Slavery and Growing Tension Flashcards

The Southern Position on Slavery

• Southern states believed slavery was a constitutional right.
• They referenced the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
  • Proposed extending its line to the Paci c Ocean to determine where slavery could exist.
• The Missouri Compromise guaranteed that slavery, their economy, and their way of life would continue unbothered below the line.
• Any attempt to curtail slavery was viewed as a move toward its entire destruction.

The Free Soil Movement

• Composed of Northern Democrats and Whigs.
• Wanted new territories to be dominated by free laborers, not enslaved ones.
• Did not necessarily oppose slavery on moral grounds.
• Did not want black people (enslaved or free) to settle in these new territories.
• Desired territories to be a land of opportunity for white people without competition from enslaved labor.
• Definition: A political movement composed of Northern Democrats and Whigs that opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories.
• Some abolitionists were part of this faction, but they had different ideas about slavery.
  • Abolitionists wanted to ban slavery everywhere, not only in newly acquired territories but also in the states where it had existed since time immemorial.
• Some members of the Free Soil Movement went on to found the Free Soil Party.

Popular Sovereignty

• The concept of popular sovereignty suggested that the people living in each territory should decide the slavery question for themselves.

Provisions and Details

• Utah and New Mexico Territories: The Mexican Cession would be divided into the Utah and New Mexico territories, and each would decide the slavery question by popular sovereignty.
• California: Would be admitted as a free state.
• Slave Trade in D.C.: Would be banned.
• Fugitive Slave Law: A stricter law would be passed and enforced with vigor.
• Definition: The idea that the authority of a state and its government are created and sustained by the consent of its people, through their elected representatives (Rule by the People), who are the source of all political power.
• This position was seen as a middle-ground solution, but it ultimately increased tension because it would only be acceptable to the Southern Position and the Free Soil Movement depending on how the territory voted.

Imbalance in the Senate

• The ght between these three positions was incredibly bitter, and compromise proved impossible.
• When California and New Mexico entered the Union as free states, it intensi ed the ght, especially for the South, because it upset the balance in the Senate.
• The House of Representatives Represents the states by population.
• The Senate: Each state is represented equally
• The Wilmot Proviso, which proposed to ban slavery in the territories, passed in the House but was struck down in the Senate due to the balance between slave and free states.
• With California and New Mexico becoming free states, the balance tipped in favor of the free states, threatening the Southern states' ability to pass laws that favored them and potentially leading to the end of slavery.

The Compromise of 1850

• To prevent the breakup of the Union, Henry Clay proposed the Compromise of 1850:
• The compromise calmed tensions temporarily, but the Fugitive Slave Law ultimately broke any sense of calm.
• The North, in general, opposed slavery, and the growing population of abolitionists found it dif cult to arrest enslaved people who had escaped and return them to slavery.