2. VOCABULARY
Charles Sumner –
Preston Brooks –
Dred Scott –

4. With the tariffs, a separation between the North and South becomes wider. The economy of the South depends on cotton and slave labor. The economy of the North depends on industry and paid labor.
As more people move west, and more territories becoming states, the issue of slavery heats up! The Missouri Compromise is passed keeping the balance of power in the Senate. A new political party emerges called the Free Soil Party. Their main goal was to keep slavery OUT of the western territories.
The Compromise of 1850 admitted California into the Union as a free state, but the North and South did not get everything they wanted. The North is especially angry with the passage of Fugitive Slave Act.
The creation of the Nebraska territory set off a wave of anger when border ruffians crossed over the border to vote illegally. This led to a civil war in Kansas called Bleeding Kansas.

5. Charles Sumner from Massachusetts was elected to the Senate in 1851 as a Free Soil Democrat (was against allowing slavery in the Louisiana territory).
On August 26, 1852, despite friends and fellow Senators efforts to change his mind, Sumner delivered his first major speech. In it he attacked the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act (forced citizens to assist in the capture of runaway slaves). 
His speech was seen by many as the ravings of a madman and caused him to lose the respect of many Senators.

6. On May 19, 1856, while Kansas was in chaos, Sumner gave another speech where he condemned the Kansas–Nebraska Act. Sumner demanded that Kansas be admitted into the Union as a free state.
Sumner also spoke harsh words about Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Andrew Butler of South Carolina, the authors of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
It was believed Douglas whispered to another Senator during the long speech, “This damn fool Sumner is going to get himself shot by some other damn fool.”

7. South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks, Andrew Butler’s cousin, did not take Sumner’s harsh criticism of a family member so lightly.
Two days later in a fit of fury, Brooks confronted Sumner in the nearly empty Senate chamber. Brooks beat Sumner severely using a thick cane with a solid gold head. Sumner staggered up the aisle and then collapsed.

8. Several other Senators attempted to help Sumner, but were stopped when a Senator held up a pistol and shouted, "Let them be!"
Brooks continued to beat Sumner into unconsciousness until his cane broke. He then left the chamber.
Sumner suffered head trauma and later experienced nightmares and severe headaches.
He did not return to government for another three years.

9. The caning of Senator Sumner was one of the most violent episodes in congressional history.
Many southerners felt that Sumner got what he deserved for his verbal abuse of another senator. Hundreds of people sent canes to Brooks to show their support. One cane was engraved, “hit him again.”
To northerners, however, the brutal act was just more evidence that slavery led to violence.
The attack on the floor of the senate chamber made it clear that the United States had entered a new political era. Compromise over slavery between northern and southern states had ended.

11. It became clear to many Americas after the attack on Charles Sumner that Congress was not going to solve the slavery issue.
Instead, Americans looked to the Supreme Court, hoping the Justices could settle the slavery issue and restore peace.
In 1857, the Court ruled on a case involving a slave named Dred Scott.

12. Dred Scott was born a slave in Virginia in 1795. 
When he was twenty-five years old his master gave up farming and moved to St. Louis, Missouri.
Scott was then sold to an Army Surgeon named Dr. John Emerson. 

13. Dr. Emerson took Scott to Fort Armstrong, which was located in the free state of Illinois.
In 1837, Emerson was ordered by the army to report for duty. He left Scott in Illinois where he hired out Dred Scott’s services for profit (allowed others to rent him).
By allowing others in Illinois to use Scott as a slave, Emerson was violating Illinois anti-slavery laws.

14. In 1838, Emerson returned to Louisiana and sent for his slave Dred Scott to come to him. Dred Scott returned to his owner in the slave-state of Louisiana.
But later Scott would sue for his freedom. Slaves had been granted freedom by the Louisiana courts if their owners had brought them from a free state where they had lived for an extended amount time.

15. Anti-slavery lawyers helped Scott to file a lawsuit
Anti-slavery lawyers helped Scott to file a lawsuit. They agued that since Dred Scott had lived in a free territory (Illinois) for a considerable amount of time, he was a free man.
In 1854, the Missouri Supreme Court heard Dred Scott’s case. They ruled in favor of Scott’s current owner John Sanford. Dred Scott’s freedom was denied.
Scott then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

17. Why? The Supreme Court of the United States ruled against Dred Scott.
In 1857, the Court ruled that Dred Scott was not a person, he was property and therefore could not file a lawsuit because he was not a citizen of the United States.

18. Not only did the Supreme Court rule that Dred Scott was not even a person, they went further with their ruling.
The Justices made a sweeping decision about the larger issue of slavery in the territories. They declared that Congress did not have the power to outlaw slavery in any territory.
The Court’s ruling meant that the Missouri Compromise (banning slavery north of the 36°30′ north parallel) was unconstitutional!

20. After the Supreme Court's decision, the son of Dred Scott’s first master (Taylor Blow, who was also his childhood playmates growing up) purchased Scott and his wife and set them free.
Sadly, nine months after Dred Scott obtained his freedom he contracted Tuberculosis and died.