Sectionalism leads to Violence

Agenda 1. Bell Ringer: What are the conditions of the Compromise of 1850? 2. Notes: Violence and Abolitionists (25) - Real Lives of the Underground RR 3. 1850 Map Analysis (20) 4. Video Clip, America the Story of US, Division, Slave Auctions and Bleeding Kansas. (10) 5. Caning of Sumner Primary Analysis/Uncle Tom’s Cabin (15) HW: Test on 12/07/17

Fugitive Slave Act Fugitives are not allowed a trial. All it took was a statement from a slave owner. There was incentive to turn slaves in, authorities received $10 per slave. If you were caught aiding slaves, it was $1000 fine and six months in jail. In a means to resist, northerners passed personal liberty laws, requiring trials of slaves (then they’d hold a trial for four years)

Underground Railroad Free Africans and whites formed an underground railroad of homes and a route to the north for escaping slaves. Harriet Tubman escaped slavery in 1849, then helped lead people on the underground railroad. Many slaves traveled on foot, at night, and then during the day hid in homes throughout the route. Some homes had hidden compartments for slaves to hide. Uncle Tom’s Cabin- Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, felt slavery was a moral struggle.

Issues in Kansas and Nebraska Stephen Douglas felt that popular sovereignty would provide a fair way to decide slavery in the territory. However, Nebraska lay north of the Missouri Compromise Line. Divide it into two states, one slave and one free. Would have to abandon the line Douglas decided to propose repealing the Missouri Compromise Kansas-Nebraska Act passed in 1854.

Bleeding Kansas Settlers poured into the territory, and planned on voting for the slave issue. North and Southern settlers entered the region. Slave owners in Missouri would come in and vote illegally, David Atchison set up a pro-slavery government. Abolitionists saw it as a fraud, and set up a rival government. Anti-slavery town of Lawrence burned to the ground by pro- slavery activists.

John Brown Brown was fervently anti-slavery He heard five were killed in Lawrence, so he found five men at a pro-slavery settlement and after hacking off their hands, stabbed them. Brown would flee Kansas, but more than 200 would die in incidents over the passage of slavery.

Brooks and Sumner Charles Sumner delivered a speech titled “The Crime against Kansas” In his speech, he railed against slavery and those that supported it. Preston Brooks was insulted by what Sumner said of his uncle. He walked into the chamber, confronted Sumner and beat him nearly to death with his cane. Sectionalism is leading to violence everywhere, including Congress.