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

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• 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

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