Legislation Regarding Slavery

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Legislation Regarding Slavery
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The Wilmot Proviso

• Stated that states acquired by the U.S. would not
  be open to slavery
• neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall
  exists in any.. lands won from Mexico
• Both Democrats and Whigs split over the question
  of whether to limit the expansion of slavery

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Free-Soil Party

• United in support of the Wilmot Proviso to form
  this political party
• Promised free soil, free speech, free labor, and
  free men
• Main goal was to keep slavery out of the western
  territories
• Nominated Martin Van Buren

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Popular Sovereignty

• Policy stating that voters in a territory, not
  Congress, should decide whether or not to allow
  slavery there

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Compromise of 1850

• Proposed by Henry Clay
• California would be admitted as a free state
• New Mexico and Utah would use popular
  sovereignty, or citizens voting on an issue
• The slave trade would be ended in Washington,
  D.C.
• Texas would give up its claims to New Mexico in
  return for 10 million
• Fugitive Slave Act had to be enforced

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Compromise of 1850

• South (Calhoun) liked the idea because of popular
  sovereignty
• North (Webster) liked the idea because California
  was a free state

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Fugitive Slave Act, 1793

• Stated that runaway slaves that are captured must
  be returned to bondage
• Citizens that assisted a fugitive slave could be
  fined or imprisoned

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Resistance Against the Fugitive Slave Act

• A few northern states struck back, passing
  personal liberty laws
• This nullified the Fugitive Slave Act and allowed
  the state to arrest slave catchers for kidnapping

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Resistance Against the Fugitive Slave Act
Continued

• Harriet Tubman
• Led over two dozen trips to the north helping
  slaves escape to freedom
• Also known as Black Moses
• Harriet Beecher Stowe-
• Published Uncle Toms Cabin
• Now gave slavery a face that most Americans had
  never seen and made it a moral issue

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Douglas Presses for Popular Sovereignty

• Senator Douglas introduced a bill in 1854 to set
  up a government in the Nebraska Territory
• The territory would be organized under the idea
  of popular sovereignty

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Debates of the Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Douglas amended the bill to divide the territory
  into Kanas and Nebraska
• Intended
• Kansas- slave state
• Nebraska- free state
• Northerners pointed out it would nullify the
  Missouri Compromise

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Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Created potential for slavery in Kansas and
  Nebraska territories by allowing for popular
  sovereignty

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Two Governments Established

• By 1855, proslavery settlers had set up a
  territorial government near the boarder of
  Missouri, a slave state
• Northern abolitionists rushed to Kansas
• Border Ruffians coerced local voters to vote for
  proslavery candidates
• Legislature then passed proslavery laws
• By 1856, there were two different governments in
  Kansas

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Bleeding Kansas

• Clashes between the two rival groups which led to
  hundreds of deaths
• Reporters characterized the territory as
  Bleeding Kansas

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Statehood for Kansas

• Congress did not know what to do about admitting
  Kansas into the union since the elections had
  been rigged
• Kansas submitted 4 constitutions, but Congress
  did not accept them as a state until 1861

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The Whig Party Disintegrates

• Millard Fillmore (the last Whig President)
  angered the South by supporting California
  entering as a free state
• Northerners left the party due to his support of
  the Fugitive Slave Act
• Nominated Winfield Scott, but lost to the
  Democrats

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Other Political Parties

• Know-Nothings or American Party
• Members responded I know nothing when
  questioned about their nativist organization
• Later divided over the issue of slavery expanding
• Republican Party
• Started in 1854
• Took supporters from other political parties that
  were antislavery

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Dred Scott

• Missouri slave who sued for freedom
• His master had taken him to the free state of
  Illinois and Wisconsin Territory, where slavery
  was outlawed (Missouri Compromise)
• Between 1834 and 1838 Scott had lived mostly on
  free soil

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Dredd Scott Decision

• Supreme Court ruled that slaves were not citizens
  but property, and therefore could not sue for
  freedom
• Ruled the Missouri Compromise was
  unconstitutional
• Chief Justice Roger B. Taney led the court

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Dredd Scott Decision
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Lincoln-Douglas Debates

• A series of debates in 1858 between Abraham
  Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in order to be
  elected to the U.S. Senate
• Lincoln wanted to stop slave expansion
• Douglas favored popular sovereignty

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Lincoln-Douglas Debates

• Douglas issued the Freeport Doctrine
• Stated that the people of a state have the right
  to outlaw slavery because of popular sovereignty
  despite what the Supreme Court ruled
• Douglas won the election by a slim margin

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The Election of 1860

• Candidates for President
• Abraham Lincoln- slavery should not be allowed in
  the territories
• Stephen Douglas- popular sovereignty
• John Bell- federal government should support
  slavery and defend the union
• John Breckinridge- federal government must
  protect slavery

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Lincoln Wins the Presidency!

• Lincoln wins without winning a single southern
  state
• After election is confirmed, South Carolina
  summoned a state convention- December 20, 2860
  they seceded
• Deep southern states soon followed
• February 1861- Confederate State of America
  formed
• Formed own constitution, but stressed the
  importance of freedom for each state and
  guaranteed the protection of slavery

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War Begins

• Lincoln takes office on March 4, 1861
• Fort Sumter was one of the only forts left in the
  Unions control, and also one of the most
  important
• Lincoln had to decide if he would send in
  supplies to the fort or let the Confederates take
  the fort
• He sends in supplies and Confederates attack and
  the fort had been captured on April 15, 2861