1. Chapter 18 & A Chunk of Chapter 19
Road to the Civil War
Chapter 18 & A Chunk of Chapter 19

2. Popular Sovereignty
Principle that the people of a territory should have the right to determine if that territory would have slaves or not
Fits with democratic principles
Might spread slavery

3. Slavery in 1850 Texas wants more land President Taylor owns slaves
Cotton is highly profitable
The Underground Railroad

4. Compromise of 1850 Preserves the Union Fugitive Slave Law in effect
California a free state
Texas gives up land claims, gets cash
Rest of Mexican Cession territory open to popular sovereignty

5. Election of 1852

6. Pierce’s Presidency
Sought to aggressively expand the United States, especially slave-holding areas
Gadsden Purchase,
Cuba/Ostend Manifesto
Opened Japan
William Walker in Nicaragua

7. Gadsden Purchase

8. Kansas-Nebraska Act
Allowed for Popular Sovereignty in Kansas & Nebraska Territories
Threw Compromise of 1820 out the window
That land had already been set aside as free
Stephen Douglas thought he was acting on behalf of Americans

9. The Tragedy of Douglas
By the time we get to 1854, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun are all dead
Those three Senatorial Giants basically held the country together
Douglas was no Clay

10. Uncle Tom’s Cabin “The book that started the Civil War”
Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852
Novel about the cruelty of slavery
Widely read in the North; turned public opinion against slavery