• THE EARLY 1850s: (350-351)– Compromise of 1850: agreement

proposed by Henry Clay; allowed California to enter the United States as a free-state and divided the rest of the Mexican Cession into two territories where slavery would decided on popular sovereignty; also settled land claims between Texas and New Mexico, abolished the slave trade in the District of Columbia, and toughened fugitive slave laws

– Although the Compromise of 1850 did not satisfy all Americans, most were hopeful that it had settled the slavery question

• THE EARLY 1850s: (350-351)– The Election of 1852: To tap into

the optimistic mood after the Compromise of 1850, both political parties adopted platforms supporting the Compromise

– Franklin Pierce (Democrat) won the Election of 1852

– In his inaugural address, Franklin Pierce called for national harmony and proceeded to appoint cabinet members from the South and North

– Pierce was a weak leader; he was unable to control his diverse cabinet or convince northerners that he was not caving into southern pressure

• THE EARLY 1850s: (350-351)– The Fugitive Slave Act. (351)

• Fugitive Slave Act: this law made it a federal crime to assist runaway slaves. It also authorized the arrest of escaped slaves even in states where slavery was illegal, and therefore met with vigorous opposition in the North

• Abolitionist, Frederick Douglass urged “forcible resistance.” A former slave himself, Douglass protested that the Fugitive Slave Act made northerners “the mere tools and body-guards of the tyrants of Virginia and Carolina

• In New York and Massachusetts, angry mobs freed runaway slaves who had been taken into custody and helped them on their way to freedom in Canada

• ANTISLAVERY LITERATURE: (351-353)– Abolitionists from the North and the

Midwest used their pens to win people to their cause.

– These men and women hoped that their appeals, which were directed at the general public, would be more persuasive than political speeches and maneuverings.

– Their object was “to change public opinion on the subject of slavery, by persevering [continuing] utterance of truth.”

• ANTISLAVERY LITERATURE: (351-353)– Uncle Tom’s Cabin: (351-

352)• In the early 1850s Harriet

Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel that proved to be particularly significant

• Sections of Uncle Tom’s Cabin were printed in an abolitionist newspaper before published as a finished book in 1852

• ANTISLAVERY LITERATURE: (351-353)– Reactions to Uncle Tom’s Cabin:

(352)• Uncle Tom’s Cabin depicted slavery in

its many forms, from the harsh sugar plantations to the homes of slaveholders to the plight of runaway slaves

• It also showed how slavery broke up African American families

• It helped to justify their feelings that slavery was morally wrong and should be abolished

• Southern audiences hated Uncle Tom’s Cabin; the novel was banned in many parts of the South, where authors quickly wrote other novels that attempted to defend slavery

• THE KANSAS NEBRASKA ACT (354)– The Kansas-Nebraska Act organized the

territories of Kansas and Nebraska on the basis of popular sovereignty – Kansas And Nebraska decide on their own if they are going to allow slavery

– The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise. It allowed the new states formed from the territories to “be received into the Union with or without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission

– Passage of the Act in 1854 renewed southern hopes of expanding slavery but outraged anti-slavery northerners.

– Not everyone opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act solely on abolitionist grounds

– Some critics had Economic motives: if slavery was allowed to spread into these territories it would force out white workers

http://regentsprep.org/regents/ushisgov/themes/immigration/kansasnebraskaact.htm

• BLEEDING KANSAS (355-356)– The Kansas-Nebraska Act

pitted anti-slavery and pro-slavery forces against one another for control of the new territories

– To increase the number of anti-slavery settlers, New Englanders formed the Emigrant Aid Company to help anti-slavery families move to Kansas

– The Pro-Slavery forces countered by urging southerners to migrate to the new territories

• BLEEDING KANSAS (355-356)– Elections in Kansas: (355)

• Some 5,000 pro-slavery Missouri residents crossed into the Kansas Territory

• There were illegal votes cast to decide if Kansas would be free or slave

• The illegal votes cast by the Missouri residents helped elect a pro-slavery legislature in Kansas – You weren’t suppose to vote unless you were a resident of the new territory

• The new governing body immediately passed a code making it illegal to criticize slavery. It also banned newspapers that supported free states, abolitionist journals, and even the sermons of anti-slavery preachers

• The pro-slavery press claimed victory in Kansas• The anti-slavery settlers refused to recognize the

legitimacy of the new Kansas government so they formed the Free State Party and elected their own legislature

• Kansas had two territorial governments – one pro-slavery and the other anti-slavery – COMPETING FOR CONTROL

• BLEEDING KANSAS (355-356)– Violence in Kansas: (355-356)

• Pro-slavery raiders from Missouri attacked several anti-slavery Kansas settlers

• In May of 1856, a pro-slavery mob of more than 700 invaded the town of Lawrence, Kansas, the headquarters of the Free State Party. They destroyed the printing press and the town library and set fire to the Free State Hotel

• In revenge, a group led by abolitionist John Brown attacked a pro-slavery settlement along the Pottawatomie Creek

• The Group dragged five men from their beds and brutally murdered them – CALLED THE POTTAWATOMIE MASSACRE

• The Pottawatomie Massacre enraged southerners, shocked northerners, and sparked more violence in what newspapers began calling “Bleeding Kansas”

• BLEEDING KANSAS (355-356)– Violence in Kansas: (355-

356)• John Brown and his men went

into hiding• Was also violence in the Senate

Chamber of the U.S. Capitol when for two days abolitionist senator Charles Summer of Massachusetts delivered his “Crime Against Kansas” speech.

• Senator Preston Brooks and Senator Andrew Butler fought.

• THE REPUBLICAN PARTY: (356-357)– In 1854 a group of anti-slavery

Whigs and Democrats, together with some Free-Soilers, had organized a party firmly opposed to the expansion of slavery.

– Reviving the name of Thomas Jefferson’s party, they called themselves the Republican Party

• THE REPUBLICAN PARTY: (356-357)– Elections of 1854 and 1856:

(356-357)• The Republican Party Nominated

John C. Freemont to run for president in 1856

• The Republican Party organized a campaign around the slogan “Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Men, Fremont, and Victory!”

• THE REPUBLICAN PARTY: (356-357)– Elections of 1854 and 1856: (356-357)

• The Democrats passed on Franklin Pierce and instead nominated James Buchanan of Pennsylvania for President.

• The Democratic Party adopted a platform that supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act –which organized the territories of Kansas and Nebraska on the basis of popular sovereignty

• Millard Fillmore ran on the American Party Ticket.

• James Buchanan of the Democratic Party wins the Presidential Election of 1856

• The Lecompton Constitution:– Tensions remained high in Kansas.

In 1857, voters elected delegates from the territory’s upcoming constitutional convention.

– Suspecting that pro-slavery forces would rig the elections for delegates to the convention, the anti-slavery forces boycotted the elections

– The Constitutional Convention, which was made up exclusively of pro-slavery delegates, met a Lecompton, Kansas.

– The Delegates drafted a constitution that protected the rights of the Kansas slaveholders.

• The Lecompton Constitution: (357)– The Lecompton Constitution

(Constitution of Kansas) gave the voters of Kansas only the right to decide whether more slaves could enter the territory, not whether slavery should indeed exist in the territory

– Senator Stephen Douglass attacked the Lecompton Constitution, denouncing it as a fraud because it reflected only pro-slavery views; it did not allow the people of Kansas to determine if slavery should exist there or not

– Despite the eventual admission of Kansas as a free-state in 1861, Douglas’s principle of popular sovereignty had been largely discredited