Causes of the Civil War:Part 2

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Stephen Douglas

Chicago

Kansas-Nebraska Act• Southern Congressmen rejected a

transcontinental railroad starting in Chicago

WHY?No way!! We want it to start in New

Orleans!

Kansas-Nebraska Act• Senator Stephen

Douglas wanted to open up Kansas & Nebraska to slavery in exchange for southern support for a Chicago railroad.

Kansas-Nebraska Act1854: Law divided the remainder of the

Louisiana Purchase into two territories in which slavery would be determined by popular

sovereignty

Kansas-Nebraska Act• Reactions:

– “Gross violation of a sacred pledge”: removed Missouri Compromise line

– Northern abolitionists outraged

“Bleeding Kansas”

POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY

SOUTH

NORTH

“Bleeding Kansas”• Rush by pro/anti-slavery groups to

get people to Kansas to vote

• Pro-slavery majority set up government

• Anti-slavery group set up their own government

• Both sides armed; violence breaks out- 50+ killed

“Bleeding Kansas”• Sack of Lawrence

– May 1856: pro-slavery group tried to arrest anti-slavery leaders; destroyed town

“Bleeding Kansas”

“strike terror in

the hearts of the

pro-slavery

people”

JOHN BROWN

• Pottawatomie Massacre– John Brown’s anti-

slavery group killed 5 pro-slavery men in revenge

Violence in Congress• Senator

Charles Sumner gave speech called “The Crime Against Kansas”

“Against this Territory…a crime has been committed…It is the rape of a virgin territory, compelling it to the hateful embrace of Slavery; and it may be clearly traced to a depraved longing for a new slave state, the hideous offspring of such a crime, in hope of adding to the power of slavery in the National Government.”

—Charles Sumner, “The Crime Against Kansas”

Violence in Congress–Insulted Senator Andrew Butler in speech

“The Senator from South Carolina…has chosen a mistress to whom he has made his vows, and who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight I mean the harlot, Slavery. For her, his tongue is always profuse in words. Let her be impeached in character, or any proposition made to shut her out from the extension of her wantonness, and no extravagance of manner or hardihood of assertion is then too great for this Senator.”

—Charles Sumner, “The Crime Against Kansas”

Sumner Butler

Violence in Congress• Congressman

Preston Brooks, nephew of Butler, took revenge on Sumner (May 1856)