CHAPTER 10 Sectional Conflict Intensifies

Main ideas for this chapter:

The question of whether to admit new states to the Union led to new tensions between the North and South over slavery

Resentment over the Compromise of 1850 led to a further increase in sectional tensions

The slavery controversy accelerated both the breakdown of the major political parties and the growth of hostility between the North and South

Many events pushed the nation into Civil War

The Impact of War with Mexico

Acquired a lot of new land out west and down south

Problem raised : __________________________________________

Wilmot Proviso

RESULT: ________________ WERE OUTRAGED

Northern Democrat, David Wilmot said that ________________________________________________________________

Popular Sovereignty

Senator Lewis Cass proposed the idea of popular sovereignty that meant that the _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Effects: - Removed the issue of slavery

________________________________________- Democratic ( ____________________________)- Abolitionists argued that it denied African

Americans their right not to be enslaved

Election of 1848

Split in political parties

Conscience Whigs left Whig Party and joined antislavery Democrats from New York and the abolitionist Liberty Party to form ___________________________________________

Conscience

Whigs: oppose

d slavery

Cotton Whigs:

pro-slavery

Election of 1848

3 candidates- Democrat candidate: Lewis Cass ( popular

sovereignty- new states could __________________ if they wanted slavery or not)

- Free Soil candidate : Martin van Buren – backed Wilmot Proviso – strong stand ___________________________________________

- Whig candidate: Zachary Taylor – ______________ the issue of slavery ( but many believed he supported it)

- Who do you think won? Why??

Lewis Cass Martin van Buren Democrat Free Soil

Election of 1848

Zachary Taylor won

The Search of Compromise

Discovery of gold in California brought over 80,000 new settlers in 1849 – “Forty-Niners”

California needed a strong government to maintain order because of ________________________________________

CA had to apply for statehood Issue : slave state or free state?

The Compromise of 1850

Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky created Compromise of 1850 to try to resolve issue

- CA admitted to the Union as a free state

- The rest of the Mexican Cession would have no restrictions on slavery

- TX /New Mexico border was solved which gave more land to New Mexico, but federal government took on TX debt

Slave trade was abolished in Washington D.C., but not slavery

Congress could not interfere with the domestic slave trade

The federal government passed a new fugitive slave law to help southerners capture escaped slaves

Compromise of 1850

Although the compromise attempted to please both the North and the South, there was still great debate

1. Senator Calhoun defended South2. Senator Daniel Webster defended North

Eventually the Compromise of 1850 was compromised on even more within Congress and passed, but did not contain any permanent solution to the issue of slavery

Section 2: Mounting Violence

Resentment over the Compromise of 1850 led to a further increase in sectional tensions

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin about enslaved African Americans and his overseer Depicts slavery, but also depicts African

Americans in a loving and generous light. It changed Northern outlook on African Americans and slavery

S. tried to have the novel banned Historians say this controversial book was

one of causes of the Civil War

The Fugitive Slave Act

African Americans accused of being a runaway were arrested and brought to a federal commissioner

Any testimony by a white witness saying the African American was a slave would send the slave back south

No trial, could no testify If you didn’t help capture a fugitive , you were

arrested Greatly angered North, caused people who

were indifferent about slavery to want to end it now because of the fugitive slave laws

Underground Railroad

Secret organization of people who helped slaves escape slavery ( from the South to the North )

Led by Harriet Tubman

Transcontinental Railroad

New settlers out West wanted route to connect East to West to make travel easier and cheaper

Had to purchase land from Mexico to build southern route – Gadsden Purchase

North had to organize territory to connect to E. to W. ( will become Nebraska)

Southern senators agreed to ratify new state of Missouri Compromise ( made Missouri slave state, and Maine a free state to balance Union) was repealed and slavery was allowed in new territory

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Northern Senator Stephen Douglas proposed to divide the new region in half (North: Nebraska, South: Kansas )

Repealed Missouri Compromise Bill passed in 1854 = North outraged

Bleeding Kansas

First battleground between those favoring extension of slavery and those opposing it

People rushed in from all over to vote ( illegally) for a pro or anti-slavery legislature in Kansas

On May 21, 1856, border ruffians ( armed Missourian) attached Lawrence – wrecked newspaper presses, plundered shops and homes – specifically the home of the elected free-state governor

In May 1856, abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner ( MA) accused pro-slavery senators of forcing Kansas to become a slave state. He singled out Senator Andrew P. Butler (SC). In retaliation, his cousin accused Sumner of libel ( lying). Then Brooks caned Sumner, leaving him severely injured. This only further divided the South and the North.