A

American Pageant Chapter 18 APUSH Review

Free Soil Movement

  • Following the Mexican American War issue of slavery in the territories becomes the key cause of sectional tension
  • Free Soil Party formed in 1848: "free soil, free labor, and free men"
    • Wanted no slavery in new land to the west
    • Keep West an opportunity for whites only
    • Not against slavery in the south
  • Many southerners saw any attempt to restrict the expansion of slavery as a violation of their constitutional rights

1848 Presidential Candidates

  • Whigs took no position or slavery in the election
  • Cass supports popular sovereignty:
  • People in the territory should decide whether or not to allow slavery
  • Free Soil Party opposed extension of slavery in the territories (Wilmot proviso position)

[[GOLD is discovered in California: Near Sutter’s Mill[[

California Gold Rush, 1849

  • Sectional tension between the north and south.
  • California creates a constitution banning slavery and ask Congress for admission as a free state

Crisis over Mexican Cession

  • Until California tried to become a free state, equal balance of power in the Senate
    • 15 free states
    • 15 slave states
  • Southerners increasing defensive over the institution of slavery
    • Tallmadge Amendment (1819)
    • Wilmot Proviso (1846)
    • Underground Railroad

Threats of Secession and then Compromise

  • Radical southerners "Fire- eaters" talk openly of secession
  • Could there be another compromise?
    • Missouri Compromise (1820)
    • Nullification crisis (1828-1833) Force Bill and Compromise Tariff of 1833
  • Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas favor compromise

Compromise of 1850

  • CA admitted as free State
  • Mexican Cession land Utah and New Mexico setup as territories Slavery determined by Popular sovereignty
  • Ban slave trade in Washington D.C.
  • New Fugitive Slave Law for the South
  • Settles border dispute between NM and TX in NM favor

President Fillmore called the Compromise of 1850 the “final settlement” of sectional division

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

  • Huge increase in sectional tension in the 1850s as a result of the Fugitive Slave Act
  • Fugitive Slave Act turned the north into a hunting ground for fugitive slaves
  • Northerners who assisted runaways could be arrested
  • Slaves could not testify in court, denied a jury trial

Northern Resistance

  • Moderate northerners are suddenly sympathetic to the abolitionist movement
    • Growth in the abolitionist movement
  • Underground Railroad: helped escaped slaves reach the north or to Canada
  • Personal Liberty laws:
    • Did not allow use of local jails for housing fugitive slave
  • Vigilance Committees: goal to protect fugitive slaves from the slave catchers
  • Anthony Burns: 1853 escaped from slavery

[[The 1850's saw the nation becoming more and more polarized.[[

{{Whigs divided over slavery issue{{

National Expansion Challenged

  • Debate over slavery slowed any attempts at national expansion (Manifest Destiny)
  • Free Soil supporters had suspicion of any expansion attempts under President Pierce
  • Ostend Manifesto: plan for the U.s. to buy Cuba from Spain
  • Free Soilers denounced this plan
  • Northerners increasingly fear that the south was attempting to create a slave empire or "slaveocracy”

Gadsen Purchase

  • Although most attempts at expansion fail under President Pierce, the U.S. does agree to purchase a strip of land for $10 million dollars from Mexico in 1853

Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

  • Stephen Douglas wants too secure a RR route and encourage western settlement
  • To win southern approval: Set up two territories 1) Kansas 2) Nebraska
  • Slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty
  • Repeal's the Missouri Compromise of 1820 Slavery can go north of 36 30
  • Huge opposition in the north - Republican party formed
    • Gave south an opportunity to expand slavery