Divisive Politics of Slavery

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Divisive Politics of Slavery
How do the North South differ on Slavery?
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Life in the Antebellum South, 1850s

• Primarily agricultural (Cotton is 57 of exports)

2. Slow industrialization w/ inadequate (not
enough) transportation systems
3. 40 of US pop with 6 mill. whites (350K S.O)
3 mill slaves
4. See slavery as a way of life that must
continue
Life in Northern States, 1850s

1. Primarily industrial-gt European immigrants
   cheap labor

2. Fully industrialized with great
transportation systems
3. 60 of US pop, mostly White, some freed slaves
4. Abolitionists want to see an end to slavery
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Slave-Owning Families (1850)
Question In 1850, the majority of slave owning
families owned how many slaves?
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Southern Population
Question In what states did slaves outnumber
whites? In, which states were slaves over 1/3 of
the population?
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Compromise of 1850

• California other territories want statehood
• Southern States believed CA should vote on
  slavery due to the Missouri Compromise (most
  below 36/30 line)
• North says NO! South threatens secession (leave
  the US)
• Henry Clay creates Compromise of 1850
• 1) California will be a free state, New Mexico
  (below 36/30) Utah (above 36/30) can vote on
  slavery
• 2) Stronger fugitive slave laws will be written

Popular Sovereignty
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Rebelling Against Slavery

• Virginian slave Nat Turner rebels against slave
  owners killing 60 pro-slavery whites. - Turner
  eventually caught
• Slaves escape the South via a network of escape
  routes called the Underground Railroad w/ help of
  conductors like Harriet Tubman
• See map on page 159

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Uncle Toms Cabin, 1852

• Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Exposed the horrors of slavery
• Argued slavery was not just a political issue,
  but also a moral one

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Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) divided the territory
  into two states (both above 36/30 line), allowed
  a vote on Slavery in each
• Violence breaks out in each state as northerners
  and southerners race to settle in the state
  Bleeding Kansas

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Dred Scott vs. Sanford, 1857

• A slave named Dred Scott sues his owner for
  freedom.
• Scott argues that he, with his owner, had
  previously lived in free territories therefore
  had been illegally enslaved.
• Supreme Court ruled against Scott saying he was
  not a citizen could not sue, also, he was
  property, which is protected by 5th Amendment.

Chief Justice Taney
Dred Scott
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Political Parties

• Whigs -gt fail to unite on slavery, fall apart
• Free Soilers-gt against slavery
• Felt that slavery drove down wages of white
  Americans
• Republicans-gt against slavery
• Democrats-gt pro-slavery or pro-popular
  sovereignty

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Lincoln vs. Douglas aka Lincoln-Douglas Debates

• Democratic Party pro-slavery, new Republican
  party is abolitionist
• Illinois Senate race btwn Abraham Lincoln (R)
  Stephen Douglas (D)
• Douglas favors voting on slavery, Lincoln says
  slavery is immoral
• Lincoln wins, two years later he wins Presidency
• Lincoln says he will allow slavery to continue
  but will not allow its expansion into new states
• Southerners want to secede from the union