1. Build Up to the Civil War

2. What is sectionalism?

3. 1. Sectionalism
Sectionalism – an exaggerated loyalty to a particular region of the country
South resented interference by outsiders

4. What was the Missouri Compromise?

5. 2. The Missouri Compromise
In 1818, Missouri sought admission to the Union as a slave-holding state.
This compromise admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state and admitted Maine as a free state to maintain the balance in the Senate.
The compromise prohibited slavery north of latitude 36° 30’ in the Louisiana Purchase territory, with the exception of Missouri, and allowed it south of that line.

7. Will this always work?

8. Missouri Compromise
Importance: preserved the balance between slave and frees states for the time, create lull in slavery debate
Effect: This system of adding states would not always work.

9. Free Soil Party
Angered with Political Parties failure to stance, people broke away to create new party
Free Soil Party: wanted free soil, speech, labor, and men
Endorsed the Wilmot Proviso

11. 3. Wilmot Proviso
President Polk looks to expand United States territory with the Mexican American War
Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania
Purposed that slavery should be prohibited in any lands acquired from Mexico
Senator John C. Calhoun
Neither Congress nor any territorial government had the authority to ban slavery from a territory or regulate it.
No conclusion reached
Importance: Fuel the debate or slavery

12. 4. Slavery Debate Conflicts
15 Free States, and 15 Slave States
California applies for statehood in 1850, and is delayed since no conclusion could be made
North wanted to abolish slavery in Washington D.C.
Fearing a threat to slavery, the South called for the creation of a national Fugitive Slave Laws – required runaway slaves to be returned to their masters

13. Henry Clay to the Rescue….Again

14. 5. The Compromise of 1850
Disagreements erupted over whether land acquired from Mexico after the Mexican American War would become slave or free states.
Henry Clay purposes
The compromise:
Admitted California as a free state
The inhabitants of the territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah would be allowed to decide whether or not to permit slavery in their territories when they applied for statehood.
“final settlement”?

16. 6. The Fugitive Slave Act
Fugitive Slave Act - denied captured blacks legal power to prove their freedom and required U.S. marshals and deputies to help slave owners capture their property.
Northern found ways to resist law

17. 7. Kansas-Nebraska Act
This act repealed the Missouri Compromise, which said that states north of the latitude 36° 30’ would be free states.
Franklin Pierce called for popular sovereignty: allowing settlers to decide whether they would allow slavery within their borders

19. 7. Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act split the Democratic Party and virtually destroyed the Whig Party. The northern Whigs joined the antislavery Democrats to form the Republican Party.
Effect: Proslavery and antislavery groups rush to Kansas

20. 8. Bleeding Kansas
Border Ruffians: proslavery supporters crossed the borders from Missouri just to vote in elections
Two constitutions created, one for and one against slavery
John Brown, an extreme abolitionist, led a bloody and deadly attack on the town of Lawrence.

21. 8. Bleeding Kansas Continue outbreak of violence from both sides
Caning of Charles Sumner by Preston Brooks
Effect: Rising level of hostility between North and South

22. 9. Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott, a slave, sued for his freedom on the grounds that since his master had taken him to live in free territories, he should be free.

23. 9. Dred Scott Decision
The controversial decision of the U.S. Supreme Court stated that no slave or descendant of a slave could be a U.S. citizen.
As a non-citizen and a slave viewed as property, Scott was not entitled to file suit.

24. 9. Dred Scott Decision
The Court also ruled that Congress had no power to exclude slavery from the territories; therefore, the Missouri Compromise and other legislation limiting slavery were unconstitutional.

25. A New Political Party
Creation of the Republican Party based on antislavery principles.

27. 10. Lincoln-Doulas Debates
These debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, sponsor of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, were primarily over the issue of slavery.

28. Effect: The debates forged Lincoln into a prominent national figure and solidified his Republican Party’s antislavery platform.

29. 11. John Brown Raid on Harpers Ferry
John Brown and 22 other men raided the town of Harpers Ferry, Virginia, hoping to arm
and free slaves.
Brown and his raiders captured many of the town’s most important citizens and held them hostage.

30. 11. John Brown Raid on Harpers Ferry
Within 24 hours, Brown was captured and convicted of treason, murder, and conspiracy to incite slave rebellion. He was later hanged.
Effect: Nation on the brink of disaster