Class 39: Towards War

Test Prep: What happened in Kansas in 1856?

Test Prep: What happened in Kansas in 1856?

47%

1. 2.

3.
4.

Dred Scot was freed Two governments formed: one free and one slave John Brown led a slave revolt Lincoln and Douglas debated

28%

14%

12%

1.

2.

3.

4.

Bleeding Kansas

Announcements
M Apr 14
W Apr 16 F Apr 18

NO READING
NO READING TEST 3 Extra-credit Civil War Due Test 3

M Apr 21

ATF, CHAPTER 8, THE VIEW FROM THE BOTTOM RAIL

ATF response opportunity (you can do a maximum of four of these for credit)

W Apr 23 F Apr 25 Final exam April 30 11:30-2:20

NO READING NO READING Optional Cumulative Final Exam

Last chance extra-credit talk! Due April 16, 11:30

We will hold regular classes on Monday and Wednesday (but not Friday)
I will give you 5 points extra credit for attending class next week (Monday and Wednesday)
Reconstruction (Monday) Overview (Wednesday)

But I am only going to add those points if I have at least a 70% response rate by Friday on CIOS!!!

Class outline
Last class we talked about Texas and the problems associated with expanding slavery into new territories (such as Texas and beyond). Today we will continue to look at the increasing tensions and look at some early confrontations and battles

Test prep review question: What was the concept of popular sovereignty that Lewis Cass and Steven Douglas supported in the 1850s?
1. The idea that Congress should extend the line of the 36.30 parallel as a boundary for slavery The idea that the territories and new states should allow the voters to decide whether to recognize slavery or not The idea that every state should allow the voters to decide whether to recognize slavery or not All of the answers None of the answers
64%

2.

3.

17% 8% 12% 0%
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

4. 5.

Moderate positions
Extend Missouri Compromise line Popular Sovereignty

Anti-slavery moderates: The free soil movement (Wilmot Proviso)

Free soil, free speech, free labor, free men

Wilmot Proviso, 1846, 47, 48

Congressman David Wilmot 1846, 47, and 48 Banned slavery in territories acquired from Mexico Passed in the House, but not in the Senate

More extreme perspectives Prohibit slavery (politically): Liberty Party

1840 7000 votes (1/3 pf 1%) 1844 16,000 votes in NY margin of error that lost the election for Whigs Clay would have been elected instead of Polk

Most extreme abolitionists

William Lloyd Garrison Secession

The Southern POV

Also a range of positions

Legalize slavery everywhere: The southern democrats and John C. Calhoun

More extreme Expand slavery outside of US borders: The Filibusters (William Walker)

Northern fear: The slave power

A series of compromises

Compromise of 1850 Clay and Douglas

Compromise of 1850
California (free) Texas (decreased) Organize territories of NM and UT Slave trade in DC abolished Fugitive slave law reinforced 21% voted for all

Fugitive Slave Act

Northern Opposition to new Fugitive Slave Law

Personal Liberty Laws Solomon Northrup, Twelve Years a Slave Anthony Burns

Meanwhile back in Congress: Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854 (Steven Douglas)

Joshua Giddings and Salmon P. Chase Appeal of the Independent Democrats

We arraign this bill as a gross violation of a sacred pledge; as a criminal betrayal of precious rights; as part and parcel of an atrocious plot to exclude from a vast unoccupied region immigrants from the Old World and free laborers from our own States, and convert it into a dreary region of despotism, inhabited by masters and slaves.

Old parties collapse New Parties form

K-N Act = Collapse of two party system (Democrats and Whigs) Democrats split (and many northern Democrats leave to join the Republican party) Whigs split (and party dies) Rise of the Republican Party (made from a combination of northern Democrats and former Whigs (many had been in the free soil movement)

Birth of the Republican Party

And the Know-nothings (American Party):

1848-1860 3.5 million immigrants

Election 1856

For Comparision 1844 Election: James Polk

The first fighting = out West Bleeding Kansas

Free Staters John Brown (Jay Hawks)

Missouri migrations Border Ruffians

Lawrence, Kansas and Potawatomie Creek

The Lecompton Constitution, 1857

Bleeding Kansas and western problems reverberate across the nation

Caning Charles Sumner, 1857

Dred Scott, 1857

Slave from Missouri Dr. John Emerson took him to territories and states that did not allow slavery

Questions raised
1. Was a black man eligible to sue in a court of law? 2. Did residence in a free state and territory make a black man free? 3. Did Congress have power to prohibit slavery in a territory or to delegate that power to a territorial legislature?

The decision (Chief Justice Roger Taney)