The South and the Slavery Controversy + The Antebellum Period

Zachary Taylor

• President 1849- south influence is high

• About to veto Compromise of 1850 but then dies

• Like Jackson

Harriet Tubman

• Underground railroad

• “Moses”

• Rescues 300 slaves

Henry Clay

• Member of “old guard” 

• Compromise of 1850 

John C. Calhoun

• Member of “old guard”

• Very radical southerner

Stephen A. Douglas

• Seconded Compromise of 1850

• Kansas-Nebraska Act supporter

• Against Lecompton Constitution

• Illinois senator election- won

• Lincoln-Douglas Debates

• ½ of Democrats nominate him in 1860

Franklin Pierce

• “Dark Horse”

• Democratic nomination in 1852

• New Hampshire

• Indecisive and no enemies

• Won election of 1852

• War against Cuba?

• Ostend Manifesto

• Supports Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Dough face

Winfield Scott

• Whig nomination in 1852

John Tyler

• Wants to establish relations with China during his presidency

• Former President

Jefferson Davis

• Secretary of State for Franklin Pierce

• Gadsden Purchase

• President of the Confederate States of America

James Gadsden

• Gadsden Purchase

Harriet Beecher Stowe

• “Beecher’s Bibles”

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin

John Brown

• Pottawatomie- massacred 5 proslavery Americans and hacked them to death

• Invades the south at Harpers Ferry

• When he dies, he is seen as a martyr in the North for abolitionists

• South is fearful that the North is full of conspirators

James Buchanan

• Supporter of the Lecompton Constitution

• Democratic presidential nominee in 1856

• Won election of 1856

• Vetos the Homestead Act

• Did not take action against the seceding states after Lincoln won the presidency

Charles Sumner

• Leading abolitionist and senator

• Gave a speech that insulted many but particularly the South

• “Bleeding” Kansas

Dred Scott

• Slave who sued for freedom because he was brought to free Illinois territory

Chief Justice Roger B. Taney

• Ruled Dred Scott v. Stanford

• Case could’ve ended at the fact that slaves were not citizens, so they could not sue

• Added that slaves were still property when moved to free territory because it violated the 5th Amendment

• Called the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional

Abraham Lincoln

• Peoria speech

• Illinois senator elections but lost

• Lincoln-Douglas Debates

• Nominee for the 1860 presidential election for the Republicans- won

• House Divided Speech

Robert E. Lee

• Captures and imprisons John Brown

John Jordan Crittenden

• Created the Crittenden Amendment- didn’t pass

Martin Van Buren

• Former President

• In the Free Soil Party

Compromise of 1850

POPFACT

• Popular Sovereignty in Mexican Cession

• Fugitive Slave Act

• Abolition of slave trade (not slavery) in Washington, D.C.

• California admitted as a state

• Texas given $10 million for disputed New Mexican territory

Fugitive Slave Act (1850)

• Creates opposition in the North

• Free slaves cannot testify

• Denied jury trial

• Federal commissioner gets more money if slave is not freed

• Northerners who help can receive fines or jail time

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe

• “The book that made this Great War”- Lincoln

• The book showcased the horrors of slavery

• Caused many moderates to become abolitionists

• Banned in the South

Ostend Manifesto

• America tried to buy Cuba from Spain

• The meetings were leaked and led to an uproar in the North

Gadsden Purchase

• Bought territory in the South for $10 million from Santa Anna for Southern railroad

Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Split Nebraska territory into 2- Kansas and Nebraska

• Both would have popular sovereignty

• Kansas would be expected to be pro slave while Nebraska would be expected to be no slave

• Missouri Compromise must be repealed for this

First territorial legislature for Kansas (1855)

• Pro slavery wins

Potawatomie Massacre

• John Brown attacks the town of Potawatomie in Kansas and killed and hacked to death 5 pro slavery people

• “Bleeding” Kansas

Crittenden Amendment

• Extends the Missouri Compromise line all the way through the U.S.

“Bleeding” Kansas

• When Charles Sumner was attacked by Preston Brooks

• Mini civil war that was fought between pro slavery and anti slavery people on whether or not Kansas would enter the union as a free state

1860 Election

• Lincoln wins as a sectional president and minority candidate

• He was banned on the ballot by 10 states

Secession of South Carolina

• South Carolina has a vote at Charleston and determines that they will secede from the Union because of Lincoln’s win (a Republican candidate)

• Other southern states follow

Fort Sumter

• Major Robert Anderson (loyal to the Union) and 127 men leave Charleston to occupy Fort Sumter (man-made to protect Charleston harbour)

• New government of South Carolina asks them to vacate, they refuse

• Seward wants Lincoln to surrender the Fort

• Lincoln does not want to surrender

• General P.G.T Beauregard is in charge of the Confederate Gun Batteries and fires

• Lincoln attempts middle ground but the Confederates fire (start of civil war)

“Fire eaters”

• Radical southern whig

Underground Railroad

• Moved escaped slaves up north to Canada or other safe places

• “Stations”- anti-slavery homes

• “Passengers”- slaves

• “Conductors”- white and black abolitionists

God’s Moral Law (aka higher law)

• Extreme Northern view

Dough face

• Northerner who appeases to the South

Era of Good Feelings

• Period of economic and political prosperity

Popular Sovereignty

• The people in the states choose whether or not to be pro slavery or anti slavery

• Stephen Douglas created it

Manifest Destiny

• It’s Americans’ god-given right to expand America

“Slavocrats”

• Individuals who sought out more territory for the expansion of slavery

Extraterritoriality

• Americans accused of crimes in foreign places are to be tried in American courts

• China

Transcontinental Railroad

• Railroad connecting both oceans

“Beecher’s Bibles”

• Guns and artillery

Fifth Amendment

• Can’t deprive people of their property without due process

Referendum

• Public vote

Swing state

• A state that does not stick to the trend of voting for one political party

• Changes parties every election

Slavebelt

• Deep South slave states

Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World

Radical 1829 abolitionist pamphlet by David Walker calling for enslaved people to violently rise up against master supremacy.

The Liberator

Influential militant abolitionist newspaper founded by William Lloyd Garrison in 1831 demanding immediate emancipation without compensation.

Anti-Slavery Society

Mainstream abolitionist organization founded in 1833 to advocate for immediate emancipation and racial equality across the country.

Oberlin College

Progressive Ohio institution that became the first American college to regularly admit women and black students in the 1830s.

“gag rule”

1836 House of Representatives resolution automatically tabling all anti-slavery petitions to prevent congressional debate on the issue.

the Liberty Party

America’s first anti-slavery political party, formed in 1840 to pursue abolitionist goals through the political system rather than moral suasion.

Jane Lewis

Underground Railroad operator based in New Lebanon, Ohio, who rowed escaping slaves across the Ohio River to safety.

David Walker

Free black abolitionist whose fiery writings rejected colonization and urged immediate, active resistance to the institution of slavery.

William Lloyd Garrison

Prominent white abolitionist who burned the Constitution as a pro-slavery document and demanded total, uncompromising emancipation.

Theodore Weld

Influential writer and organizer whose pamphlet American Slavery As It Is inspired widespread northern anti-slavery sentiment.

Elijah Lovejoy

Abolitionist newspaper editor murdered by an Illinois pro-slavery mob in 1837, becoming a prominent martyr for free speech and abolition.

Wilmot Proviso

A failed 1846 congressional proposal designed to ban slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico following the Mexican-American War.

Missouri Compromise of 1820

A sectional agreement that admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while banning slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of the 36∘30′ parallel.

Fugitive Slave Law

Part of the Compromise of 1850 that forced federal officials and citizens in free states to help capture runaway slaves, stripping accused runaways of the right to a jury trial.

Raid on Harper’s Ferry

An 1859 raid on a federal weapons arsenal in Virginia led by radical abolitionist John Brown in an attempt to spark a massive slave rebellion.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

A series of seven 1858 senatorial debates in Illinois that propelled Abraham Lincoln to national prominence and forced Stephen Douglas to defend his doctrine of popular sovereignty.