1. Prelude To War

2. Contrasting Economies
75% of Americans lived in rural areas.
North
Industrialized (5 times more than South)
90% of skilled workers
Immigrants = competition = lower wages

3. South 10% of Nation’s capital in 1860 Slave labor (4 million slaves)
About 24% of Southerners owned slaves.
88% of them owned less than 20 slaves.
Farmers not planters
10,000 big planters ( slaves)
3,000 planters owned more than 100 slaves
14 owned 1,000 slaves or more

4. Economic Division North/South divided on taxation
North supported taxes on imports
South opposed these taxes
Based on needs
Population increase in north could = power grab (“Northern Aggression”).
Slavery expansion to new states.

5. Slavery in New Territories
Missouri Compromise 1820
Keep balance of free/slave states.
Admit Maine as free & Missouri as slave
Missouri’s southern border becomes “slavery line”.
North of line will be free.
South of line will be slave.

6. Slavery in New Territories
Wilmot Proviso
August 8, 1846
David Wilmot—Democratic congressman (PA)
Territories gained from the Mexican War are to be closed to slavery
Backed by northern states but not southern
Passes in Congress but fails in Senate…twice

7. Slavery in New Territories
California
Late 1849: pass a constitution forbidding slavery regardless of Missouri Compromise
California pursues admission to the Union

8. Compromise of 1850 Created by Henry Clay Terms:
California admitted as a free state
Utah and New Mexico territories decide about slavery (Popular Sovereignty)
Texas-Mexico boundary dispute resolved, and Texas paid $10 million by federal government
The trading of enslaved persons is banned—but slavery is not—in D.C.
Stricter fugitive slave law

9. Protest, Resistance, and Violence
Fugitive Slave Act
Return anyone believed to be a fugitive.
Paid $10 upon return by government
Penalties if convicted of helping an alleged fugitive
Underground Railroad
Harriet Tubman
Made 19 trips to the south freeing over 300 slaves including her parents
Southern authorities placed a $40,000 bounty for her capture
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Best Seller—fictional book that successfully stirred up anti-slavery feelings in the north.

10. Tensions in Kansas and Nebraska
January 23, 1854: Stephen Douglas introduces a bill to create 2 new states.
Slavery issue to be decided by Popular Sovereignty
Would nullify the Missouri Compromise
Bitter debate in congress and publicly
Northerners despised Douglas
President Pierce (D) helps bill pass
1854: Kansas-Nebraska Act passes

11. “Bleeding Kansas” Race to get into new territories…why?
Some people looking for a better life, some sent in by agencies both pro & anti-slavery.
March 1855 Kansas population large enough for a territorial legislature.
Fraudulent election of legislatures
Proslavery side wins and sets up in Lecompton
Issues pro-slavery acts
Abolitionists organize a rival government in Topeka months later

12. Violence “The Sack of Lawrence” Antislavery founded town
Proslavery grand jury condemned them as traitors and ordered local officials to arrest the people
May 21, 1856: 800 proslavery men “attack” the town:
Burned down the antislavery headquarters
Destroyed 2 printing presses
Looted many homes/stores

13. Violence “The Pottawatomie Creek Massacre”
John Brown learned of events in Lawrence
Believed news that 5 people had been killed in Lawrence
Followers went to the settlement, grabbed 5 men out of their beds, cut off their hands and stabbed them
Killings trigger violence throughout Kansas and over 200 more will be killed.

15. Violence in Senate
May 19, 1856
Sen. Charles Sumner verbally attacked pro-slavery colleagues for 2 days
Verbally attacked Sen. Andrew Butler (S.C.) due to his proslavery beliefs and his impaired speech.

16. Violence in Senate
May 22, 1856
Butler’s nephew Congressman Preston S. Brooks attacked Sumner and beat him with his cane.
Sumner suffers brain damage and is out of work for 3 yrs.
Southerners send Brooks new canes
North and South splitting more as their political parties deteriorate and a new antislavery party will be formed.