1. Compromises Fail
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2. Objectives Summarize the main points of the Compromise of 1850
Describe the impact of the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Explain how the Kansas-Nebraska Act reopened the issue of slavery in the territories
Describe the effect of the Kansas-Nebraska Act

3. Focus Question
What was the Compromise of 1850, and why did it fail?

4. The Compromise of 1850 1850: Congress finally passed Clay’s proposals
President Zachary Taylor had opposed the Compromise; however, he died in 1850
The new President, Millard Fillmore, supported the Compromise and signed it into law

5. To Please the North California was admitted as a free state
The Compromise also banned the slave trade in Washington, D.C.

6. To Please the South
Popular sovereignty would be used to decide the question of slavery in the rest of the Mexican Cession
People in these states would vote whether or not to be a free state or a slave state
Fugitive Slave Law was enacted

7. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
Allowed special government officials to arrest any person accused of being a runaway slave
Suspects had no right to a trial to prove that they had been falsely accused
The law required northern citizens to help capture accused runaways if authorities requested assistance

8. Outrage in the North
Fugitive Slave Act was the most controversial part of the Compromise
Many northerners swore they would resist the new law
Thousands of northern African Americans fled to the safety of Canada

9. Outrage in the North
Residents banded together to resist the Fugitive Slave Act
Bostonians threatened the slave catchers with harm
Mob leaders were arrested but never convicted in the north
John C. Calhoun hoped the Fugitive Slave Law would force northerners to admit that slaveholders had rights to their property
Instead, it convinced more northerners that slavery was evil

10. Checkpoint
How did the Compromise of deal with the admission of California to the Union?

11. Uncle Tom’s Cabin
A northerner deeply affected by the Fugitive Slave Act was Harriet Beecher Stowe
Daughter of abolitionist minister
Decided to write something that would make “the whole nation feel what an accursed thing slavery is”

12. Uncle Tom’s Cabin Stowe talks about kindly Uncle Tom
Slave man who is abused
Tom dies after a severe beating
Stowe’s book was a bestseller in the North – it shocked thousands
Slavery became more than just a political conflict: it was a moral problem

13. Uncle Tom’s Cabin Southerners were outraged by Stowe’s book
Criticized it as propaganda
False or misleading information that is spread to further a cause
Claimed the novel did not give a fair or accurate picture of the lives of enslaved African Americans

14. Checkpoint
What impact did Uncle Tom’s Cabin have?

15. The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Senator Stephen Douglas: suggested forming two territories
Kansas Territory
Nebraska Territory
Southerners objected – areas would enter Union as free states

16. Kansas-Nebraska Act
To win Southern support: Douglas proposed that slavery in the new territories be determined by popular sovereignty
In effect, the K-N Act undid the Missouri Compromise

17. Kansas-Nebraska Act South supported the Act
However, the North was angry
Believed that Douglas had betrayed them by reopening the issue of slavery in the territories

18. Checkpoint
How did Stephen Douglas’s plan undo the Missouri Compromise?

19. Bleeding Kansas Both proslavery and antislavery people entered Kansas
Thousands of Missourians entered Kansas in 1855 to illegally vote
Even though Kansas had only 3,000 voters, nearly 8,000 votes were cast that day!
Antislavery settlers refused to accept these results and held a 2nd election

20. Growing Violence
Kansas now had two governments – violence soon broke out
A proslavery sheriff was shot
The next month, he returned with 800 men and attacked the town
3 days later, John Brown (antislavery settler): led 7 men in murdering 5 proslavery men and boys

21. Bleeding Kansas
Violence was so widespread and so bad that it earned Kansas the name “Bleeding Kansas”

22. Bloodshed in the Senate
Violence in Kansas spilled into the U.S. Senate
Charles Sumner was a leading abolitionist – denounced the proslavery legislature in Kansas
Attacked his southern foes in his speech
Specifically singled out Andrew Butler from South Carolina

23. Bloodshed in the Senate
The next day, Butler’s nephew, Preston Brooks, beat Sumner with a cane
Sumner never completely recovered from his injuries
Southerners felt that Sumner got what he deserved
Northerners thought Brooks’s violent act was more evidence that slavery was brutal and inhuman

24. Checkpoint
What was the outcome of the election to select a legislature in the Kansas Territory?

25. Focus Question re-visited
What was the Compromise of 1850, and why did it fail?
It was a compromise that allowed California into the Union as a free state and included a fugitive slave law; it angered both the North and South