1. Section 2 – pg 362 Compromises Fail
Chapter 10
Section 2 – pg 362
Compromises Fail

2. Pg 362
The Compromise of 1850
In September 1850, Congress passed 5 bills based on Clay’s proposals
Compromise of 1850
President Zachary Taylor had opposed it but died in 1850
New President, Millard Fillmore, supported the Compromise and signed it into law

3. Pg 362
To Please the North
The Compromise of 1850 was designed to end the crisis by giving supporters and opponents of slavery part of what they wanted
To please the North, CA was admitted as a free state
Banned trade in national capital

4. Pg 362
To Please the South
Under the compromise, popular sovereignty would be used to decide slavery in the rest of the Mexican Cession
People in the territories would vote to be a slave or free state when they request to be admitted to the Union
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 allowed special gov’t officials to arrest any person accused of being a runaway slave
Those accused had no right to a trial
All it took was a slaveholder or any white witness to swear that the suspect was the slaveholder’s property
Northern citizens were required to help capture accused runaways if authorities requested help

5. Outrage in the North Many northerners hated the Fugitive Slave Act
Pg 363
Outrage in the North
Many northerners hated the Fugitive Slave Act
Hated seeing those accuse of being runaways deprived of their freedoms
Thousands of northern African Americans fled to Canada for safety, including those who had never been enslaved

6. Northern residents banded together to resist the Fugitive Slave Law
Pg 363
Northern residents banded together to resist the Fugitive Slave Law
Some citizens threatened slaveholders until they left town
Other helped runaways get to Canada
John C Calhoun had hoped this law would force northerners to realize that southerners had the right to their property
But everything the law was enforced it convinced them that slavery was evil

7. Pg 364
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe, daughter of an abolitionist minister, met many slaves
Decided to write “something that will make this whole nation feel what an accursed thing slavery is”
In 1852, published Uncle Tom’s Cabin
About kindly Uncle Tom, an enslaved man who is abused by the cruel Simon Legree

8. Many southerners were outraged by Stowe’s book
Pg 364
Many southerners were outraged by Stowe’s book
Claimed it was propaganda (false or misleading info that is spread to further a cause)
Claimed it did not give accurate description of the lives of the enslaved

9. The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Pg 365
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act: pushed through by
Senator Stephen Douglas in 1854
Allowed settlers in the territories to decide whether their territory would allow slavery
Douglas wanted to develop the land west of Illinois and see railroads built from Illinois through the Nebraska Territory to the Pacific Coast

10. Pg 365
In 1853, Douglas suggested forming 2 new territories: Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory
Southerners objected – both territories lay in areas where slavery was banned meaning they would have to enter the Union as free states
Douglas suggested that the issue of slavery could be decided through popular sovereignty undoing the Missouri Compromise

11. Slave owners supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act
Pg 365
Slave owners supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act
They were sure that slave owners from Missouri would move across the border into Kansas causing Kansas to enter the Union as a slave state
Northerners were enraged by the Kansas-Nebraska Act
Believed Douglas betrayed them by reopening the issue of slavery in the territories

12. Pg 366
After months of debate, southern support enabled Kansas – Nebraska Act to pass in both houses
Signed into law by President Franklin Pierce in 1852
He thought that signing this would prevent Congress from having to intervene on the subject of slavery again

13. Pg 366
Bleeding Kansas
The Kansas – Nebraska Act left it to white citizens of the territories to decide the issue of slavery
Both pro and antislavery settlers flooded to Kansas within weeks after the bill was signed
Both sides were trying to hold the majority when it came time to vote
Thousands of Missourians entered in March 1855 to illegally vote in the election
Kansas had only 3,000 voters, but nearly 8,000 votes were cast on election day
Proslavery voters won but antislavery voters refused to accept results and held a second election

14. Growing Violence Pg 366 Kansas now had 2 gov’ts, both trying to
claim the right to impose their gov’t
Violence soon broke out
In April, a proslavery Sherriff was shot when he tried to arrest some antislavery settlers in Lawrence
Next month he returned with 800 men and attacked the town
3 days later, an antislavery settler from Connecticut (John Brown), led 7 men to a proslavery settlement near Pottawatomie Creek where they murdered 5 proslavery men and boys
These incidents set off fighting all over Kansas
Violence was so bad that Kansas earned the name Bleeding Kansas

15. Bloodshed in the Senate
Pg 367
Bloodshed in the Senate
Violence in Kansas spilled over into the Senate
Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was the leading abolitionist senator
In a fiery speech, he denounced the proslavery legislature in Kansas and verbally attacked Andrew Butler, an elderly senator from South Carolina (Butler was not present that day)

16. Pg 367
A few days later, Butler’s nephew, Congressman Preston Brooks, marched into the Senate Chamber and beat Sumner with a heavy cane until he fell to the floor bloody and unconscious
Sumner never completely recovered from his injuries
Hundreds of southerners sent canes to Brooks to show their support of his actions
Sumner saw this as more evidence that slavery was brutal and inhuman