The South Seceeds

Open Ended

What was the Missouri Compromise of 1820?

​The South Secedes

Lesson 2.6

Learners can...

• identify how political parties broke apart and developed over the issue of slavery

• identify the Republican Party Platform of 1860 and Lincoln's position regarding slavery.

• Explain the reasons given by Confederate states for secession

Vocabulary

• Free Soilers, Freeport Doctrine, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Know-Nothing Party, popular sovereignty

• Pottawatomie Massacre, Republican Party, Whig Party

Essential Question

How did differences among political parties lead to the secession movement?

• Stephen Douglas a Senator from Illinois (D). wanted the transcontinental railroad to be built.

  • Said it would help the economy

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Transcontinental Railroad

Open Ended

Can you think of any issues with building a transcontinental railroad?

• the railroad would go through territories that were not states.

• Brings up the question

  • If these territories become states, would they enter as free states? Or states that allowed slavery?

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Issues with building the railroad

Stephen Douglas's Proposal

• The unorganized territory would be split into 2 parts.

  • Kansas & Nebraska

• Settlers in each region would vote on if slavery would be allowed.

  • Popular sovereignty- means that people are the authority in a government and are the rightful power to make laws their votes.

Douglas's Proposal continued.

• If his proposal passed, the 1820 Compromise line would no longer stop the spread of slavery.

• Abolitionists & others opposed his bill due to fear of slavery spreading to the west.

• His proposal passed as the Kansas-Nebraska Act ( May 30, 1854).

Draw

Circle the territories that were required to be free states upon entry into the Union before the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas–Nebraska Act.

• Abolitionist & Free Soilers sent groups of people to settle in Kansas, so they would vote to keep slavery out of Kansas and therefore make it a free state.

  • Free Soilers-political party that opposed slavery, but was primarily concerned with protecting the land ownership rights of free White people

Kansas

• Elections were held in 1855 for the territorial government to write a constitution.

• When this happened, citizens of Missouri came to Kansas to vote illegally. This allowed a pro-slavery government to take control of Kansas.

• Anti-slavery citizens set up their own government in Kansas as well as wrote their own constitution.

Two governments in Kansas

Violence in Kansas

• Sacking of Lawrence ( 1854)- Massachusetts settlers came to Kansas

  • Violent fights between proslavery and antislavery groups continued for 2 years.

  • May 2, 1856- proslavery groups attacked the abolitionist newspaper, a hotel, and several homes in the town.

• This sparked more violence.

• Kansas would get the name " Bleeding Kansas".

Open Ended

Why was their violence in Kansas?

• Violence in Lawrence, Kansas got national attention, which led to increasing tension in Congress. ( Sentate)

• Preston Brooks from Carolina ( proslavery) beat Charles Sumner from Massachusetts(antislavery) on the Senate Floor with a cane because of a speech he made about Lawrence.

• Charles Sumner suffered a brain injury from the beating that took him 3 years to heal from.

• Each Senator was praised a hero in their regions.

Violence in Congress

John Brown

• John Brown

  • Abolitionist

  • Born in Ohio, but lived in Massachusetts, New York, and Crawford County, PA.

  • Religious

  • Conductor on the Underground Railroad.

    • In PA alone, it's estimated he helped 2,500 freedom seekers escape slavery.

• John Brown and two of his son's moved to Kansas by 1855 in support of the Free Soilers and having Kansas been a free state.

• Brown and his two sons retaliated for the Sacking of Lawrence by killing 5 proslavery settlers who were involved in the attacks on May 24th and 15th, 1856.

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John Brown & the Pottawatomie Massacre

John Brown continued.

• John Brown also led other attacks in Kansas. He had remined nonviolent in his efforts to end slavery until the Pottawatomie Massacre.

• Brown was able to avoid being captured for these events.

• In 1859, he'd lead a rebellion among enslaved people at Harper's Ferry ( Present-Day, West Virginia).

Multiple Choice

Which event marked the change in John Brown's abolitionist activities from nonviolent to violent?

• 
  the Pottawatomie Massacre

• the beating of Senator Sumner

• The Sacking of Lawrence

• the attack at Harper's Ferry

A change in Political Parties

• Occurs after Kansas-Nebraska Act & "Bleeding Kansas"

• Democratic Party split.

  • Northerners who opposed slavery (Republican Party)

  • Southerners who supported slavery

• Democrat Party nominated James Buchanan ( PA) for the Presidential Nominee.

• Party chose him because he was not outspoken about the expansion of slavery.

• Political experience:

  • House of Representatives & Senate.

  • Secretary of State

  • Ambassador to Russian and the U.K

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Election of 1856

• Republican party was formed in 1854.

• Abolitionist, Free Soilers, and the Whig Party all supported the Republican party.

• Goal was to prevent slavery from expanding westward.

• Senator, John C. Fremont was the nominee for President

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Election of 1856 continued.

• Know-Nothing Party- political party in 1850s that focused on labor rights, opposing immigration (people who were Catholic & people from China)

• Millard Filmore was nominated for this party in the election

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Election of 1856

Match

Match the political party with the description that best describes how it was affected over the issue of slavery.

• Southern members and Northern members in Congress disagreed over Kansas-Nebraska Act

• attracted new members who opposed slavery from other parties

• Membership was divided over slavery and weakened the influence of the party

Democratic Party

Republican Party

Whig Party

• Democratic Party

• Republican Party

• Whig Party

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• self-educated lawyer in Illinois

• US House of Representatives ( 1846)

• Was a member of the Whig Party, but left due to their antislavery position.

• House Divided" speech.

Republican Party -Abraham Lincoln

• From Illinois

• Author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act

Democrat Party- Stephen A. Douglas

1858 Senator Race

Open Ended

Read the following excerpt from the House Divided Speech. “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.

Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new—North as well as South.” Practice the Sourcing Analysis skills we discussed and Contextualization.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

• Took place from August-October 1858 and was a serious of 7 debates.

• Debates lasted HOURS!

• Douglas argued:

  • Lincoln's antislavery policies were radical and would lead to the collapse of the nation.

  • Defended belief that popular sovereignty

• Lincoln argued:

  • slavery was immoral

  • popular sovereignty proved to be inefficient

    • cited violence in Kansas

• Both candidates did not fully support enslaved people becoming citizens.

• Douglas won the election and became Senator of Illinois

Race to the Senate

Multiple Select

Which answers describe Lincoln's view of slavery during the Lincoln–Douglas debates?

Select all that apply.

• immorality of slavery

• no citizenship for African Americans

• racial superiority of white people

• From Kentucky

• Wanted to preserve slavery

John B. Breckenridge-Southern Democrat Party

• From Tennessee

• Loyal to the Constitution to unite political divisions

John Bell- Constitutional Union (Whigs + Democrats)

​1860 Presidential Election

Draw

Circle who won the Presidential election of 1860.

As you are looking at the map, notice what territories voted for who.

So, what happens next?

• South was angry that Lincoln had won the election. They say it as an act of wary & was afraid he'd abolish slavery.

• During the election, Lincoln said he'd keep slavery where it was but wanted to prevent the spread to new states.

• Before Lincoln was inaugurated, 7 Southern Slaves seceeded

  • South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.

• Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina would vote to leave the Union shortly after.

• These 11 states made up the Confederate States of America ( Confederacy) started in 1861 and through the Civil War.

• Border states stayed in the Union, but continued slavery.

  • Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and West Virginia.

    • However, many from these states enlisted in the Confederate Army.

• Missouri state government split into two.

• West Virginia split from Virginia

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continued.

​​President- Jefferson Davis, who was a former Senator from Mississippi

Vice President- Alexander H. Stephens, who was a former Georgia Govenor.

Confederate States of America

Confederate Constitution

• Did not allow any state to outlaw slavery

• Counted enslaved persons as 3/5ths a person to determine representation in Congress

• Said new states that joined the Confederacy had to allow slavery.

Open Ended

What were TWO reasons the South seceeded from the Union following Lincoln's inauguration ?

Sentence Starter: One reason the South left the Union was.....