THE COMING OF THE CIVIL

WAR

CHAPTER 13
Question of Slavery

The Compromise of 1850 only lasted four

years
Its provisions created controversy

1) Provisions – allowing new territory to

decide the question of slavery
Southerners used this to expand slavery in the
Western new territory
2) Provisions - Fugitive Slavery Act
Abolitionists from North evaded the law –
helping black fugitives
Abolitionists pushing hard for the law to be
repealed

These caused sectional feelings between

Northerners & Southerners
Uncle Tom’s Cabin novel
Written by Harriet Beecher Stove in 1852
Touched on evils of slavery
Printed (300,000 copies sold in a year)
Made into a play
The high point of the story :-
The suffering of Uncle Tom in the hands of
Simon Legree, the slave driver
Eliza, a Negro mother, & her child crossing
the frozen Ohio river to freedom, chased by
bloodhounds
The death of a white child, Eva

Touched hearts of millions

Pondering – “Is slavery just?”
Increased sectional tensions
The Presidential Election of 1852

Franklin Pierce of Democratic defeated

Winfield Scot of Whigs
(354 electoral votes to 42)
The Kansas-Nebraska Act

The idea popular sovereignty increased

sectional tensions
Southerners & Westerners (proslavery
group) wanted people of all territories to
decide whether or not to allow slavery
Abolitionists dislike the idea
The issue of Kansas – Nebraska appeared
1854 - Congress passed the Kansas –
Nebraska Act
The act allowed the people who settle in
Kansas & Nebraska to decide by vote
whether or not to allow slavery
Northerners (antislavery group) &
Southerners (proslavery group) rushed to
Kansas to vote
1854 elections – held in Kansas to pick
delegates to Congress
The two groups clashed – bloodshed &
violence for five years
It was known as “bleeding Kansas”
The Birth of Republican Party

The Kansas – Nebraska Act & “bleeding

Kansas” gave birth to the Republican
Party
Angry Northerners formed the
Republican Party in 1854
Another new party was formed –
American Party
The Presidential Election of 1856

James Buchanan of Democratic defeated

John C. Fremont of Republican & Millard
Fillmore of American Party
(174 electoral votes to 114 & 8)
The Dred Scott Decision

The case:-
In 1834, a slave named Dred Scott was
taken by his master from Missouri (a
slave state) to Illinois (a free state). Then,
in 1838, he was taken to Wisconsin
territory. Later, he was brought back to
Missouri
Scott married Harriet when he was in
Wisconsin – had children
DRED SCOTT
1846 – Scott filed a case in Missouri court
for their liberty
Scott received helped from some whites
Their claims – Northwest Ordinance
outlawed slavery in Illinois & Missouri
Compromise outlawed slavery in
Wisconsin
Thus Scott & his family are free
They lost the case in the state courts
They kept fighting until they reached the
Supreme Court
1857 - Supreme Court’s decision was
against Scott
Supreme Court’s reason:-
Dred Scott was a slave & therefore not a
citizen. He had no right to be heard in court
Any citizen could take his property (including
slaves) with him anywhere in the US
Effects of this decision:-
Congress could not forbid slavery in
territories
Delighted Southerners
Northerners were mad
The Emergence of Abraham
Lincoln
Read textbook pg. 359-360
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Lincoln-Douglas Debates

1858 – Illinois Senator election

Fight between Stephen Douglas &
Abraham Lincoln
Douglas :-
Democratic Party candidate
Favored popular sovereignty
Initiated & supported Kansas – Nebraska Act

Lincoln:-
Republican Party candidate
Not an abolitionist
But wanted to keep slavery out of territories
Did not support Kansas – Nebraska Act
STEPHEN DOUGLAS
The nation watched the contest keenly –
Why ?
Douglas wanted to run for the 1860
Presidential election
So it did not only involve the senatorship,
but also the Presidency of US
Southerners wanted to know Douglas’
stand on two issues:-
did he support Dred Scott Supreme Court
decision
would he give up his idea on popular
sovereignty
Douglas was in a dilema :-
If he support Dred Scott decision &
withdraw support for popular sovereignty
Would win Southerners support but would
lose Northerners & Westerners votes
If he support popular sovereignty
Would lose Southerners support but would
win Northerners & Westerners votes
A series of debates took place between
Douglas & Lincoln
Debate at Freeport, Illinois:-
Lincoln asked Douglas the fatal question:
“Do the people of a territory have the
right to permit or to forbid any slavery?”
Douglas replied: “No matter what the
decision of the Supreme Court may be on
that abstract question, still the right of the
people to make a slave territory or a free
territory is complete. I hope Mr. Lincoln
deems my answer satisfactory.”

Lincoln found it quite satisfactory – but

Southerners did not
Douglas won the Illinois senatorship
But Douglas would never be President
These debates split Northerners &
Southerners apart
John Brown’s Raid

One strong abolitionist was John Brown

Brown was involved in “bleeding
Kansas”
Brown believed that God had chosen him
to raise an army of slaves & lead them
against their masters
Brown planned to establish a black
republic in Virginia
1859 - Brown & about 20 white & black
men attacked & took over government
arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia
Brown thought slaves would join him –
but no slaves came forward to join them
US marines attacked & retook the arsenal
Brown was wounded & many of his
followers were killed
Brown was tried in Virginia for murder &
treason – found guilty & hanged in 1859
JOHN BROWN
THE RAID
IN COURT
HANGING
Effectsof Brown’s raid:-
Northerners: -
Brown was a martyr
Slavery is evil
Wanted to ban slavery
Southerners:-
Brown was a traitor
Thought Northerners would support slaves to
attack white people
Wanted to spread slavery

increased sectional tensions

One of his admirers wrote a marching
song:
John Brown’s body lies a-moldering in
the grave, His soul goes marching on
Northerners sang the song as they
marched to war
Mothers & fathers sang it when their sons
left to fight for the Union
The Election of 1860

1860 Presidential election

Presidential candidates:-
 Lincoln – Republican Party
 Douglas - Democratic Party
 John Bell - Constitutional Union
Party
 John Breckinridge - a candidate put
up by Southerners
Southerners would not support Douglas
as he betrayed them in his reply to
Lincoln at Freeport, Illinois
Lincoln was elected as President (180
electoral votes)
Southerners had warned they would leave
the union if Republican won
The Secession Crisis

December 1860 – South Carolina passed

a resolution
“ … the union now subsisting between
South Carolina & other states under the
name of united States of America is
hereby dissolved.”
Six other states followed South Carolina
out of the Union
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,
Mississippi & Texas
February 1861 – delegates of these seven
states met at Montgomery, Alabama
They formed a new nation – the
Confederate States of America or the
Confederacy
Jefferson Davis of Mississippi became
President of Confederacy
Jefferson Davis
April 1861 – four states left the Union
Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina &
Virginia
They left because federal soldiers invaded
the Confederate States
They believed that federal government
had no right to use force against a state