1. Rising Tensions

3. I. Tensions Increase A. Fugitive Slave Act - 1850
federal crime to assist runaways
allowed slaves to be arrested even where slavery was illegal
North had to help South capture runaways

4. accused could not speak on own behalf
free blacks could be captured
thousands of runaways fled to Canada

5. B. Webster, Clay, and Calhoun
3 powerful senators who kept the peace between North and South between 1812 and 1850
Webster believed in strong federal gov’t. (Hamilton)
Calhoun believed in strong state gov’t. (Jefferson)
Clay negotiated compromises
After Calhoun died in 1850 and Webster and Clay in 1852, there was no one left in the Senate to negotiate compromises
Clay thought that he gave John Calhoun exactly what he wanted-a fugitive slave act.
Calhoun was too sick to attend the session, but learns all of the details. A few weeks later he comes to the Senate to answer Clay. He is wrapped in a great cloak and needs help to reach his seat. His face is so pale that he looks like a ghost. He is too ill to speak, so his speech must be read for him. In his speech, he announces that abolitionists must be silenced. He further says that if the abolitionists refused to do so, the States should agree to separate.
A month later Calhoun is dead
Daniel Webster then decides to step in and give one of the most famous speeches in Senate history. The house is packed. Webster and Clay have always been opponents and disagreed on everything. In his speech he agrees with Clay, which is shocking, and says that there is no way there could ever be a peaceable secession. He says that although he is completely against slavery, he must be willing to compromise and will agree to the Fugitive Slave Act.
People are shocked and grown men begin to cry in the Senate chamber.
Webster made the speech because he knows that if the South secedes, the North will not be able to stop it. There will be two nations-one free and one slave. Wars will happen between them.
Congress votes to accept the compromise.
The biggest problem is that no one knows how to end slavery and still hold the North and South together.
thousands of runaways
fled to Canada

6. C. Uncle Tom’s Cabin - 1852 written by Harriet Beecher Stowe
inspired by newspaper accounts of slaves (and loss of her own child)
unbelievably successful book
300,000 copies in first year
translated into 20 languages
had a huge emotional impact on readers and raised awareness
encouraged people to become abolitionists
created stereotypes of slaves
Stowe was trained to be a teacher by her sister and her father was a pastor.
Dad married three times-his first wife died and left him with 8 kids, so he felt he had no choice but to remarry.
She wrote the book in Maine and originally published one chapter a month.
She was paid $10,000 for it which is equivalent to 1 million dollars today.
One of Harriet’s paid servants was a runaway slave and when her owner came to get her, Harriet helped sneak her out. That’s as close as she got to the Underground Railroad. She and her husband were abolitionists but they never hid slaves in their home or helped them on the Underground Railroad.
Second best selling novel of the 19th century, behind the Bible
Book opens with a KY farmer named Arthur Shelby who is about to loose his farm because of debts that he owes. They decide to raise the funds they need by selling two of their slaves-Uncle Tom (middle-ages man with wife and children) and Harry (son of maid named Eliza) to a slave trader. Arthur has promised his slaves that he will never separate them from their children, but he needs the money. When Eliza overhears Mr./Mrs. Shelby discussing their plans to sell her son, Eliza determines to run away with her son-she’s worried that she will loose her only child (miscarried two children). Eliza leaves that night, leaving a ote of apology to her master.