A Union in Peril: The Sectional Crisis of the Early Nineteenth Century,

Questions for Today… How did pro-slavery and free-soil ideologies shape discourse on the slavery question? What were the main political and social events that contributed to this sectional crisis?

Pro-Slavery Ideology States’ Rights

Pro-Slavery Ideology States’ Rights Property Rights

Pro-Slavery Ideology States’ Rights Property Rights “Positive Good” Myth

Key Events: The Sectional Crisis 1.Missouri Compromise of 1820

Missouri Compromise of 1820

Key Events: The Sectional Crisis 1.Missouri Compromise of Mexican War and Wilmot Proviso

Results of the Mexican War

Key Events: The Sectional Crisis 1.Missouri Compromise of Mexican War and Wilmot Proviso 3.Compromise of 1850

Compromise of 1850

Fugitive Slave Anthony Burns

Key Events: The Sectional Crisis 1.Missouri Compromise of Mexican War and Wilmot Proviso 3.Compromise of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Key Events: The Sectional Crisis 1.Missouri Compromise of Mexican War and Wilmot Proviso 3.Compromise of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) 5.Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

Stephen Douglas Democratic Senator from Illinois

Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

Stance of the Democratic Party “The National Democratic organization is fully committed to the principles of the Nebraska Bill…it is committed to the doctrine that the soil, climate, and natural capacities of territories belonging to the Union, and the will of the people when they come to form their organic law, must decide the question of slavery, untrammeled by the interference of government.” The Mississippian, Jackson, MS (1854)

Key Events: The Sectional Crisis 1.Missouri Compromise of Mexican War and Wilmot Proviso 3.Compromise of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) 5.Kansas-Nebraska Act of Bleeding Kansas ( )

Sack of Lawrence, 1856

The Kansas- Missouri Border

Key Events: The Sectional Crisis 1.Missouri Compromise of Mexican War and Wilmot Proviso 3.Compromise of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) 5.Kansas-Nebraska Act of Bleeding Kansas ( ) 7.Dred Scott Decision (1857)

The Dred Scott Family

Reaction to Dred Scott Decision “Divers[e] newspapers of the Democratic and Dark- Lantern species are howling grievously at the audacity of those free people who dare to doubt the omniscience, the infallibility, and the absolute disinterestedness of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States…If there be any censure to bestow, let it fall, in the name of the eternal equities, upon those who have dragged their official robes in the kennels of slave-breeding politics!...” New York Tribune (1857)

Key Events: The Sectional Crisis 1.Missouri Compromise of Mexican War and Wilmot Proviso 3.Compromise of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) 5.Kansas-Nebraska Act of Bleeding Kansas ( ) 7.Dred Scott Decision (1857) 8.Raid on Harper’s Ferry (1859)

John Brown Radical Abolitionist

Harper’s Ferry, Virginia

Brown’s Martyrdom “If it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments,--I submit, so let it be done!” John Brown, 1859

Summary The sectional crisis occurred because of differing ideologies in the North and the South that made true compromise nearly impossible Each side became increasingly radicalized and envisioned their opponents as “Other” Instead of fragmenting along party lines, politicians and everyday people separate along sectional lines