1. Divisive Politics of Slavery
How do the North & South differ on Slavery?

2. Life in the Antebellum South
Agricultural w/ slow industrialization and poor transportation
2. 40% of US pop with 6M whites (350K Slv Owners) & 3M slaves
3. See slavery as a way of life that must continue
Life in Northern States
Primarily manufacturing, fully industrialized, great transp.
2. 60% of US pop, mostly White, some freed slaves
3. Abolitionists want to see an end to slavery

3. Compromise of 1850
New states ready to enter union (free or vote on slavery?)
North says CA must be free South says it should vote
Henry Clay creates Compromise of 1850
1) California will be a free state, New Mexico (below 36/30) & Utah (above 36/30) can vote on slavery
2) Stronger fugitive slave laws will be written

4. Rebelling Against Slavery
Virginian slave Nat Turner rebels against slave owners killing 60 pro-slavery whites. - Turner eventually caught
Slaves escape the South via a network of escape routes called the Underground Railroad w/ help of “conductors” like Harriet Tubman

5. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel exposed horrors of slavery, argued slavery was not just a political issue, but also a moral issue

6. Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) divided the territory into two states (both above 36/30 line), and allowed a vote on slavery in each
Violence breaks out in each state as northerners and southerners race to settle in the state

7. Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857
Slave named Dred Scott argues that he & his owner lived in free territories and therefore had been illegally enslaved.
Supreme Court ruled against Scott saying he was “property,” which is protected by 5th Amendment.

8. Lincoln vs. Douglas New Republican party is abolitionist
Illinois Senate race btwn Abraham Lincoln (R) & Stephen Douglas (D)
Douglas favors voting on slavery, Lincoln says slavery is immoral
Lincoln wins, two years later he wins Presidency
Lincoln says he will allow slavery to continue but will not allow its expansion into new states, South threatens to secede from the union