Summarize major legislation and court decisions from 1800 to 1861 that led to increasing sectionalism, including the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Acts, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision.

Chapter 10

Missouri Compromise  Should slavery expand west?  Could upset the balance of free and slave states in the Senate  Also called the Compromise of 1820  Missouri will be a slave state, Maine will be a free state  Slavery will not exist in the Louisiana Purchase above the 36°30’ line (Missouri’s southern border)  Henry Clay helped push it through  Will this be a temporary solution to the slavery issue?

Missouri Compromise

Compromise of 1850  Henry Clay “the Great Compromiser”  Pair 1: California admitted as a free state, the rest of the Mexican cession is organized without restrictions on slavery  Pair 2: settles the border between Texas and New Mexico in favor of New Mexico, but the US will take on Texas’s debts  Pair 3: outlawed the slave trade in Washington D.C., but slavery can still exist  Pair 4: Congress cannot interfere with the slave trade and would pass new fugitive slave laws

Compromise of 1850

 Huge debate  Clay’s bill will not pass  Stephen Douglas helps the Compromise Breaks up the Compromise into smaller bills Makes it easier for all parts to pass, because people can vote or abstain for any part they support or do not support  Eases tensions for a while

Compromise of 1850

Fugitive Slave Act  If someone is suspected to be a runaway, all a person has to do is point out a runaway slave and they will be taken into custody.  Taken to a federal commissioner  A sworn statement was made that the captive was a runaway slave or testimony from a white person  African Americans had no right to a trial and could not testify against a white person  There was a financial incentive given to the commissioner if he found in favor of the slaveholder.

Fugitive Slave Act  Federal marshals had to help capture runaway slaves.  People could be deputized to help search for runaways.  If you refused to help capture a runaway you could be jailed or fined.  Northerners disliked the act.  Northerners resisted. Underground Railroad

Fugitive Slave Act

Kansas-Nebraska Act  New territories opening up cause people to want a transcontinental railroad. Railroad that connects the east to the west Promotes growth and expansion  The South wanted the TR to run from New Orleans, but that would mean they had to purchase land owned by Mexico. Arizona and New Mexico: Gadsden Purchase, $10 million  Stephen Douglas had another agenda. Wanted the railroad to start in Illinois, but that would mean Congress would have to organize that land.

Kansas-Nebraska Act  Douglas prepared a bill to organize Nebraska.  The House pass the bill, the Senate wanted Douglas to repeal the Missouri Compromise and allow slavery in the west. Would divide the country  First, Douglas tried to avoid the issue of slavery by saying the new territory would exercise popular sovereignty. Did not work: if Missouri Compromise was still in effect, slaveholders would not move there.

Kansas-Nebraska Act  Next, Douglas proposed to undo the Missouri Compromise and allow slavery. He also proposed to divide the area into two pieces. Nebraska on top (free), Kansas on bottom (slave) People were mad because the Missouri Compromise was a promise to not let slavery spread.  Enough Democrats supported it.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Bleeding Kansas  There was a fight to make Kansas a slave/free state.  Those who wanted to make Kansas a slave state came from Missouri and voted illegally for a pro-slavery legislature.  Antislavery settlers held a convention in Topeka and drafted their own constitution with no slavery.  Kansas had two governments.

Bleeding Kansas  The people from Missouri who voted illegally, attacked the antislavery settlers in Lawrence.  Completely terrorizing the town: Bleeding Kansas. Scene of territorial civil war between pro- slavery and antislavery settlers 200 died and $2 million in property damages

More Bleeding Kansas  President Buchanan urges Kansas to become a state.  Pro-slavery legislature schedules elections, but antislavery people boycotted it (rigged).  Antislavery forces voted down the pro-slavery constitution. Pro-slavery forces voted for it.  Buchanan accepts the pro-slavery constitution.  The Senate accepted the Lecompton Constitution, the House blocks it.

More Bleeding Kansas  Because of the lack of support, another vote was held.  The settlers in Kansas voted to reject the Lecompton Constitution. It delays Kansas from becoming a state until Kansas will be a free state.

Dred Scott  Slave from Missouri  Master moved him from Missouri to Illinois, then to Wisconsin, then to Missouri and finally to Louisiana.  Because of his stay in free states/territories, Scott could have claimed his freedom.  Once he returned to the South, abolitionists helped Scott sue for his freedom.  Dred Scott’s case went to the Supreme Court.

Dred Scott versus Sandford  Roger Taney, chief justice of the SC, ruled against Scott. African Americans were not citizens and could not sue in court.  Taney addresses the Missouri Compromise. MC is unconstitutional  Dred Scott case further intensified the sectional crisis.

Dred Scott and Roger Taney

John Brown’s Raid  Abolitionist  Wanted to lead a slave insurrection at the federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry Virginia  Plan: seize the arsenal, free slaves and kill as many whites as they could  He and his followers seized the arsenal on October 16,  Within 36 hours, the Marines stormed the arsenal and captured Brown and his followers.  No slave ever aided John Brown.

John Brown’s Raid  He was tried, convicted and sentenced to death.  He was killed on December 2,  Northerners viewed Brown as a martyr.  Southerners believed that all northerners had a plot to kill all slaveholders.

John Browns’ Raid

Formation of the Republican Party  1854  Named after Democratic Republicans: Jefferson’s first party  Could not agree about abolishing slavery, but agreed that slavery should not expand into the territories.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates  Debate in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas for an Illinois Senate seat  Douglas supported popular sovereignty.  Lincoln believed slavery was morally wrong and opposed the spread of slavery west (not an abolitionist).  Lincoln used this debate to clarify the Republican Party ideals; made a name for himself as a clear, insightful thinker who could argue with force and eloquence.  Douglas won the election.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Election of 1860  Lincoln: Republican, denounced John Brown’s Raid, the South’s right to preserve slavery within its borders, higher tariffs, new homestead laws and a transcontinental railroad  Douglas: Northern Democrat, popular sovereignty  Breckinridge: Southern Democrat, supports Dred Scott decision, federal slave code for western territories  Bell: Constitutional Union, upholding the Constitution and the Union  Lincoln wins the 1860 election.  The South secedes.

Candidates John Bell