Slavery Dominates Politics In these notes, you will learn about how the North and the South tried to solve their conflicts over slavery. Fill in the blanks on the handout.

North and South take different paths As you have learned, the North and the South took different paths. The South remained dependant on agriculture. The North was increasingly becoming dependant on manufacturing. As a result, the North and South took different views on the issue of slavery.

Slavery causes conflicts The North, no longer needing slaves for their economy, thought slavery should be abolished. The South needed the slaves to pick their cotton and tobacco. They wanted slavery to continue.

Political Compromises There were many political compromises in dealing with the issue of slavery. The first was way back in 1787 when the Constitution was being written. Remember – the 3/5 Compromise allowed the South count each slave as 3/5 of a person for the purposes of representation. (They got more representatives in the House of Representatives).

Northwest Ordinance 1787 The Northwest Ordinance was the next political compromise. The Northwest ordinance forbid slavery in the Northwest Territory. This was the first time that slavery had been forbidden in an American territory.

The Missouri Compromise In 1820 with the admission of Missouri to the Union, the issue of slavery came up again. There was already a great deal of tension between the North and the South. The South, was highly agricultural. It wanted to keep slavery a way of life on their plantations. The North, which was far more industrial, saw this "peculiar institution" as unnecessary and increasingly morally wrong. One way the government tried limit the tension was by keeping the number of slave and free states equal. So, in 1820, when Missouri met the requirements for statehood and applied for admission to the Union as a slave state, there was a problem. The balance of free and slave states would be destroyed.

Results of Missouri Compromise To solve the problem, a compromise was reached. Missouri was admitted to the Union as a slave state. Maine would be admitted at the same time as a free state. The Louisiana Purchase was also divided into slave and free territory. This compromise kept things peaceful for a few years.

The Wilmot Proviso After the Missouri Compromise in 1820,political disagreements over slavery seemed to go away. But new disagreements arose with the outbreak of the War with Mexico in1846.Many Northerners believed that Southerners wanted to take territory from Mexico in order to extend slavery. To prevent that, Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania proposed a bill, known as the Wilmot Proviso. It would outlaw slavery in any territory the United States might acquire from the War with Mexico.

But slaveholders believed that Congress had no right to prevent them from bringing slaves into any of the territories. They viewed slaves as property. The Constitution, they claimed, gave equal protection to the property rights of all U.S.citizens. The Wilmot Proviso removed the right of slaveholders to take their slaves, which they regarded as property, anywhere in the United States or its territories. Southerners claimed that the bill was unconstitutional. The Wilmot Proviso never became law.

Problems with California By 1848, the nation’s leaders had begun to debate how to deal with slavery in the lands gained from the War with Mexico. In 1849, gold was discovered in California. The population grew very fast. By 1850, California applied to become a new state. If California was admitted as a free state, it would upset the balance of free and slave states.

Compromise of 1850 Congress went to work on a plan to solve the California problem. It was called the Compromise of To please the North, California would be admitted as a free state, and the slave trade would be abolished in Washington, D.C. To please the South, Congress would not pass laws regarding slavery for the rest of the territories won from Mexico, and Congress would pass a stronger law to help slaveholders recapture runaway slaves. This was called the Fugitive Slave Act.

Fugitive Slave Act An 1850 law that helped slaveholders recapture runaway slaves. It was illegal to help a slave escape. A person could be put in jail if they did.

Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Beecher Stowe was outraged when she heard about the part of the Compromise of 1850 that would help slaveholders recapture runaway slaves. She stated that the Christian men who passed this law “cannot know what slavery is.” As a result, in 1852 Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin; a novel which portrayed slavery as brutal and immoral. This book encouraged many people in the North to become abolitionists.

Popular Sovereignty A system where the people decide an issue by voting on it. Southerners wanted to use popular sovereignty to decide if slavery should exist in new states.

Kansas–Nebraska Act A bill proposed by Senator Stephan Douglas of Illinois. The bill would split the Nebraska territory into two states – Kansas and Nebraska. The people of Kansas and Nebraska would be allowed to decide if there would be slavery in their states. (popular sovereignty)

Bleeding Kansas Because popular sovereignty was going to be allowed in Kansas, proslavery and antislavery settlers rushed into the territory. Bloodshed resulted. John Brown – an extreme white abolitionist went to homes of several proslavery neighbors and murdered five people. News of the violence spread, and civil war broke out in Kansas. It continued for three years, which was why it was called “Bleeding Kansas.”

John Brown

Republican Party In 1854, the Republican Party was created to stop the spread of slavery.

Presidential Election of 1856 Republicans nominate John C. Fremont, a national hero from his exploration of the West. Democrats nominate James Buchanan. The American or Know-Nothing party nominated Millard Fillmore. Democrat Buchanan won, but the election showed that the Republicans were very strong in the North, and that the issue of slavery had divided the country.

Dred Scott Case Dred Scott - a slave in Missouri. Owner took him to the North where slavery was illegal. Scott sued for his freedom because he was in a free state. The case reached the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that Scott could not sue in the U.S. because he was not a citizen. He was the property of his owner. This case angered people in the North. The ruling also stated that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories.

Lincoln and Douglas Debates In 1858, Abraham Lincoln challenged Stephan Douglas for senator from Illinois. Douglas and Lincoln had debates over the issues. The major issue was slavery. Lincoln had called slavery “a moral, a social, and political wrong.” Douglas said that slavery was up to the people. Douglas won, but Lincoln became a national figure after the debates.

John Brown Attacks Harpers Ferry 1859, John Brown, who had murdered proslavery Kansans three year earlier wanted to inspire slaves to fight for their freedom. He planned to capture the weapons in the U.S arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown and 18 followers, 13 white and 5 black, captured the weapons. They wanted to give the weapons to slaves so they could start a slave revolt. They killed four people.

No slaves joined the fight and Brown and six others were captured and hanged. On the day that Brown was put to death, abolitionist rang bells in his honor. Southerners were horrified by the reaction of the North. The issue of slavery was becoming very tense.