The Debate Over

SlaveryChapter 15

A. New Land Renews Slavery Disputes

1. The US gained more than 500,000 square miles of land in the Mexican-American War, this renewed the fight over slavery

2. Regional Differences

a.One proposed solution was the Wilmot Proviso which would make all of the new territory free – It died in the Senate

b.Sectionalism became an issue

3. The California Question

a.Most people in CA opposed slavery

b.Admitting CA a free state would upset the balance of power in the Senate

B. Compromise of 1850

1. California would enter the Union as a free state

2. The rest of the Mexican Cession would be federal land with the slavery issue decided by popular sovereignty

3. Texas would give up some land and the government would pay off it’s debt

4.Slave trade would end in Washington D.C. (not slavery)

5. A new fugitive slave act was passed

C. Reactions the the Compromise of 1850a. Opposed by John C.

Calhoun - claimed it would destroy the nation’s balance and lead to Civil War. Asked for the South have the right to secede

b. Daniel Webster was instrumental in getting the bill passed

D. The Fugitive Slave Act

1. Detailsa. Made it a crime to help

runaway slaves & allowed officials to arrest slaves in free areas punishable by 6 months in jail and a $1000 fine

b.Only white people could testify

c. Commissioners earned $5 for setting a slave free and $10 for sending them back

2. Reactionsa.Thousands of northern African

Americans fled to Canadab.Northerners the Fugitive Slave act,

especially the lack of trial by juryc.Most that resisted did so peacefully,

however sometimes violence erupted such as the Anthony Burns Case