Drifting Toward Disunion

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Chapter 19

• Drifting Toward Disunion

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SLAVE REVOLT REVIEW

• When reading about the slave revolts, think about
  how they are altering the mindset of the South,
  and as we continue in Chapter 19, think about why
  John Brown scares them so much after you review
  the slave revolts

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SLAVE REVOLTS

• Slaves resorted to revolts in the 13 colonies and
  later in the southern U.S.
• 250 insurrections have been documented between
  1780 and 1864.
• 91 African-Americans were convicted of
  insurrection in Virginia alone.
• First revolt in what became the United States
  took place in 1526 at a Spanish settlement near
  the mouth of the Pee Dee River in South Carolina.

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SLAVE REVOLTS
Stono County Rebellion

• September 9, 1739, twenty black Carolinians met
  near the Stono River, approximately twenty miles
  southwest of Charleston. They took guns and
  powder from a store and killed the two
  storekeepers they found there.
• "With cries of 'Liberty' and beating of drums,"
  "the rebels raised a standard and headed south
  toward Spanish St. Augustine . Burned houses, and
  killed white opponents.
• Largest slave uprising in the 13 colonies prior
  to the American Revolution.
• Slaveowners caught up with the band of 60 to 100
  slaves. 20 white Carolinians and 40 black
  Carolinians were killed before the rebellion was
  suppressed.

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SLAVE REVOLTS

• Slaves resorted to revolts in the 13 colonies and
  later in the southern U.S.
• Gabriel Prosser
• Denmark Vessey
• Nat Turner

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SLAVE REVOLTS
Gabriel Prosser, (1776-1800), American leader of
an aborted slave uprising, whose intention was to
create a free black state in Virginia. Born near
Richmond, he was the son of an African mother who
instilled in him the love of freedom. Inspired
perhaps by the success of the black
revolutionaries of Haiti, he plotted with other
slaves, notably Jack Bowler, in the spring of
1800 to seize the arsenal at Richmond and kill
whites. On August 30, 1800, as many as 1000 armed
slaves gathered outside Richmond ready for
action. A torrential downpour and thunderstorm,
however, washed away a bridge vital to the
insurrectionists' march at the same time
Governor James Monroe, the future president, was
informed of the plot and dispatched the state
militia against them. Prosser and some 35 of his
young comrades were captured and hanged.
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SLAVE REVOLTS
The leader of an American slave revolt in
Charleston, S.C., Denmark Vesey, b. Africa, 1767,
d. July 2, 1822, had been owned by a slave-ship
captain before he purchased his freedom (1800)
with 600 won in a street lottery. As a freedman
in Charleston, he worked at carpentry, became a
leader of his church, and read antislavery
literature. Determined to strike a blow against
the institution that had victimized him, he
devised an intricate conspiracy for an uprising
in Charleston and vicinity during the summer of
1822. Informers divulged the plot, however, and
35 blacks, including Vesey, were executed.
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SLAVE REVOLTS
Nat Turner Rebellion Nat Turner, a slave owned
by Joseph Travis of Southampton, Virginia,
believed that he had been chosen by God to lead a
slave rebellion. On 21st August, 1831, Turner and
seven fellow slaves, murdered Travis and his
family. Over the next two days and nights,
Turner's band killed around 60 white people in
Virginia. Turner had hoped that this action would
cause a massive slave uprising but only 75 joined
his rebellion. Over 3,000 members of the state
militia were sent to deal with Turner's gang, and
they were soon defeated. In retaliation, more
than a hundred innocent slaves were killed.
Turner went into hiding but was captured six
weeks later. Nat Turner was executed on 11th
November, 1831.
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SLAVE REVOLTS
Arrest of Nat Turner
Tree Nat Turner was hung on
Nat Turner Rebellion
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Slave Revolts
SLAVE REVOLTS
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SLAVE REVOLTS

• Besides slave revolts, slaves resorted to other
  ways to revolt..
• Wouldnt work hard.
• Would sabotage equipment or break tools.
• Sometimes poisoned their masters food.
• Tried to escape

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Books Inflame Passions

• Uncle Toms Cabin The 1852 novel by Harriet
  Beecher Stowe dramatized the slave conditions
• Based on limited factual observation but fired by
  anger over the new Fugitive Slave Law, Stowes
  book was melodramatic and filled with stereotypes
• It was a success both as a book and as a stage
  drama
• It heightened emotional tension in the North and
  the South
• The Impending Crisis of the South By Hinton
  Helper of North Carolina, published in 1857
• It attempted to prove that non-slave-holding poor
  whites were hurt most by slavery
• Published in the North, it stirred emotions in
  both sections

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Bleeding Kansas
Border Ruffians(pro-slavery Missourians)
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Bleeding Kansas

• Northern free-soilers and abolitionists and
  pro-slavery settlers from neighboring Missouri
  flooded into Kansas
• In a disputed election, pro-slavery forces won
  control of the territorial legislature, which
  enacted a severe slave code.
• Free-soilers, in a clear majority, drew up a
  rival Topeka Constitution, which provided for
  ending slavery
• Supporters of the rival governments fought
  pitched battles
• Proslavery raiders burn part of a free-soil town,
  Lawrence.
• Abolitionist John Brown retaliates by leading a
  vicious attack on a settlement at Pottawatomie
  Creek

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The Lecompton Constitution

• Created by proslavery forces- said people could
  vote for the Constitution with slavery or with no
  slavery, not on the whole thing
• If they vote against slavery, a provision would
  protect the owners of slaves already in Kansas.
• Proslavery advocates approve the Constitution in
  1857 when the free-soilers boycott the polls
• New president James Buchanan supports the L.C.,
  but Stephen Douglas throws away any support he
  has in the South and pushes for true popular
  sovereignty
• Compromise is entire Lecompton Constitution is
  put to a vote, and the free-soil voters shoot it
  down
• Kansas stays a territory until 1861.

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Violence in the Senate

• Senator Charles Sumner (Massachusetts) in 1856
  delivered a fiery anti-slavery speech, The Crime
  Against Kansas, including condemnation of Senator
  Andrew Butler (South Carolina).
• Butlers cousin, Congressman Preston (Bully)
  Brooks, beats Sumner with a cane at his Senate
  desk
• House of Representatives doesnt get enough votes
  to expel Brooks, but he resigns and then gets
  overwhelmingly reelected
• Passions in both the North and South are getting
  VERY dangerous

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The Crime Against Kansas
Sen. Charles Sumner(R-MA)
Congr. Preston Brooks(D-SC)
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1856 Presidential Election
vJames Buchanan John C. Frémont Millard
Fillmore Democrat Republican
Know Nothing
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1856 Presidential Election

• American Party (Know Nothings) a nativist third
  party that relied upon xenophobia (fear of
  foreigners) and on the temperance movement
• In 1856 former president Millard Fillmore, the
  Know-Nothing candidate, won over 21 of the
  popular vote and Marylands 8 electoral votes
• The American Party was absorbed by the
  Republicans after 1856
• Republican Party Formed as a coalition in 1854
• At Ripon, Wisconsin and Jackson, Michigan,
  Independent Democrats, Free Soilers, and
  Conscience Whigs united in opposition to the
  Kansas Nebraska bill
• This third party stressed free labor and opposed
  the extension of slavery into the territories
  (Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men)
• In Illinois, Abraham Lincoln returned to politics
  as a Whig but cooperated with Republicans
• John C. Fremont, a military hero, was the first
  Republican presidential candidate in 1856
• To maintain unity, the Democrats nominated James
  Buchanan, who won the 1856 election partly by
  sweeping the South

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Dred Scott v. Sandford

• The Supreme Court With a pro-South majority, it
  became a bulwark for the defense of slavery
• Dred Scott This test case was promoted by
  anti-slavery groups
• Scotts owner, an army surgeon, had taken him to
  posts in a free state in in free territory
• His suit for freedom passed though the Missouri
  (slave state) courts
• Since his new owner lived in New York, the case
  could be appealed to the federal courts
• The U.S. Supreme Court heard the case in 1856 but
  delayed decision because of the presidential
  election (Buchanan was aware of the outcome
  suspicions of a slave power conspiracy were
  revived)

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Dred Scott v. Sandford

• Decision Chief Justice Taneys 1857 decision
  spoke for a 6-3 majority (though others wrote
  opinions). Two Northern Republicans wrote strong
  dissents.
• Taney wrote
• Scott was not a citizen and had no standing in
  court. (Taneys racism was revealed when he
  referred to Negroes as an inferior order)
• Scotts residence in a free state and territory
  had not made him free since he returned to
  Missouri
• Congress had no right to prohibit slavery in a
  territory.
• The Fifth Amendment says Congress cannot deprive
  people of their property without due process of
  law
• This voided an act of Congress (Missouri
  Compromise) for only the second time

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Panic of 1857

• California gold inflates currency
• Overproduction of grain because of Crimean War
• Overspeculation in land and railroads
• The Northeast was hardest hit by the resultant
  two-year depression (further intensifying
  sectionalism)
• South does fairly well due to high cotton prices
  overseas
• Push by the North for a homestead act (give
  settlers 160 acres of land for free if willing to
  risk their own life and health to develop it
  (Passes Congress at 25 cents per acre of land in
  1860 Buchanan vetoes)
• Eastern businessmen fear it will drain away their
  workforce, and Southerners oppose because the
  land will fill up with free-soilers
• Panic also coincides with decreased tariff rate
  in Tariff of 1857.
• Eastern workers and Western farmers were
  attracted to the new Republican party
• Two economic issues for Republicans in 1860
  protection for the unprotected and farms for the
  farmless

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The Lincoln-Douglas (Illinois Senate) Debates,
1858
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Stephen Douglas
the
Freeport Doctrine
PopularSovereignty?
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Lincoln-Douglas Debates

• In Illinois Abraham Lincoln and incumbent Senator
  Stephen Douglas campaigned for the Senate with a
  series of debates in 1858
• Lincoln tried to focus on the Dred Scott
  decisions impact on popular sovereignty
• In the Freeport Doctrine, Douglas responded that
  anti-slavery territories could refuse to enact
  slave codes, no matter what the Supreme Court
  says
• Douglas wins the Senate seat, but at a great
  cost Opposes Lecompton, defies the Supreme Court
  at Freeportcauses the southern Democrats to
  split the party rather than support him.
• Lincoln becomes an overnight celebrity, even
  being mentioned as a possible Republican nominee
  for president in 1860

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Harpers Ferry

• John Brown performed the most incendiary deed in
  1859
• With a small following he occupied the federal
  arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, hoping to
  set off a slave rebellion.
• He had the financial backing of prominent
  abolitionist (the Secret Six)
• Brown was wounded, taken prisoner, quickly tried
  for treason against the state, and hanged at
  Charlestown (Dec. 2, 1859)
• Rumors of insurrection terrified the South
• Viewed as a martyr by Northern abolitionists
• Problem is that moderate Northerners openly speak
  out against Browns exploits, but the South
  concluded that the violent abolitionist view was
  wide-spread in the North

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John Brown Martyr or Madman?
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The 1860 Election Democrats

• Finally split at its 1860 convention in
  Charleston, South Carolina
• When a proposed platform defending slavery was
  defeated, Deep South delegates walked out
• Reassembling in Baltimore in June, the convention
  nominated Stephen Douglas for president with a
  platform of popular sovereignty and against
  obstruction of the Fugitive Slave Law
• The Southerners then met and nominated John
  Breckenridge of KY with a pro-slavery platform,
  extending slavery to the territories and annexing
  Cuba

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The 1860 Election Constitutional Union Party

• A convention dominated by moderates from border
  states, nominated John Bell of Tennessee with a
  reconciliation platform
• The Union, the Constitution, and the Enforcement
  of Laws

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The 1860 Election Republicans

• Republican Party Met in Chicago, Illinois
• Local supporters in the galleries helped Abraham
  Lincoln secure the nomination on the third ballot
• The platform opposed the extension of slavery but
  defended the right of states to control their own
  domestic institutions
• Broad support was gained through planks favoring
  a homestead act, a protective tariff, and
  transportation improvements (Pacific railroad
  paid for by the federal government)

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1860PresidentialElection
Abraham LincolnRepublican
John BellConstitutional Union
Stephen A. DouglasNorthern Democrat
John C. BreckinridgeSouthern Democrat
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1860 Election A Nation Coming Apart?!
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Election of 1860
ELECTION OF 1860

• 303 total electoral votes and 152 to win.

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(No Transcript)
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Secession
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Compromise one more time?

• Senator James Henry Crittenden of Kentucky
  proposes amendments to the Constitution that
  would prohibit slavery north of 3630, but
  protecting it south of that line in all
  territories, including ones that would be
  acquired
• Lincoln rejects this scheme, because he opposes
  the expansion of slavery
• By February 1861, the Confederate States of
  America is created with seven states and
  Jefferson Davis as president