Road to the Civil War

Road to the Civil War

SWBAT analyze the significance of the Missouri Compromise (1820), the Wilmot Proviso (1846), the Compromise of 1850, Henry Clay’s role in the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision (1857), and the Lincoln-Douglas debates (1858)

​Slavery: The Deep Divide
The United States may have started out with only thirteen states, but it soon began to grow. As each new state joined the union, people wanted to know if it would be a slave state or a free state. The issue of slavery was slowly driving a wedge through the United States. Abolitionists believed slavery was wrong. They wanted to abolish slavery completely, or at least keep it from spreading by making sure all new states would be free states. Most slave owners relied on slave labor to run their businesses. They believed they would lose their wealth without slavery, and they wanted new states to allow it. Each side was determined not to let the other side get any advantage.

Balancing Act
There was one thing keeping the slavery issue in check: balance in government. This was achieved by always making sure there was an equal number of free and slave states. This balance was critical! Each state got to send two people to the U.S. Senate. An equal number of senators from free and slave states meant that neither side had an advantage for getting laws passed. By 1819, there was a delicate balance of 11 free states and 11 slave states. But then, Missouri—a territory that allowed slavery—applied for statehood. Missouri’s application triggered an uproar. If that state were admitted, the balance would be gone.

Multiple Select

Why was it "critical" to maintain the balance between the number of "slave" states and "free states?"

Choose ALL that apply

• To keep an equal number of Senators from free states and from slave states.

• To keep an equal number of House of Representative members from free states and from slave states.

• So that neither side had an advantage of getting laws passed.

• So that the population counts from the North and South would remained balanced.

1819: What's the Situation?

• Trying to maintain balance between number of slave & free states.

• Northwest Ordinance banned slavery north of the Ohio River, but what about land to the west?

• 1819 Alabama & Missouri request statehood as slave states. Alabama will create balance after admission of Illinois, but Missouri...

• *During the debate - Maine requests statehood

Poll

Should Missouri be admitted to the U.S. as a slave state?

• YES

• NO

Poll

What should be done about slavery in the Louisiana Territory?

• Allow slavery throughout the territory.

• Ban slavery throughout the territory.

• Split the territory and allow slavery in the southern section.

Henry Clay

💡💡💡💡💡💡💡💡💡💡

The Missouri Compromise (1820)

• Admit Missouri as a slave state

• Admit Maine as a free state

• Ban slavery in Louisiana Territory north of 36°,30' (except in Missouri)

30 years later...
After months of debate, the Missouri Compromise saved the day: Missouri would be admitted as a slave state, and a new state—Maine—would be created as a free state. To avoid future problems, they also mapped out which parts of the rest of America’s territory could become slave and free states. For almost 30 years, America kept the balance as more states joined the Union. But by 1850, the U.S. had grown all the way to the Pacific coast. This new land was not subject to the Missouri Compromise, and debate over whether slavery would be allowed in the new territory threatened to tear the nation apart.

During the Mexican-American War debates over whether any new lands acquired by the U.S. should allow slavery began. When California applied for statehood in 1849, there were 15 slave states and 15 free states. California wanted to be a free state, but that would upset the balance.

1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

💡David Wilmot💡

"Slavery should be prohibited in any lands acquired from Mexico."

-The Wilmot Proviso

💡John C. Calhoun💡

"Neither Congress nor any territorial government has the right to ban slavery from a territory."

​Underground Railroad

Add picture& info

1848: What's the Situation?

• Wilmot-Proviso (ban slavery in Mexican Cession lands) - passed the House, but not the Senate. Why??

• Free-Soil Party created by Anti-Slavery Democrats, Whigs, & others. "Keep slavery out of the West."

• California requests statehood as a free state.

• What about slavery in Utah & New Mexico?

• Southerners are asking Congress for a new, stricter Fugitive Slave Law

Poll

Should California be admitted as a free state?

• YES

• NO

Poll

What should be done about slavery in Utah & New Mexico territories.

• Allow it

• Ban it

• Allow slavery in New Mexico, but not in Utah.

• Allow the people who live in the territories decide.

Poll

Should Congress pass a strict Fugitive Slave Law

• YES

• NO

Henry Clay

💡💡💡💡💡💡💡💡💡💡

Compromise of 1850

• California admitted as a free state

• New Mexico & Utah open to slavery by popular sovereignty

• Slave Trade banned in Washington DC

• Strict Fugitive Slave Law passed

Multiple Select

Which of the following were components of the Compromise of 1850? Choose ALL that apply.

• California admitted to the Union as a free state.

• Slavery banned north of 36' 30

• Fugitive Slave Act passed

• Slave Trade banned in Washington DC

• Maine admitted to the Union as a free state

​The new Fugitive Slave Act penalized citizens for helping runaway slaves and required them to cooperate with the process of returning slaves to their owners.

1854: What's the Situation?

• Senator Stephen Douglas (Illinois), needs support from both northern & southern congressmen to get a transcontinental-railroad built (with a stop in Illinois)

• Douglas proposes creating Kansas & Nebraska Territories and opening them up to slavery via POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY

Poll

Should Kansas & Nebraska be open to slavery by popular sovereignty?

• YES

• NO

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

• Divided the Louisiana Territory into Kansas & Nebraska Territories

• The issue of slavery to be voted on by the people who live in the territory (popular sovereignty)

Multiple Choice

The Kansas-Nebraska Act overturned which previous act?

• Missouri Compromise

• Wilmot Proviso

• Compromise of 1850

The Republican Party

• Founded in 1854 by Conscience Whigs, Anti-Slavery Democrats, & Free- Soil Party members a a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Main goal: keep slavery from spreading west

Bleeding Kansas

People rushed into Kansas and formed 2 competing governments, one pro & one anti-slavery. In may 1856 800 pro-slavery settlers invaded anti-slavery capital of Lawrence and burned, looted, destroyed property. 3 days later, John Brown gathered 6 followers, went to pro-slavery Pottawatomie and killed 5 pro-slavery men.

Brooks vs Sumner

In Congress, Anti-slavery senator Charles Sumner voiced his negative opinion about Kansas and South Carolina Senator Andrew Pickens Butler. Representative Preston Brooks (Butler's nephew) attacked Sumner in the Senate chambers with his walking stick.

Dred Scott: What's the Situation?

• Dred Scott, a slave, was brought into a Illinois & Wisconsin (where slavery is illegal) by his owner

• Upon returning to Missouri, Scott sued for his freedom claiming that his time in the free territories legally made him no longer a slave

• His case was taken before the Supreme Court

Poll

Should Dred Scott be free?

• YES

• NO

Dred Scott Decision (1857)

• In an opinion written by Chief Justice Roger Taney, the Court ruled that black people "are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word 'citizens' in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States." 

Multiple Choice

According to the Dred Scott decision, black people are not:

• Free

• Citizens

• Hard Working

• Slaves

"Upon these considerations it is the opinion of the Court that the act of Congress which prohibited a citizen from holding and owning property of this kind in the territory of the United States north of the line therein mentioned is not warranted by the Constitution and is therefore void; and that neither Dred Scott himself, nor any of his family, were made free by being carried into this territory; even if they had been carried there by the owner with the intention of becoming a permanent resident."

• Roger B. Taney, Dred Scott Decision

Multiple Choice

The Dred Scott decision uses the phrase "property of this kind."

To what type of property does this refer?

• Slaves

• Land

• Cotton

• Houses

Dred Scott Decision (1857)

• African Americans are NOT citizens

• Dred Scott remains a slave

• Congress cannot ban slavery in ANY territory (slaves are property)

• The Missouri Compromise is unconstitutional

To be continued...

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)

A series of debates during the 1858 Illinois Senate race in which the main topic was: SLAVERY

Multiple Select

When it came to their beliefs on slavery, which of the following statements are TRUE? Choose all that apply

• Lincoln wanted slavery to be abolished.

• Douglas wanted to stop the spread of slavery.

• Lincoln wanted to stop the spread of slavery.

• Douglas wanted to let the people of each state decide about slavery.

• Lincoln wanted to let the people of each state decide about slavery.

The Election of 1860

Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for president, wins the 1860 election without winning a single state in the South. Many in the South feel powerless...they feel their rights won't be protected by the new administration. So...

Secession (1861)

South Carolina votes to formally leave the United States, followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas and finally, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The states form a government and call themselves: The Confederate States of America

Open Ended

In his first inaugural address, President Abraham Lincoln said,

"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail (attack) you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it... We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies."

What do you think he meant by this statement?