trouble in Kansas
Key Terms & People
Franklin Pierce
Stephen Douglas
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Pottawatomie Massacre
Charles Sumner
Preston Brooks
Election of 1852
* Democratic National Convention:
Franklin Pierce- from NH:
-promised to honor Compromise of
1850 & Fugitive Slave Act which
seemed fair to both north & south
on slavery issue)
* Whig Party chose: General Winfield
Scott- Mexican-American War hero
-southerners didn’t trust him:he
didn’t support Compromise of 1850
* Franklin Pierce won by large margin!
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
* President Pierce hoped sectionalism differences were put to rest… WRONG!
Douglas and the Railroad
*Stephen Douglas, Congressman since 1840, wanted to build railroad to Pacific Ocean starting from Chicago, Illinois > to make
this work, US needed to organize territory from Louisiana
Purchase which would become free territories, then free
states due to Missouri Compromise
- Southerners didn’t want this to happen, proposed southern route
for RR (starting in New Orleans, Louisiana, running across TX & New
Mexico to southern California)
- to make his plan work, start the RR in Chicago, Douglas got a few
southern senators to support his plan if the new territory west of
Missouri was opened to slavery
Two New Territories
*1854- Stephen Douglas introduced Kansas-Nebraska Act- plan to divide the
remainder of Lousiana Purchase lands into 2 new territories (Kansas &
Nebraska) and allow people in each state to decide on slavery/no slavery
-act would eliminate Missouri
Compromise’s restriction of no
slavery above 36 30’ {lat} line
-northerners (anti-slavery) were
outraged > held protest meetings,
sent anti-Nebraska petititions to
Congress
-despite efforts by northerners,
the act passed both houses of
Congress, signed into law May
30, 1854
Kansas Divided
*Both anti-slavery & pro-slavery supporters rushed into
Kansas hoping to sway the vote their way
-March 1855- 5,000 pro-slavery voters crossed
into Kansas from Missouri vote, then returned
home > new Kansas legislature: pro-slavery
majority
-passed strict laws: crime to question slaveholders’ rights & those caught helping slaves
escape could be put to death
-in protest- anti-slavery Kansans formed their own legislature, but
President Pierce didn’t recognize it (or care)
Bleeding Kansas
*Everyone in Kansas upset over the slavery issue
*April 1856- congressional committee arrived in Kansas to choose which
government was legit > they decided the pro-slavery one (where people from
Missouri came to vote in Kansas then went back home) was not fair (which it
wasn’t) but the federal government didn’t care
Attack on Lawrence (known as Sack of Lawrence )
*May 1856- pro-slavery grand jury charged anti-slavery government with
treason
*800 men rode to Lawrence to arrest anti-slavery leaders, but they fled >
the men set fires, looted buildings, destroyed printing presses used to
print anti-slavery newspapers > one man killed
John Brown’s Response
*Aboltionist John Brown (from New England- moved to Kansas with his
sons in 1855) Retaliation for Sack of Lawrence- wanted to “fight fire with
fire” and to “strike terror in the hearts of the pro-slavery people”
* May 24, 1856- Pottawatomie Massacre- Brown and his men killed 5 proslavery me in Kansas (Brown & his men dragged victims out of their
cabins & killed them with swords)
* Brown said his actions were ordered by God
*Kansas collapsed into civil war > 200 people killed
*violence known as Bleeding Kansas- became national news
* September 1856- new territorial governor came to restore order in KS
Brooks Attacks Sumner
*Congress reaction to Sack of
Lawrence- Senator Charles
Sumner (Massachusetts)
criticized pro-slavery people
in Kansas & insulted Andrew
Pickens-Butler (pro-slavery
senator from South Carolina)
*May 22, 1856- Rep Preston
Cartoon shows Preston Brooks beating Charles Sumner.
Brooks (related to Butler)
Sumner’s only weapon is a quill pen symbollically representing
the law.
used walking cane to beat
Sumner unconscious in Senate chambers > southerners sent him
new canes (in support) but northerners outraged, called him “Bully
Brooks” > Brooks only had to pay $300 fine > injuries kept Sumner out of
Senate: 3 years