Lesson 26: Southern Secession

California Gold Rush

• Gold discovered 11 months after the Mexican-American War; drew “Forty-niners.”

• Boosted U.S. economy; spurred railroad & telegraph construction; expanded American power toward the Pacific.

Forty-niners

Gold seekers who flooded California during the 1849 Gold Rush, driving rapid population and economic growth.

Compromise of 1850

• California admitted as a free state.

• New Mexico & Utah organized as territories with popular sovereignty.

• NM boundary negotiated; Texas compensated.

• Fugitive Slave Law strengthened.

• Slave trade ended in Washington, D.C.

Fugitive Slave Act (1850)

• Required return of escaped slaves; empowered slave-catchers.

• Anyone helping fugitives faced heavy penalties (up to $1,000 fine).

Republican Party

Founded in 1854; dedicated to stopping the expansion of slavery.

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

• Created Kansas & Nebraska territories.

• Allowed popular sovereignty to decide slavery, repealing the Missouri Compromise.

“Bleeding Kansas” (1956)

• Violent conflict over slavery in Kansas.

• Missouri pro-slavery residents attacked abolitionist towns, including the Sack of Lawrence.

“Sack of Lawrence”

Pro-slavery Missourians attacked and destroyed the antislavery town of Lawrence, KS.

John Brown

• Radical abolitionist involved in Kansas violence; killed 5 pro-slavery men in the Pottawatomie Massacre.

• Later led the 1859 raid on Harper’s Ferry.

Pottawatomie Massacre

John Brown and his followers killed 5 pro-slavery settlers in Kansas in retaliation for attacks on abolitionists.

Caning of Charles Summer (1856)

• Senator Charles Sumner (MA) gave an anti-slavery speech insulting Sen. Butler.

• Rep. Preston Brooks (SC), Butler’s cousin, attacked Sumner with a cane on the Senate floor.

Preston Brooks

Southern congressman who beat Charles Sumner to defend his cousin’s honor.

James Buchanan

Democratic candidate & winner of 1856; supported pro-slavery positions.

John Fremont

• Republican candidate in 1856; anti-slavery.

• Campaign slogan: “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Speech, Free Men, and Fremont.”

Dred Scott Case ( 1857)

• Enslaved man who claimed freedom after living in free territory (Wisconsin).

• Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Roger Taney, ruled against him.

Roger Taney

• Chief Justice who declared that Black people were “so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”

• Ruled Congress could not ban slavery in the territories.

Lincoln Douglas Debates (1858)

• Series of debates in the Illinois Senate race between Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln.

• Focused on slavery, popular sovereignty, and the future of the Union.

Stephen Douglas

• Illinois senator; supported popular sovereignty as solution to slavery in the territories.

Popular Sovereignty

Idea that residents of a territory should vote to decide whether to allow slavery.

Abraham Lincoln

Illinois Republican who opposed slavery’s expansion; argued the Union could not remain “half-slave and half-free.”

Union cannot “endure, permanently half-slave and half-free”

• Lincoln’s statement arguing the nation must eventually become all free or all slave — division could not last.

Harper’s Ferry (1859)

• John Brown’s raid on the U.S. arsenal to spark a slave uprising.

• Raid failed; U.S. Army captured Brown.

“Crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away, but with blood”

John Brown’s statement before execution, predicting civil war.

Confederate States of America

• Formed Feb 1861 after Southern secessions (SC in Dec 1860, followed by MS, FL, AL, GA, LA, TX).

• New government of the seceded slave states.

Fort Sumter (Apr 12, 1861)

• Confederate attack on U.S. fort in Charleston harbor.

• Bombardment forced U.S. surrender; first battle of the Civil War.