A Divided Nation: Comprehensive Notes

Module 17: A Divided Nation

  • Overview: This module explores the escalating divisions among Americans in the mid-1800s due to the slavery debate and the events preceding the Civil War.

Essential Question

  • Could the Civil War have been avoided?

Module Components

  • Online videos
  • Document-Based Investigations
  • Graphic Organizers
  • Interactive Games
  • Image Carousel: Debating the Compromise of 1850
  • Interactive Chart: Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
  • Image with Hotspots: Rebel Government
  • Topics:
    • The Debate Over Slavery
    • John Brown’s War
    • Lincoln’s Road Toward Emancipation

Timeline of Events (1845–1865)

  • 1845–1865: United States World Timeline of Events
  • 1848: Revolutionary movements sweep across Europe.
  • 1852: Louis-Napoléon declares himself Emperor Napoléon III of France.
  • 1856: British and French forces defeat Russia in the Crimean War.
  • 1857: Indian soldiers in the British army begin the Sepoy Mutiny against British control of India.
  • 1852: Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is published.
  • 1856: In the Sack of Lawrence, pro-slavery forces attack Lawrence, Kansas, on May 21.
  • 1859: John Brown takes control of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
  • 1848: The Free-Soil Party is formed on August 9.
  • 1850: Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act on September 18.
  • 1860: On December 20, South Carolina votes to secede from the United States.

Reading Social Studies: Facts, Opinions, and the Past

  • Theme Focus: Politics, Society, and Culture: Growing tension between North and South over slavery.
  • Reading Focus: Separating facts from opinions to understand historical events.
  • A fact can be proved or disproved.
  • An opinion is a belief that cannot be definitively proved.
Identifying Facts and Opinions
  • Fact: “Abraham Lincoln belonged to the Republican Party.” (Can be proved)
  • Opinion: “Lincoln was the greatest president in American history.” (Cannot be proved)
Examples: Fact or Opinion
  1. Lincoln accused the Democrats of trying to spread slavery across the nation. (Fact)
  2. The Lincoln-Douglas debates were the most important debates in the history of the nation. (Opinion)
  3. Stephen Douglas was a U.S. senator from Illinois. (Fact)
  4. Abraham Lincoln ran against Douglas in the 1858 Senate election. (Fact)
  5. Most Americans believed that the Dred Scott decision was a good one. (Opinion)
  6. Lincoln was the best debater people from Illinois had ever heard. (Opinion)
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
  • 1858: Illinois Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln for the U.S. Senate.
  • Opponent: Democrat Stephen Douglas, senator since 1847.
  • Central issue: The spread of slavery in the West.
  • Lincoln on the Dred Scott decision: African Americans were “entitled to all the natural rights” in the Declaration of Independence.

Key Terms and People

Lesson 1
  • popular sovereignty
  • Wilmot Proviso
  • sectionalism
  • Free-Soil Party
  • secede
  • Compromise of 1850
  • Fugitive Slave Act
  • Anthony Burns
  • Uncle Tom’s Cabin
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe
Lesson 2
  • Franklin Pierce
  • Stephen Douglas
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act
  • Pottawatomie Massacre
  • Charles Sumner
  • Preston Brooks
Lesson 3
  • Republican Party
  • James Buchanan
  • John C. Frémont
  • Dred Scott
  • Roger B. Taney
  • Abraham Lincoln
  • Lincoln-Douglas debates
  • Freeport Doctrine
Lesson 4
  • John Brown’s raid
  • John C. Breckinridge
  • Constitutional Union Party
  • John Bell
  • John J. Crittenden
  • Confederate States of America
  • Jefferson Davis

Lesson 1: The Debate over Slavery

  • Big Idea: Antislavery literature and the annexation of new lands intensified the debate over slavery.
Main Ideas
  • The addition of new land in the West renewed disputes over the expansion of slavery.
  • The Compromise of 1850 tried to solve the disputes over slavery.
  • The Fugitive Slave Act caused more controversy.
  • Abolitionists used antislavery literature to promote opposition.
New Land Renews Slavery Disputes
  • The United States added more than 500,000 square miles of land after the Mexican-American War in 1848, leading to debates about slavery.
  • The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had divided the Louisiana Purchase into free and slave regions, prohibiting slavery north of latitude 36°30’ but allowing Missouri as a slave state.
  • President James K. Polk wanted to extend the 36°30’ line to the West coast.
  • Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan promoted popular sovereignty: The idea that political power belongs to the people, who should decide on banning or allowing slavery.
Regional Differences About Slavery
  • Some northerners wanted to outlaw slavery in all parts of the Mexican Cession.
  • Representative David Wilmot offered the Wilmot Proviso, stating that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of [the] territory.”
  • The House passed the Wilmot Proviso, but the Senate, with greater Southern power, did not.
  • The Wilmot Proviso spurred a debate that showed growing sectionalism (favoring one region's interests over the country's).
Free-Soil Party
  • Antislavery northerners formed the Free-Soil Party, supporting the Wilmot Proviso.
  • They worried that slave labor would mean fewer jobs for white workers.
  • The party nominated former president Martin Van Buren.
  • Won 10 percent of the popular vote in 1848.
  • Whig candidate Zachary Taylor won a narrow victory.
The California Question
  • The California gold rush led to rapid population growth.
  • California applied to join the Union as a state, not a territory.
  • Most Californians opposed slavery.
  • If California became a free state, the balance between free and slave states would change, favoring the free states.
  • Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and other southerners opposed California's admission as a free state, fearing the destruction of the balance of power between sections.
Compromise of 1850
  • Senator Henry Clay proposed a plan:
    1. California would enter the Union as a free state.
    2. The rest of the Mexican Cession would be federal land with popular sovereignty deciding on slavery.
    3. Texas would give up land east of the upper Rio Grande; the government would pay Texas’s debts.
    4. The slave trade would end in the nation’s capital (but not slavery).
    5. A more effective fugitive slave law would be passed.
  • Senator William Seward of New York opposed compromises and wanted California admitted without conditions.
  • Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina warned that letting California enter as a free state would destroy the nation’s balance and asked that the slave states be allowed to secede.
  • Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts supported Clay’s plan to preserve the Union.
  • The Compromise of 1850 was enacted and seemed to settle most disputes.
Fugitive Slave Act
  • The Fugitive Slave Act made it a crime to help runaway slaves and allowed officials to arrest slaves in free areas.
  • Slaveholders could take suspected fugitives to U.S. commissioners, who decided their fate.
  • Enslaved African Americans accused of being fugitives could not testify.
  • People who hid or helped runaway slaves faced six months in jail and a 1,0001,000 fine.
  • Commissioners who rejected a slaveholder’s claim earned 55, while those who returned suspected fugitives earned 1010, incentivizing them to favor slaveholders.
  • Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act began immediately.
  • Thousands of northern African Americans fled to Canada in fear.
  • The accused fugitives were declared free in only 11 out of 343 cases reviewed.
  • Northerners were uncomfortable with the commissioners’ power, disliked the idea of a trial without a jury, and disapproved of higher fees for returning slaves.
  • Violence erupted, such as in the case of Anthony Burns in Boston in 1854.
Antislavery Literature
  • Abolitionists used stories of fugitive slaves to gain sympathy for their cause.
  • Uncle Tom’s Cabin, an antislavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, spoke out against slavery.
  • The novel portrayed the cruelties of slavery through the character of Uncle Tom.
  • Published in 1852 and sold over 2 million copies within a decade.
  • Abraham Lincoln reportedly said that Stowe was “the little lady who made this big war.”

Lesson 2: Trouble in Kansas

  • Big Idea: The Kansas-Nebraska Act heightened tensions in the conflict over slavery.
Main Ideas
  • The debate over the expansion of slavery influenced the election of 1852.
  • The Kansas-Nebraska Act gave voters the choice to allow or prohibit slavery.
  • Pro-slavery and antislavery groups clashed violently in what became known as “Bleeding Kansas.”
Election of 1852
  • Franklin Pierce: Democratic candidate who promised to honor the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act, gaining support from southerners.
  • Winfield Scott: Whig candidate, a Mexican War hero, distrusted by southerners.
  • Pierce won the election by a large margin, which was viewed as a painful defeat for the Whig Party.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
  • Stephen Douglas supported the idea of building a railroad to the Pacific Ocean with a line running from Chicago.
  • The Missouri Compromise required that the land be free territory and eventually free states.
  • Southerners in Congress preferred a southern route for the railroad.
  • Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854: It would divide the Louisiana Purchase into two territories—Kansas and Nebraska—and allow people in each territory to decide on the question of slavery.
  • The act would eliminate the Missouri Compromise’s restriction on slavery north of the 36º30’ line.
  • Antislavery northerners were outraged, but the measure passed with strong southern support and President Pierce's backing.
Kansas Divided
  • Antislavery and pro-slavery groups rushed supporters to Kansas.
  • Elections for the Kansas territorial legislature were held in March 1855.
  • Almost 5,000 pro-slavery voters crossed the border from Missouri, voted in Kansas, and then returned home, resulting in a pro-slavery majority.
  • The new legislature passed strict laws that made it a crime to question slaveholders’ rights and said that those who helped fugitive slaves could be put to death.
  • Antislavery Kansans formed their own legislature 25 miles away in Topeka.
  • President Pierce only recognized the pro-slavery legislature.
Bleeding Kansas
  • Kansas had two opposing governments by early 1856.
  • In April 1856, a congressional committee declared the election of the pro-slavery legislature to be unfair, but the federal government did not agree.
  • Attack on Lawrence: In May 1856, a pro-slavery grand jury charged leaders of the antislavery government with treason, and about 800 men rode to Lawrence to arrest them.
  • Violence broke out, resulting in the Sack of Lawrence.
  • John Brown’s Response: Abolitionist John Brown and his men killed five pro-slavery men along Pottawatomie Creek in what became known as the Pottawatomie Massacre in response to the Sack of Lawrence.
  • Kansas collapsed into civil war, with about 200 people killed.
Brooks Attacks Sumner
  • Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts criticized pro-slavery people in Kansas and personally insulted Andrew Pickens Butler, a pro-slavery senator from South Carolina.
  • Representative Preston Brooks, a relative of Butler’s, used a walking cane to beat Sumner unconscious in the Senate chambers on May 22, 1856.
  • Brooks only had to pay a 300300 fine to the federal court.

Lesson 3: Political Divisions

  • Big Idea: The split over the issue of slavery intensified due to political division and judicial decisions.
Main Ideas
  • Political parties in the United States underwent change due to the movement to expand slavery.
  • The Dred Scott decision created further division over the issue of slavery.
  • The Lincoln-Douglas debates brought much attention to the conflict over slavery.
Political Parties Undergo Change
  • The Kansas-Nebraska Act brought the slavery issue back into the national spotlight.
  • Some Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, and abolitionists joined in 1854 to form the Republican Party, a political party united against the spread of slavery in the West.
  • The Whig Party fell apart when northern and southern Whigs refused to work together.
  • Some Whigs and Democrats joined the American Party, also known as the Know-Nothing Party.
  • The Democrats nominated James Buchanan of Pennsylvania for the election of 1856, who had not been involved with the Kansas-Nebraska Act dispute.
  • The Republicans chose explorer John C. Frémont as their candidate.
  • Buchanan won the election.
Dred Scott Decision
  • The Supreme Court issued a historic ruling about slavery, involving Dred Scott.
  • Dred Scott Sues for Freedom: Dred Scott was the slave of Dr. John Emerson and had lived in free territory.
  • In 1846, Scott sued for his freedom in the Missouri state courts, arguing that he had become free when he lived in free territory.
  • The Missouri Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that had been in his favor.
  • The Supreme Court’s Ruling:
  • Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote the majority opinion, stating that African Americans were not citizens under the U.S. Constitution and did not have the right to file suit in federal court.
  • Taney also ruled that Scott’s residence on free soil did not make him free and that the Missouri Compromise restriction on slavery north of 36°30’ was unconstitutional.
  • Most white southerners cheered this decision, while many northerners were stunned.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
  • In 1858, Illinois Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln for the U.S. Senate, and his opponent was Democrat Stephen Douglas.
  • Lincoln challenged Douglas in the Lincoln-Douglas debates.
  • The central issue was the spread of slavery in the West.
  • Lincoln talked about the Dred Scott decision and said that African Americans were “entitled to all the natural rights” listed in the Declaration of Independence.
  • Douglas criticized Lincoln for saying that the nation could not remain “half slave and half free.”
  • The Freeport Doctrine: Douglas argued that it did not matter what the Supreme Court decided about slavery since voters could exclude it as they pleased.
  • It helped Douglas win the Senate seat, while Lincoln became a strong leader of the Republican Party.

Lesson 4: The Nation Divides

  • Big Idea: The United States broke apart due to the growing conflict over slavery.
Main Ideas
  • John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry intensified the disagreement between free states and slave states.
  • The outcome of the election of 1860 divided the United States.
  • The dispute over slavery led the South to secede.
Raid on Harpers Ferry
  • In 1858, John Brown tried to start an uprising by attacking the federal arsenal in Virginia and seizing weapons.
  • On the night of October 16, 1859, John Brown’s raid began when he and his men took over the arsenal in Harpers Ferry.
  • Federal troops arrived and captured Brown.
  • Brown was convicted of treason, murder, and conspiracy, and was ordered to be hanged.
  • Most southern whites felt threatened by the actions of John Brown.
Election of 1860
  • In 1860, the northern and southern Democrats could not agree on a candidate.
  • Northern Democrats chose Senator Stephen Douglas, while Southern Democrats backed John C. Breckinridge.
  • The Constitutional Union Party selected John Bell of Tennessee as their candidate.
  • Lincoln defeated Douglas, Breckinridge, and Bell to win the election. However, he only won about 40 percent of the overall popular vote.
  • The election results angered southerners, signaling that the South was losing its national political power.
The South Secedes
  • Lincoln insisted that he would not change slavery in the South, but he also said that slavery could not expand and would eventually die out completely.
  • People in the South believed their economy and way of life would be destroyed without slave labor and began to secede.
  • South Carolina elected to dissolve “the union now subsisting [existing] between South Carolina and other States” on December 20, 1860.
  • Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas also seceded to form the Confederate States of America, also called the Confederacy.
  • Delegates from seceded states elected Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as president of the Confederacy.
  • When the southern states seceded, the question of who owned federal property in the South arose.
Lincoln Takes Office
  • President Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861.
  • In his inaugural address, Lincoln opposed the idea that southern states could leave the Union because they were unhappy with the government’s position on slavery.
  • He announced that he would keep all government property in the seceding states and hoped that, given time, southern states would return to the Union.