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Karen Lawson
AUTHOR
Karen Lawson
www.ck12.org
C HAPTER
C HAPTER O UTLINE
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Read: Prior to Civil War and
Study Island
Sojourner Truth
Frederick Douglass
the Grimke sisters
William Lloyd Garrison
5.4 ... Draw on information from multiple print or digital resources explaining the events that made slavery a national
issue during the mid-19th century, including: (C, E, G, P)
Missouri Compromise
Uncle Toms Cabin
Compromise of 1850
Brooks attack on Sumner
Kansas-Nebraska Act
John Browns Raid
Dred Scott case
Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Read: excerpts from Aint I a Woman, Sojourner Truth; excerpts from
Uncle Toms Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
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The Plantation
Chivalry - The Antebellum South
This (above) is the home of Virginia planter Thomas Lee and his sons - Richard Henry and Francis Lightfoot
Lee. They were the only brothers to sign the Declaration of Independence. The Southern General Robert E.
Lee was born in an upstairs bedroom. Many wealthy southern planters lived on plantations before the Civil
War.
Southern belles, gentlemen, and hospitality were a part of the Antebellum years in the southern states.
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Tobacco and later cotton were crops grown in the southern colonies and states. For the wealthy planters and for
the small family farmers, those crops shaped the entire life of the region. The wealthy planters was essentially a
country gentleman. They looked to England for political and economic guidance. They also read English literature,
dressed like wealthy Europeans and had a certain way of etiquette - or social manners. In the 1700s the Virginia
planters and plantation owners started a code of behavior that can still be seen in parts of the south today. The
very rich had certain rights and privileges, and, in return, had certain responsibilities for their "inferiors." By around
1825, Virginia was joined by the wealthy plantation owners in other southern states who had made money with the
emergence of King Cotton.
The southern code addressed the behaviors of both men and women. Gentlemen must be courteous, truthful and
honorable. He should be well educated and understand math, literature, and history. Southern gentlemen and ladies
were expected to be kind and generous. The ideal man respected, loved, and honored his family. Southern gentlemen
were expected to treat women with high regard. Southern men were expected to be strong and courageous. A man
was to defend the family name, with his life if necessary.
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The southern woman was genteel and gracious. She knew how to entertain guests and always defended her husband
and children.
A proper gentleman, it was believed, should be a lawyer, politician, planter, or military man, rather than be a
businessman or other occupation. Because plantation owners had their money tied up in property and slaves, many
of the generation could not afford to send their children to prestigious colleges, but were able to send them to the
esteemed military schools. This created a generation of very able and talented military officers. Many were trained
at West Point and Virginia Military Institute. They held to old-fashioned ideals of what honorable warfare meant.
When the Civil War arrived, most of the military leadership talent was southern.
From www.historyforkids.org , read about slavery and the history of slavery on the continent of North
America and in the United States.
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/northamerica/after1500/people/slavery.htm
Slaves being put up for auction were kept in pens like this one in Alexandria, Virginia just a few miles from
Washington, D.C.
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"The Peculiar Institution" was a name for slavery. Its history in America began with the early settlements in the
colonies and ended with the Civil War. Slavery existed both in the north and in the south. Because the north had
textile factories and needed cotton from the south, the southern farmers needed cheap workers to plant and pick the
cotton. By selling more cotton to the northern factories, the farmers would make more money. There were people
from two worlds in the south - the slaves and the slave owners. Not every farmer in the south had slaves. Some
farmers did their own work on their farms.
Slaves worked long hours in the hot sun picking cotton for their owners. Overseers watched the slaves progress and
disciplined those that were working too slow.
The demand for cotton, as well as rice and tobacco required large amounts of workers. Southern landowners knew
they would not make as much money without free slave labor. Most southerners did not want to end slavery.
Plantation life became the goal of many in the south, as many poor farmers aspired to one day become planters
themselves. As the number of farms and plantations grew, the number of slaves living in the south also grew.
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Slaves who worked inside the plantation homes often had better living and working conditions than slaves
who worked in the fields.
Large plantations often required some slaves to work in the plantation home. These slaves enjoyed far better
circumstances. Domestic slaves, who worked in the planter home, lived in better houses and received better food.
They sometimes were able to travel with the owners family.
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This Slave Code booklet for Washington D.C., was published in 1862, only one month before Lincoln abolished
slavery in the nations capitol. More lenient than most states slave codes, the Districts code allowed slaves to
hire themselves out and live apart from their masters.
A slave was not permitted to keep a gun. If caught carrying a gun, the slave received 39 lashes and had the gun
taken away from him. The education of slaves was not allowed. Anyone operating a school or teaching reading
and writing to any African-American in Missouri could be punished by a fine of not less than $500 and up to six
months in jail. Slaves could not meet together without a white person present. Marriages between slaves were not
considered legally binding. Therefore, owners were free to split up families through selling the slaves to the highest
bidder.
The Rise of American Industry Meant Increase of Immigrant Workers and the Rise of City Life
The picture above is of an early manufacturing mill that was built by Sam Slater. Some have called Sam Slaters
mill the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. With the birth of American factories, the need for workers
rose. Many immigrants from Europe made their way to the United States to make a better life for their families.
In 1790, Samuel Slater built the first factory in America, based on the secrets of textile manufacturing he brought
from England. He built a cotton-spinning mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, soon run by water-power. Over the next
decade, textiles were the dominant industry in the country, with hundreds of companies created.
A Nation of Immigrants
The United States is a nation of immigrants. Every American is either an immigrant or has ancestors who were
immigrants. Even the Native Americans are immigrants, their ancestors having traveled to North America over the
Bering Strait more than 50,000 years ago.
One of the greatest periods of immigration occurred during the 1800s to the 1920s when two waves of immigrants
came to American shores from Europe. The old immigrants arrived in the mid-1800s, coming mostly from
northwestern Europe, while the new immigrants arrived a generation later, traveling mostly from southeastern
Europe. Immigrants migrated to escape problems in their native countries and in search of new opportunities in
America.
People often moved due to push factors, something happening in the home country to push people out, and pull
factors, a draw towards a new place.
In the nineteenth century, Europe underwent a transformation due to the Industrial Revolution. Economic expansion
followed, but the rapid changes also caused political dissension and social revolution in industrialized nations. Some
people wanted to leave their native countries due to unemployment, repressive governments, or a lack of opportunity.
Others were trying to avoid compulsory military service or escape religious persecution. People were also attracted
to the possibility of a better life in the United States.
American settlers wrote letters to family members and friends abroad describing the streets as paved with gold. Many
immigrants were pulled to America with visions of wealth and the promise of freedom, equality, and opportunity.
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Most of the old immigrants migrated from England, France, Ireland, and Germany. Many of these immigrants were
culturally similar to each other, literate, and had some wealth. Most were Protestant, believed in democracy, and
resembled each other physically. Due to the similarities among these groups, old immigrants were able to adapt to
America more easily.
A sharp increase in migration from northwestern Europe occurred in the 1840s and 1850s. In the 1840s, a disease
destroyed a majority of the potato crop in Ireland. The Irish relied on the potato as a staple food, and the destruction
of this crop resulted in a widespread famine across the nation.
The Irish Potato Famine led to the mass exodus of Irish citizens to America. Most of these immigrants settled along
the East Coast since they were too poor to buy land or travel elsewhere. They initially encountered discrimination,
but eventually, they were able to overcome prejudice by working their way into politics and assimilating into local
communities.
In Germany, a failed revolution in 1848 and economic hardship caused more than a million Germans to migrate
to America in the following decade. Many Germans had enough money to travel to the Midwest and purchase
farmland, settling in places like Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Milwaukee.
From www.brainpop.com , read, watch and learn about immigration in the United States.
http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/culture/immigration/
Yet, the Industrial Revolution would not have been possible without one further ingredient people. Canals and
railways needed thousands of people to build them. The number of projects and businesses under development
was enormous. The demand for labor was satisfied, in part, by millions of immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and
elsewhere.
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In 1869, a golden spike linked the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad at Promontory,
Utah.
In the antebellum era, it seems like everything about America was growing: the population, income, immigration
and especially the Western frontier. But there was one big problem: you couldnt get there from the East. Most
rivers ran North to South (not East-West), and wagons were slow and difficult over bad roads.
In 1811, the federal government opened the National Road, connecting the Potomac and Ohio Rivers (and expanding every year) to open up the West for settlers. But this type of internal improvement was hotly contested in the early
nation, since states that didnt benefit resented paying for it. As a result, transportation was mostly left to individual
states or to private investors. A number of entrepreneurs and inventors did step up in the mid-19th century, and the
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transportation revolution provided a number of new, reliable, safe and cost-effective ways to travel to different
parts of the nation, including new land in the West.
The development of railroads was one of the most important developments of the Industrial Revolution. With their
formation, construction and operation, they brought social, economic and political change to a country only 50 years
old. Trains allowed people and products to be moved around the country more quickly than ever before.
The railroad was first developed in Great Britain.Americans who had visited England to see new steam locomotives
were impressed that railroads dropped the cost of shipping by carriage by 60-70%.
New railroads came swiftly. In 1830, the South Carolina Canal and Rail-Road Company was formed to draw trade
from the interior of the state. It had a steam locomotive built at the West Point Foundry in New York City, called
The Best Friend of Charleston , the first steam locomotive to be built for sale in the United States. A year later, the
Mohawk & Hudson railroad reduced a 40-mile wandering canal trip that took all day to accomplish to a 17-mile trip
that took less than an hour.
Shares were sold to fund the construction of the B&O Railroad. In only 12 days, the company had raised over
$4,000,000.
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Perhaps the greatest physical feat of 19th century America was the creation of the transcontinental railroad. Two
railroads, the Central Pacific starting in San Francisco and a new railroad, the Union Pacific, starting in Omaha,
Nebraska, would build the rail line. Huge forces of immigrants, mainly Irish for the Union Pacific and Chinese for
the Central Pacific, crossed mountains, dug tunnels and laid track. The two railroads met at Promontory, Utah, on
May 10, 1869, and drove a last, golden spike into the completed railway.
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As the beginning of the Civil War grew nearer, the similarities of the two sides - the North and the South - grew
further apart. The national leaders became more divided on national issues and they tended to make decisions
and vote on issues for their section of the country. The loyalty for a certain region is called sectionalism .
Prior to the Civil War, most of the factories and industries were in the North.
The differences in the sections of the country in the 1850s were many. There were many differences in culture and
in the economy. By studying the above chart, it is clear that the North had more industry and a diverse economy .
A diverse economy has many different jobs or industries. There were farms in the North, but not nearly as many as
in the South. The farms in the North were much smaller than the plantations of the South. Therefore, in the North,
slaves werent needed. By the beginning of the war, all of the Northern states had abolished , or stopped slavery.
In the first half of the 1800s, many immigrants moved to the United States and settled in the North to work in the
factories and other industries. The population of the North was much larger than the population of the South.
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In the South, most people lived on farms. Some were large farms and some were small family farms. On the large
plantations, slaves were the workers. Inventions like the cotton gins, helped the planters to produce more cotton.
The planters were able to plant a larger cash crop and increase the numbers of slaves that were used to produce larger
crops.
The North and the South disagreed on trade, government roles, and of course - slavery.
The government was divided between the representatives from the North and from the South. One problem between
the two regions was tariffs - or a tax on imports. The tariff was good for the Northern factory owners. It made the
items that were imported - or brought in from other countries, much more expensive than items made and sold in the
United States. This hurt the South because many people in the South imported and purchased items from Europe.
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5.3 Use primary sources to analyze multiple samples of abolition leaders writings and their stance
on slavery, including:
***EXTENDED RESPONSE LESSON
Sojourner Truth
Frederick Douglass
the Grimke Sisters
William Lloyd Garrison
From www.kidsites.com , much information is included about the abolitionist and Underground Railroad
work of Harriet Tubman.
http://www2.lhric.org/pocantico/tubman/tubman.html
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Across the United States, people had divided beliefs about the issue of slavery. Abolitionists, people who very
against slavery, began a movement to end slavery. There had been disagreements about the use of slavery since its
beginning, but in the 1840s, abolitionists gave speeches, wrote books, and organized meetings trying to end slavery
once and for all.
Abolitionists came from all parts of society. Wealth men, former slaves, and members of religious groups came
together in this effort.
A wealthy white man, William Lloyd Garrison, wrote articles in his newspaper, The
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Liberator, to spread his ideas. Former slaves, Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass, traveled and spoke about
their times in slavery.
Two white southern women, the Grimke sisters, traveled all around the country giving
speeches against slavery.
Southerners, for the most part, were very against the ideas of abolitionists. Southern crops like tobacco, rice, and
cotton needed labor provided by slaves. The southern planters knew that their wealth and economy would fall if
they no longer had free slave labor. Ending slavery was a bad idea for most southerners.
Library of congress
Abolitionist Wendell Phillips spoke on behalf of fugitive slave Thomas Sims, and against the Fugitive Slave Law in
1851. Sims was later returned to Savannah where he was publicly whipped.
This disagreement led to deep and sometimes violent situations. President Andrew Jackson banned the post office
from delivering Abolitionist literature in the south. A "gag rule" was passed on the floor of the United States
Congress. Many runaway slaves died on their way to freedom on the Underground Railroad. The stone shown
above marked the grave of a four-year-old fugitive slave orphan who made it to Oberlin, Ohio, a town noted for
helping slaves escape.
The new Abolitionists saw slavery as a blight on America. It must be brought to an end immediately and without
compensation to the owners. They sent petitions to Congress and the states, campaigned for office, and flooded the
south with letters and books.
Abolitionists were physically attacked because of their outspoken anti-slavery views. While northern churches
rallied to the Abolitionist cause, the churches of the south used the Bible to defend slavery.
Abolitionists were always a minority, even on the eve of the Civil War. Their dogged determination to end human
bondage was a struggle that persisted for decades. While mostly peaceful at first, as each side became more and
more firmly rooted, pens were exchanged for swords. Another seed of sectional conflict had been deeply planted.
Sojourner Truth
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http://www.sojournertruth.com/
From the Sojourner Truth website, learn about her role in womens rights and her work as an abolitionist.
Watch an interpretation of a very famous Sojourner Truth speech.
MEDIA
Click image to the left or use the URL below.
URL: https://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/187736
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XilHJc9IZvE
Watch the mini-biography of Sojourner Truth.
MEDIA
Click image to the left or use the URL below.
URL: https://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/187738
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-HfiryNoXY
Frederick Douglass
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MEDIA
Click image to the left or use the URL below.
URL: https://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/187740
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su-4JBEIhXY
From www.brainpop.com , paid for by Tullahoma City Schools for their students and teachers use, discover a
short lesson about Frederick Douglass. Additional information is included also.
http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/famoushistoricalfigures/frederickdouglass/
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From www.biography.com , read about Sarah Grimke and her work as an abolitionist and an advocate for womens
rights in the mid-1800s.
http://www.biography.com/people/sarah-moore-grimk%C3%A9-9321349
Sarah Moore Grimk (1792-1873) and Angelina Emily Grimk (1805-1879), known as the Grimk sisters, were
19th-century Southern American writers, orators , educators , and Quakers who were the first American women
advocates of abolition and womens rights .
Throughout their lives, they traveled to the North , lecturing about their firsthand experiences with slavery on their
familys plantation. Among the first American women to act publicly in social reform movements , they were
ridiculed for their abolitionist activity. They became early activists in the womens rights movement.
Watch the following clip from the PBS series The Abolitionists showing Angelina Grimke confronting her mother
about the treatment of slaves in their home.
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MEDIA
Click image to the left or use the URL below.
URL: https://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/187742
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67Swj2usumY
Watch this interpretation of a speech given by Angelina Grimke.
MEDIA
Click image to the left or use the URL below.
URL: https://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/187744
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tww3AAQWKvk
William Lloyd Garrison
Library of Congress
Anti-abolitionist handbills sometimes led to violent clashes between pro-slavery and antislavery factions.
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Although The Liberator was Garrisons most prominent abolitionist activity, he had been involved in the fight to end
slavery for years prior to its publication.
In 1831, Garrison published the first edition of The Liberator . His words, "I am in earnest I will not equivocate
I will not excuse I will not retreat a single inch AND I WILL BE HEARD," clarified the position of the new
Abolitionists. Garrison was not interested in compromise. He founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society the
following year. In 1833, he met with delegates from around the nation to form the American Anti-Slavery Society.
Garrison saw his cause as worldwide. With the aid of his supporters, he traveled overseas to garner support from
Europeans. He was, indeed, a global crusader. But Garrison needed a lot of help. The Liberator would not have been
successful had it not been for the free blacks who subscribed. Approximately seventy-five percent of the readers
were free African-Americans.
The Liberator wasnt the only abolitionist manifesto during the 1800s. Pamphlets like this one were disseminated
widely throughout the North, although many were banned in the South.
Garrison saw moral persuasion as the only means to end slavery. To him the task was simple: show people how
immoral slavery was and they would join in the campaign to end it. He disdained politics, for he saw the political
world as an arena of compromise. A group split from Garrison in the 1840s to run candidates for president on the
Liberty Party ticket. Garrison was not dismayed. Once in Boston, he was dragged through the streets and nearly
killed. A bounty of $4000 was placed on his head. In 1854, he publicly burned a copy of the Constitution because it
permitted slavery. He called for the north to secede from the Union to sever the ties with the slaveholding south.
William Lloyd Garrison lived long enough to see the Union come apart under the weight of slavery. He survived
to see Abraham Lincoln issue the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War. Thirty-four years after first
publishing The Liberator , Garrison saw the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution go into effect, banning
slavery forever. It took a lifetime of work. But in the end, the morality of his position held sway.
Additional sites about Garrison include the following:
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From www.history.com , this article tells of the work of early abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison.
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/abolitionist-movement
MEDIA
Click image to the left or use the URL below.
URL: https://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/187746
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All of these events led to the Civil War. From www.brainpop, watch and learn about the causes of the Civil
War.
http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/ushistory/civilwarcauses/
Missouri Compromise
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Read what Mr. Nussbaum has to tell you about the Missouri Compromise.
http://mrnussbaum.com/history-2-2/misscomp/
MEDIA
Click image to the left or use the URL below.
URL: https://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/187748
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M-kDATCc2Y
YouTube - Henry Clay and the Struggle for the Union
MEDIA
Click image to the left or use the URL below.
URL: https://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/187750
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcKDTM8lB7E
MEDIA
Click image to the left or use the URL below.
URL: https://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/187804
MEDIA
Click image to the left or use the URL below.
URL: https://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/187752
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4XUgJdo6rw
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From Mr. Nussbaums site, read the biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe.
http://mrnussbaum.com/civil-war/harriet_beecher_stowe/
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In the north, plays and movies were made of the controversial abolitionist novel, Uncle Toms Cabin.
Harriet Beecher Stowe was born into a prominent family of preachers. Her father, Lyman Beecher, was one of the
most renowned ministers in his generation. Her brother Henry Ward Beecher was already an outspoken Abolitionist,
and by the mid-1850s would become the driving force behind helping the Free-Soil cause in "bleeding Kansas" (not
permitting slavery in the new territory). While living for a short while in Cincinnati, Stowe became exposed to actual
runaway slaves. Her heart ached at the wretched tales she heard. She began to write a series of short stories depicting
the plight of plantation slaves.
Encouraged by her sister-in-law, Stowe decided to pen a novel. First published as a series in 1851, it first appeared
as a book the following year. The heart-wrenching tale portrays slave families forced to cope with separation by
masters through a sale. Uncle Tom mourns for the family he was forced to leave. In one heroic scene, Eliza makes
a daring dash across the frozen Ohio River to prevent the sale of her son by slave traders. The novel also takes the
perspective that slavery brings out the worst in the white masters, leading them to perpetrate moral atrocities they
would otherwise never commit.
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Harriet Beecher Stowe lost a child in infancy, an experience that she said made her empathize with the losses
suffered by slave mothers whose children were sold.
The reaction was incredible. Uncle Toms Cabin sold 300,000 copies in the North alone. The Fugitive Slave Law,
passed in 1850, could hardly be enforced by any of Stowes readers. Although banned in most of the south, it served
as another log on the growing fire.
The book sold even more copies in Great Britain than in the United States. This had an immeasurable appeal in
swaying British public opinion. Many members of the British Parliament relished the idea of a divided United
States. Ten years after the publication of Uncle Toms Cabin, the British people made it difficult for its government
to support the Confederacy, even though there were strong economic ties to the South. In the end, Mr. Lincoln may
not have been stretching the truth after all.
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Compromise of 1850
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U.S. Senate
The "Great Compromiser," Henry Clay, introduces the Compromise of 1850 in the Senate.
The Compromise of 1850 overturned the Missouri Compromise and left the overall issue of slavery unsettled.
Compromise of 1850
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TABLE 1.1:
North Gets
California admitted as a free state
Slave trade prohibited in Washington D.C.
Texas loses boundary dispute with New Mexico
South Gets
No slavery restrictions in Utah or New Mexico territories
Slaveholding permitted in Washington D.C.
Texas gets $10 million
Fugitive Slave Law
Compromise of 1850
Who gained the most from the Compromise of 1850?
The North
The South
Who won and who lost in the deal? Although each side received benefits, the north seemed to gain the most. The
balance of the Senate was now with the free states, although California often voted with the south on many issues in
the 1850s. The major victory for the south was the Fugitive Slave Law. In the end, the north refused to enforce it.
Massachusetts even called for its nullification, stealing an argument from John C. Calhoun. Northerners claimed the
law was unfair. The flagrant violation of the Fugitive Slave Law set the scene for the tempest that emerged later in
the decade. But for now, Americans hoped against hope that the fragile peace would prevail.
Watch Mr. Zoeller and his review of the Compromise of 1820 and the Missouri Compromise.
MEDIA
Click image to the left or use the URL below.
URL: https://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/187754
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tLSDJi9EyY
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began beating Sumner over the head with his cane. When the can broke, Brooks walked out of the Senate chamber.
Sumner did recover, but he did not return to the Senate for three years.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
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MEDIA
Click image to the left or use the URL below.
URL: https://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/187756
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdodEnENnUU
"Bloody Kansas"
For decades, both northern states and southern states had threatened secession and dissolution of the Union over the
question of where slavery was to be permitted. At issue was power. Both sides sought to limit the governing power
of the other by maintaining a balance of membership in Congress. This meant ensuring that admission of a new state
where slavery was outlawed was matched by a state permitting slavery. For example, at the same time that Missouri
entered the Union as a slave state, Maine entered the Union as a free state.
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New states were organized into self-governing territories before they became states. Hence, they developed a position
on the slavery issue well before their admission to the Union. Southerners held that slavery must be permitted in all
territories. Northerners held that slavery must not be extended into new territories.
A border ruffian dropped this flag in Olathe, Kansas in 1862 after a raid on the town.
If slavery were not permitted in the territories, slavery would never gain a foothold within them and southern power
in Congress would gradually erode. If either side were successful in gaining a distinct advantage, many felt disunion
and civil war would follow.
Kansas would be the battleground on which the north and south would first fight. The Kansas-Nebraska Act led both
to statehood and to corruption, hatred, anger, and violence. Men from neighboring Missouri stuffed ballot boxes in
Kansas to ensure that a legislature friendly to slavery would be elected. Anti-slavery, or free soil, settlers formed
a legislature of their own in Topeka. Within two years, there would be an armed conflict between proponents of
slavery and those against it.
n 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, an act that divided the Great Plains territories into two states,
Nebraska and Kansas. As part of the deal, the issue of slavery would be decided not by Congress but by the settlers
in these territories at the ballot box, a governance style appropriately called popular sovereignty . Both abolitionists
and slave proponents alike agreed with the idea, believing their side would certainly win the vote by stacking the
ballot box in their favor.
In truth, Congress hoped that slave owners would occupy Kansas, making it a slave state, while anti-slavery forces
would take Nebraska - a simple way to maintain the balance of free and slave states in the U.S. and keep the peace.
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Unfortunately, this was not to be. While Nebraska remained open and vast and enjoyed relative calm in the years
leading up to the Civil War, Kansas would not be so lucky.
While most settlers who moved to Kansas simply wanted to build a life for themselves and be left in peace, forces
on both sides of the slavery issue were determined to bring conflict and violence to the territory. It was here, not
Nebraska, where sentiments on both sides would be aired, would clash and would lead to bloodshed.
Abolitionists moved quickly to make an example out of Kansas and organized the funding for several thousand
settlers to move to Kansas with the full intention of voting to make it a free state. As a result, antislavery settlements
sprang up in Topeka and Lawrence, and by the summer of 1855, over 1,200 New Englanders had made the journey
to Kansas, armed and ready to fight for freedom.
In response to these actions by Northern abolitionists, thousands of armed Southerners, mostly from Missouri,
poured over the lines into the neighboring Kansas territory to vote for the proslavery initiative. This move had an
immediate impact. In vote after vote, the proslavery forces carried the day.
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The Kansas-Nebraska act made it possible for the Kansas and Nebraska territories (shown in orange) to open to
slavery. The Missouri Compromise had prevented this from happening since 1820.
MEDIA
Click image to the left or use the URL below.
URL: https://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/187758
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jso1YRQnpCI
John Browns Raid on Harpers Ferry
MEDIA
Click image to the left or use the URL below.
URL: https://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/187760
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIorHCv5QDs
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John Brown and his men stayed in this rented farmhouse in the days before the raid on Harpers Ferry.
John Brown and his cohorts marched into an unsuspecting Harpers Ferry and seized the federal complex with little
resistance. It consisted of an armory, arsenal, and engine house. He then sent a patrol out into the country to contact
slaves, collected several hostages, including the great-grandnephew of George Washington, and sat down to wait.
The slaves did not rise to his support, but local citizens and militia surrounded him, exchanging gunfire, killing
two townspeople and eight of Browns company. Troops under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee
arrived from Washington to arrest Brown. They stormed the engine house, where Brown had withdrawn, captured
him and members of his group, and turned them over to Virginia authorities to be tried for treason. He was quickly
tried and sentenced to hang on December 2.
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John Browns fanaticism affected many of the people around him, especially his family. Two of his sons were
killed at Harpers Ferry.
Browns strange effort to start a rebellion was over less than 36 hours after it started; however, the consequences of
his raid would last far longer. In the North, his raid was greeted by many with widespread admiration. While they
recognized the raid itself was the act of a madman, some northerners admired his zeal and courage. Church bells
pealed on the day of his execution and songs and paintings were created in his honor. Brown was turned into an
instant martyr. Ralph Waldo Emerson predicted that Brown would make "the gallows as glorious as the cross." The
majority of northern newspapers did, however, denounce the raid. The Republican Party adopted a specific plank
condemning John Brown and his ill-fated plan. But that was not what the south saw.
Southerners were shocked and outraged. How could anyone be sympathetic to a fanatic who destroyed their property
and threatened their very lives? How could they live under a government whose citizens regarded John Brown as
a martyr? Southern newspapers labeled the entire north as John Brown sympathizers. Southern politicians blamed
the Republican Party and falsely claimed that Abraham Lincoln supported Browns intentions. Moderate voices
supporting a compromise on both sides grew silent amid the gathering storm. In this climate of fear and hostility,
the election year of 1860 opened ominously. The election of Abraham Lincoln became unthinkable to many in the
south.
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MEDIA
Click image to the left or use the URL below.
URL: https://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/187762
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OML9AVR10PQ
Split in Two - The Dred Scott Case - on YouTube
MEDIA
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URL: https://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/187764
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR-VTrPcMDg
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The Court ruled that Scotts "sojourn" of two years to Illinois and the Northwest Territory did not make him free
once he returned to Missouri.
The Court further ruled that as a black man Scott was excluded from United States citizenship and could not,
therefore, bring suit. According to the opinion of the Court, African-Americans had not been part of the "sovereign
people" who made the Constitution.
The Court also ruled that Congress never had the right to prohibit slavery in any territory. Any ban on slavery was a
violation of the Fifth Amendment, which prohibited denying property rights without due process of law.
The Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.
Dred Scotts battle for his freedom began at the Old Courthouse in St. Louis, Missouri.
.Two of the three branches of government, the Congress, and the President had failed to resolve the issue. Now the
Supreme Court rendered a decision that was only accepted in the southern half of the country. Was the American
experiment collapsing? The only remaining national political institution with both northern and southern strength
was the Democratic Party, and it was now splitting at the seams. The fate of the Union looked hopeless.
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1.5. Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Read: Prior to Civil War and Study Island
www.ck12.org
On www.studyisland.com, lessons and assessment for Section 2 - Prior to the Civil War
2A - North and South Before the War
2B - Slavery and Abolition in the 19th Century
Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Read: excerpts from Aint I A Woman, Sojourner Truth;
excerpts from Uncle Toms Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
***EXTENDED RESPONSE LESSON
Sojourner Truth
Reading the 1851 speech from Sojourner Truth is Kerry Washington.
MEDIA
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URL: https://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/187766
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq3AYiRT4no
...and from a website dedicated to Truth.
http://www.sojournertruth.org/Default.htm
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