Chapter 19 Key Terms - Drifting Towards Disunion (1854-1861)

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• Harriet Beecher Stowe

• Depicted the life of a slave (Tom) under a brutal Southern master and forced the break up of his family.

• Widely popular in the North, hurting enforcement of the new Fugitive Slave Law.

• Great Britain and France did not play a role in the conflict fearing their population would not support slavery after reading this book.

The Impending Crisis of the South

• Hinton Helper

• Attempted to prove that non-slaveholding Southern whites were the ones who suffered economically from slavery.

Bleeding Kansas

• Northerners were settling in Kansas for land. Some Anti-slavery organizations funded settlements in both Nebraska and Kansas.

• 1855 Election: Proslavery wins and a puppet state government is set up at Shawnee Mission.

• Free Soilers declare the election a fraud and create their own government in Topeka.

Sumner beaten by Brooks

• May 22, 1856.

• Charles Sumner gives a speech in the Senate insulting the South.

• Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Sumner with a cane.

• Passions were becoming dangerously inflamed.

Attack on Lawrence

• May 21, 1856.

• Pro-slavery rioters take over the Free Soil town of Lawrence.

• Breaking point over slavery in Kansas.

Pottawatomie Massacres

• May 24, 1856

• John Brown kills a 5 proslavery supporters brutally.

• Response to the attack on Lawrence.

Kansas applies for Statehood

• Late 1857

• Applies under the Lecompton Constitution allowing slavery.

• Supported by President Buchanan, but Douglas Democrats would not allow it because of Popular Sovereignty.

• Buchanan’s position divided the Democratic Party.

Election of 1856

• Democrats: James Buchanan

• Republican: John C. Fremont

• Know-Nothing: Milliard Fillmore

Major parties wanted to stay away form candidates stained by Kansas like: William Seward, Franklin Pierce, and Stephen Douglas.

The Dred Scott Decision

• Dred Scott was a slave who sued for his freedom based on the fact that his master has brought him to a free state.

• Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice, ruled that Scott was not a citizen and thus had no right to sue.

• Ruled that a slave was property and could be taken to ANY territory.

• Made the 36’30 line unconstitutional.

• Made popular sovereignty useless, as the government couldn’t control slaves.

Economic Crisis of 1857

• Caused by the Gold Rush, and abundance of grain grown for the Crimean War in Europe, and land investments over railroads.

• Cotton prices were stable, allowing the South to prosper but not the North.

• Congress passed the Tariff of 1857 with reduced duties to 20%.

• Gave the Republican Party campaign issues for the next election.

Freeport Doctrine

• Reply from Douglas about Lincoln’s question, “if a territory should vote slavery down and the Dred Scott decision says they can’t, who would prevail”?

• Douglas maintained that the people could keep slavery out of territories.

• Southern Democrats did not like Douglas’s response.

John Brown

• Seized a federal armory at Harper’s Ferry

• Southerners concluded that the North were full of “Brown-loving” Republicans, making them believe cooperation was no longer possible.

Election of 1860

• Republican: Lincoln

• Democrat: Douglas (North), Breckinridge (South)

• Constitutional Union - Bell

Republican Platform

• Appealing to most non-Southerners.

• Free Soil: non-extension of slavery.

• Manufacturers: Protective tariffs.

• Immigrants: Rights for Immigrants.

• Northwest Residents: Transcontinental Railroad.

• Former Whigs: Internal improvements at the federal expense for the west.

• Farmers: Free Homesteads.

Lincoln was nominated because he had fewer enemies than Seward.

Post-1860 Election

• South Carolina now had a reason to secede after Lincoln was elected.

• 7 states seceded before Lincoln took office, while Buchanan did nothing to stop them.

Crittenden Amendments

• Final compromise to try to get back the Southern States.

• Allowed slavery to continue under the 36’30 line.

• Lincoln was against it, as he had been elected based on a platform that completely opposed slavery.