Lecture 3, Monday September 17: Slavery’s Westward Threat Regional Tensions develop over Politics & Economics of Slavery Missouri Compromise –1820 Tallmadge Amendment / Then ?s about role of slavery in future growth Regional Tensions Grow over Question of Slavery’s Expansion West Texas – American Slaveholders Move there – create problems for Mexico TX Independence in 1836, joins the US? – 1845, US War with MX Question of Slavery in Lands Won from Mexico : Options Wilmot Proviso – Free Soilers Calhoun & 5 th Amendment Popular / Squatter Sovereignty [Lewis Cass] Compromise of admitted CA as a free state -status of slavery in rest of this territory decided by popular sovereignty -upheld slavery in DC but abolished slave trade there -more effective Fugitive Slave Law --Use of federal marshals --Burden on northerners Harriet Beecher Stowe – Uncle Tom’s Cabin The Fight over Kansas – Problematic Popular Sovereignty in Action Stephen Douglas, Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854 Consequences -- more conflict, bloodshed [to be continued]
Politics Matters, especially Partisan Politics! so says Michael Holt
If cotton had not become the premier cash crop, would sectionalism have been a problem in the United States? If US territory had remained bound to the eastern side of the Mississippi River, would sectionalism have intensified? It Texas had remained outside of the US, would that have altered the course of events? If the US had not gone to war with Mexico, would the North and South have become so diatremically opposed to one another around one issue?
Lecture 3, Monday September 17: Slavery’s Westward Threat Regional Tensions develop over Politics & Economics of Slavery Missouri Compromise –1820 Tallmadge Amendment / Then ?s about role of slavery in future growth Regional Tensions Grow over Question of Slavery’s Expansion West Texas – American Slaveholders Move there – create problems for Mexico TX Independence in 1836, joins the US? – 1845, US War with MX Question of Slavery in Lands Won from Mexico : Options Wilmot Proviso – Free Soilers Calhoun & 5 th Amendment Popular / Squatter Sovereignty [Lewis Cass] Compromise of admitted CA as a free state -status of slavery in rest of this territory decided by popular sovereignty -upheld slavery in DC but abolished slave trade there -more effective Fugitive Slave Law --Use of federal marshals --Burden on northerners Harriet Beecher Stowe – Uncle Tom’s Cabin The Fight over Kansas – Problematic Popular Sovereignty in Action Stephen Douglas, Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854 Consequences -- more conflict, bloodshed [to be continued]
David Wilmot Wilmot Proviso “…as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico... neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory.”
“When territory presents itself for annexation with slavery already established, I stand ready to take it….I will not change its institutions, then. I make no war upon the South. I have no squeamish sensitiveness on the subject of slavery – no morbid sympathy for the slave. But I stand for the integrity of the territory. It shall remain free, so far as my voice and vote can aid in the preservation of its free character.” Free Soil Position:
The spread of slavery into the west? --- an issue around which abolitionists and Free Soilers can unite.
Lecture 3, Monday September 17: Slavery’s Westward Threat Regional Tensions develop over Politics & Economics of Slavery Missouri Compromise –1820 Tallmadge Amendment / Then ?s about role of slavery in future growth Regional Tensions Grow over Question of Slavery’s Expansion West Texas – American Slaveholders Move there – create problems for Mexico TX Independence in 1836, joins the US? – 1845, US War with MX Question of Slavery in Lands Won from Mexico : Options Wilmot Proviso – Free Soilers Calhoun & 5 th Amendment Popular / Squatter Sovereignty [Lewis Cass] Compromise of admitted CA as a free state -status of slavery in rest of this territory decided by popular sovereignty -upheld slavery in DC but abolished slave trade there -more effective Fugitive Slave Law --Use of federal marshals --Burden on northerners Harriet Beecher Stowe – Uncle Tom’s Cabin The Fight over Kansas – Problematic Popular Sovereignty in Action Stephen Douglas, Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854 Consequences -- more conflict, bloodshed [to be continued]
Stephen Douglas IL Senator Popular Sovereignty Kansas-Nebraska Act