1. The 1850s:
Road to
Secession

2. Problems of Sectional Balance in 1850
California statehood.
Southern “fire-eaters” threatening secession.
Underground RR & fugitive slave issues:
Personal liberty laws
Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842)

3. Compromise of 1850

4. Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 – 1896)
So this is the lady who started the Civil War Abraham Lincoln

5. Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852 Sold 300,000 copies in the first year.
2 million in a decade!

6. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852

7. The “Know-Nothings” [The American Party]
Nativists.
Anti-Catholics.
Anti-immigrants.
1849  Secret Order of the Star-Spangled Banner created in NYC.

8. 1852 Presidential Election
√ Franklin Pierce Gen. Winfield Scott John Parker Hale Democrat Whig Free Soil

9. 1852 Election Results

10. Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

11. Border “Ruffians” (pro-slavery Missourians)
“Bleeding Kansas”
Border “Ruffians” (pro-slavery Missourians)

12. “The Crime Against Kansas”
Sen. Charles Sumner (R-MA)
Congr. Preston Brooks (D-SC)

13. Discussion Questions
Was the Compromise of 1850 a wise effort to balance sectional differences or a futile attempt to push the slavery issue out of sight?
Why did the North so strongly resent the Fugitive Slave Law, and why did the South resent northern resistance to enforcing it?
Did the North, South or West benefit most from the Compromise of 1850?
Why was the issue of acquiring Cuba so controversial in the 1850s?

14. John Brown: Madman, Hero or Martyr?
Mural in the Kansas Capitol building by John Steuart Curry (20c)

15. Birth of the Republican Party, 1854
Northern Whigs.
Northern Democrats.
Free-Soilers.
Know-Nothings.
Other miscellaneous opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

16. 1856 Presidential Election
√ James Buchanan John C. Frémont Millard Fillmore Democrat Republican Whig

17. 1856 Election Results

18. Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857

19. What caused the Panic of 1857?? What were its affects on the nation?

20. The Lincoln-Douglas (Illinois Senate) Debates, 1858
A House divided against itself, cannot stand.

21. Stephen Douglas & the Freeport Doctrine
Popular Sovereignty?

22. John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry, 1859

23. 1860 Presidential Election
√ Abraham Lincoln Republican
John Bell Constitutional Union
1860 Presidential Election
Stephen A. Douglas Northern Democrat
John C. Breckinridge Southern Democrat

24. Republican Party Platform in 1860
Non-extension of slavery [for the Free-Soilers.
Protective tariff [for the No. Industrialists].
No abridgment of rights for immigrants [a disappointment for the “Know-Nothings”].
Government aid to build a Pacific RR [for the Northwest].
Internal improvements [for the West] at federal expense.
Free homesteads for the public domain [for farmers].

25. 1860 Election: 3 “Outs” & 1 ”Run!”

26. 1860 Election: A Nation Coming Apart?!

27. 1860
Election
Results

28. Crittenden Compromise: A Last Ditch Appeal to Sanity
Senator John J. Crittenden (Know-Nothing-KY)

29. Secession!: SC Dec. 20, 1860

30. Fort Sumter: April 12, 1861