21 The Compromise of 1850

On January 21, 1850, Senator Henry Clay sought Senator Daniel Webster's support for a new compromise to resolve the deadlock over California.

Something for Everyone

• California was admitted to the Union as a free state, pleasing the North.

• New Mexico and Utah territories could decide on slavery, pleasing the South.

• The trade of enslaved people ended in Washington, D.C.

• A strong law targeting fugitives from slavery was established.

The Compromise Is Accepted

• Congress adopted Clay's plan in September 1850 after months of debate.

• The Whig Party diminished due to moral objections to slavery.

• The compromise satisfied almost no one, intensifying the debate.

The Fugitive Slave Act

• The North and South were unhappy with the Fugitive Slave Act for different reasons.

• Northerners did not want to enforce the act, while Southerners felt it was insufficient.

• People arrested as runaways had almost no legal rights.

• Helping someone escape enslavement was punishable by jail.

• Only about 300 fugitives were captured and returned to enslavers during the 1850s.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

• Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel brought the horrors of slavery to Northerners.

• The novel aroused powerful emotions about slavery.

• In the South, the novel and its author were scorned. In the North, it deepened anger about slavery.

The Ostend Manifesto and the Kansas-Nebraska Act

• The Ostend Manifesto, leaked in 1854, proposed seizing Cuba to add another state with slavery to the Union.

• Senator Stephen A. Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act, sparking outrage.

• The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed settlers in Kansas and Nebraska to vote on slavery, abolishing the Missouri Compromise.

• Northerners feared the expansion of enslavement across the plains.

Bloodshed in Kansas

• After the Kansas-Nebraska Act, settlers poured into Kansas