Chapter 14: Lead Up to Secession

Opening Up Japan

• Japan was a closed country

• Only traded with China and the Dutch

  • and only from one port

• Would decapitate marooned sailors from nearby shipwrecks

• Extreme isolationist policies kept the country in the dark ages

• US had made several attempts to negotiate trade agreements

• Commodore Matthew Perry to make final negotiations (1853)

• Perry arrived with steel steamships painted black with state-of-the-art cannons

• Japanese called them Black Dragons

• Perry bulldozed past all their defenses and turned the ships broadside with guns toward the capitol city

• Delivers letter from Filmore with a white flag

  • they would need it if they attacked American ships

• Returns a year later to pick up the reply

• The Japanese agreed to meet all of Filmore’s demands

Compromise of 1850

• Henry Clay to the rescue

  • 1. California enters as a free state

  • 2. Utah and New Mexico territories make their own decisions on slavery

  • 3. Ban of the slave trade in D.C.

  • 4. Fugitive Slave Act 2.0- return of runaway slaves to their owners by federal agents

Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Stephen Douglas introduced a bill to divide the Nebraska territory into two states

  • 1 free, 1 slave

• This would repeal the Missouri Compromise and establishes popular sovereignty

• Passed Congress with the help of President Pierce

• Douglas wanted areas settled to promote the Transcontinental Railroad

Bleeding Kansas

• Violence erupts in Kansas as slave owners and abolitionists flood the territory to sway the vote

• Stuff burned but no one was killed on either side

John Brown

• Believed God told him to defeat slavery

• Heard that five abolitionists had been killed in a raid

  • this was nothing but a rumor

• For revenge, he brutally murdered five men from a pro-slavery camp

  • Pottawatomie Massacre

• Brown’s actions sparked killings on both sides

• Over 200 people died

• Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner gave a speech on “Bleeding Kansas”

Bleeding Sumner

• Speech seeming to contain slurs against a South Carolina senator Andrew Butler

• Butler’s nephew Preston Brooks was a member of the House of Representatives

• Brooks beat Sumner with a cane in the Senate Chamber until it broke

• Southerners kept sending Brooks new canes

Election of 1856

• Republican- John Freemont; advocated for no slavery in the new territories

• Democrat- James Buchanan; advocated for popular sovereignty

• Know-Nothing- Millard Filmore

• Buchanan wins a very close race

• Showed the growing power of Republicans

Dred Scott Case

• 1856- Dred Scott v. Sanford

• Scott was a slave whose owner took him North of the Missouri Compromise line

• Scott sued for his freedom after his owner died

• Court rules:

  • slaves don’t have rights of citizens

  • Missouri Compromise is unconstitutional because it is a violation of 5th amendment property rights

  • South cheered

  • North was shocked

John Brown’s Raid

• By 1859 John Brown had financial backing from wealthy abolitionists

• Led 21 men ( black and white) on a raid of the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia

• Plan was to distribute arms to slaves in the surrounding areas to stage a revolt

• No slaves came to join him

• Marines under Robert E. Lee captured Brown and ended the revolt

• Brown was tried for treason and hanged

• Many thought he was crazy

• Some thought of him as a martyr

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

• Illinois Senate race

• Stephen Douglas- had plans for future President Candidacy and pushed for popular sovereignty

  • incumbent and Democrat

• Abraham Lincoln- opposed slavery but didn’t support equality for blacks, didn’t think Congress had the power to end it, felt slavery should be banned in territories ONLY to advance settlements of whites

• Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of debates

• Douglas didn’t go to any of Lincoln’s speeches, but Lincoln went to all of Douglas’

• Lincoln made his famous “House Divided” speech

• Attending the speeches allowed Lincoln to ‘trap’ Douglas, forcing him into the “Freeport Doctrine”

Freeport Doctrine

• Freeport, Illinois

• Lincoln forces Douglas to choose between popular sovereignty or the Dred Scott decision

• He chose popular sovereignty, which won him the Illinois Senate seat, but lost the support from the South he needed for presidency

• Lincoln makes a name for himself and the Republican party in the North

Election of 1860

• Lincoln was the 1st elected Republican president

• South Carolina seceded in December

• Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama all seceded in January

• They formed the Confederate States of America

• Jefferson Davis was elected as president

Border States

• Four slave states were undecided about leaving the Union

• Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, Delaware

Fort Sumter

• Union fort in Charleston harbor

• Confederates order the fort evacuated of any Union forces

• Lincoln chose not to surrender or reinforce the fort, trying to avoid war

• Davis orders the 1st move

• Confederates bombard the fort

• Lincoln calls for troops

Secession

• April- Virginia

• May- Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina

• West Virginia breaks away and joins the Union in 1863