A Nation Torn Apart Over Slavery

   

The North and South had a common heritage of democracy, beliefs, traditions and history, including the common history of the American Revolution and other wars fought against foreign powers. These shared historical memories held them together through difficult times.

 

Nonetheless, significant differences existed in each section of the country.

North – industrialization, urbanization, concerned about profits and productivity. The Abolitionist movement continued to grow until there were over 4,000 local abolitionist societies or groups.

South - agriculture predominated, dominance of cotton, slavery was viewed as essential to the Southern economy and the Southern way of life.

West - growing towns, settlers wanted access tto cheap and free land, restless pioneers were always on the move and desired more land to the west. The question of whether the western territories and new western states would have slavery divided the nation.

 

The North and South clashed politically over the issue of slavery and the admission of new states to the Union as either slave states or free states.

 

The Missouri Compromise

In 1820 Missouri was admitted to the Union. The question of the time: Should it be admitted as a slave state or not? At the time there were 24 Senators from slave states, and 22 from free states in the North. Both the North and the South were concerned about the balance of slave and free states, and the corresponding balance of slave state senators and representatives and free state senators and representatives in congress.

 

Henry Clay, the “Great Compromiser” from Kentucky (with Jesse Thomas from Illinois) proposed the Missouri Compromise to resolve the dispute which was in danger of tearing apart the nation and leading to secession or war.

 

1) Missouri entered the Union as a slave state

2) Slavery was prohibited in Louisiana Purchase north of 36'30' latitude

3) Maine entered the Union as a free state

 

The crisis passed with this compromise. The compromise lasted for 25 years from 1820 to 1846 and held the nation together.

 

Texas - the Lone Star Republic – entered the Unnion as a slave state in 1845. This gave the South a two state majority. The balance was restored when Iowa and Wisconsin joined the Union in 1846 and 1848 as free states. 

 

War with Mexico in 1846

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed in 1848 gave the U.S. a large area of land in the Southwest. The Question of the time: What to do with the land? Should it develop into slave or free states?

 

The Missouri Compromise said slavery was acceptable south of 36'30'. Congress debated this question and the Missouri Compromise no longer was enough to satisfy both Northerners and Southerners.

 

The Wilmont Proviso of 1846 was proposed by David Wilmont, Democratic representative from Pennsylvania. He proposed that slavery be banned in all the lands acquired from Mexico. Southerners like John C. Calhoun from South Carolina disagreed vehemently.

 

Stephen Douglas, Senator from Illinois, supported popular sovereignty, which would allow the people of the territory to decide whether or not they would allow slavery when they entered the Union through voting or legislation passed by representative legislatures in the territories as they moved towards statehood. Of course, African-Americans were not allowed to contribute to the process of decision making.

 

Abraham Lincoln would later say the popular sovereignty was wrong because it was illogical and unjust to use democratic means (voting) to support an undemocratic institution (slavery). Consequently Lincoln opposed the extension of slavery to the territories, but was willing to allow slavery to exist in the older slave states of the South. He believed the President lacked constitutional authority to force the South to end slavery, and he recognized that the “peculiar institution” of slavery was integral to Southern society, culture, and economy and could therefore not be ended abruptly without great social and political upheaval.

 

Major Political Parties

The major parties at this time in United States history were the Democrats, Whigs, Free Soilers, and Republicans. Many Democrats were sympathetic with the claims of the slave states in the South. Free Soilers wanted no slavery in the territories. Their motto was "Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, Free Men." This party was founded by antislavery Democrats and Whigs in 1848. Whigs were the pro-business party with strong support in the North and West. The Republican Party was formed by antislavery Whigs, Democrats, and some Free Soilers, due to the issue of slavery in 1854. Antislavery voters in the North flocked to this party.

 

The fugitive slave law was a source of controversy. It said that state and local officials in the North were responsible for capturing runaway slaves and returning them to their owners. Abolitionists and other anti-slavery Northerners were bitterly opposed.

 

The Compromise of 1850

This compromised was agreed upon after a great debate in Congress over the proposals of Henry Clay. John C. Calhoon was bitterly opposed. Henry Clay was supported by Daniel Webster and Stephen Douglas. Calhoun speaking for the South said slave owners could take their property anywhere, even into free territories.

When California entered the Union in 1850 as a free state this upset the balance of 15 slave and 15 free states. Arguments resulted in Congress.

 

The nation experienced a period of prosperity and growth. Cotton prices increased.

 

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

This Act repealed the Missouri Compromise. Territories above 36'30' could have slavery. Kansas and Nebraska were created on the basis of popular sovereignty.

 

Violent controversy and heated debate ensued, leading to the rise of Abraham Lincoln as a national leader.

 

Lincoln and Douglas engaged in the famous Lincoln Douglas debates as they ran for the Illinois Senate in 1858. Douglas managed to win the election, in part due to his Freeport Doctrine which proposed that the people of the territories could be relied upon to make a democratic decision regarding the issue of slavery.

 

The Race for Kansas

Settlers and speculators rushed in for the best and cheapest land. They ignored the claims of Indians completely. Extremists from the North and South converged on Kansas and conflict resulted. In 1855 there were two different constitutions and governments, one pro-slavery and one anti-slavery.

 

Bleeding Kansas

John Brown, a white fanatical abolitionist launched his raid. The Pottawatomie Massacre resulted after a proslavery mob had burned Lawrence, Kansas and 200 men and women died before Federal Troops took over.

 

Fierce debate in Congress resulted. Preston Brooks, Congressman from South Carolina beat Charles Sumner with a cane in Congress after Sumner had ridiculed a relative of Brooks, Andrew Butler. Members of Congress brought guns and knives with them to work, while Southerners sent Brooks replacement canes.

 

The Dred Scott Decision of 1857

Scott, a Slave was brought from Missouri to Illinois by owner Jon Emerson. They returned to Missouri and Emerson died in 1846. Scott sued for his freedom. The slave claimed he was free in Illinois because Illinois was a free state.

 

Issue - If a slave owner takes a slave to a freee territory is the slave still a slave?

 

The Supreme Court concluded that he was not free. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, one of five southerners on the Court, wrote in his decision that Scott was not a citizen and therefore could not bring suit in a U.S. court. According to Taney, Blacks were “beings of an inferior order” and had “no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” The Missouri Compromise violated the fifth amendment of the Constitution which forbids Congress to deny property without due process of law.

 

Abolitionist were outraged by Taney’s decision.

 

The Election of 1860

Whigs - John Bell of Tennessee

Democrats - John Breckinridge - pro-slavery

Stephen Douglas - popular sovereignty, sympathy for South

Republicans - Abraham Lincoln - not an abolitionist, but believed slavery was wrong and opposed to expansion of slavery in the western territories

 

Lincoln won election with 180 electoral votes, all from free states in the North. The South seceded in 1860, in large part because they were so opposed to Lincoln and feared he would quickly move to abolish slavery in the South even though he had promised the South he would not do so.

 

In 1861, delegates of six of seven seceding states met at Montgomery, Alabama to adopt a Constitution for the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis, a Mississippi planter was elected president. The seceding states were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. President James Buchanan did nothing to stop them.