Note Taking Study Guide SLAVERY, STATES RIGHTS, AND WESTERN EXPANSION

Transcription

1 SECTION 1 SLAVERY, STATES RIGHTS, AND WESTERN EXPANSION Focus Question: How did Congress try to resolve the dispute between North and South over slavery? Organize people, groups, and ideas by their position on slavery. Position on Slavery For Against Compromise Wilmot Proviso Zachary Taylor Martin Van Buren Millard Fillmore 77

2 SECTION 1 Section Summary SLAVERY, STATES RIGHTS, AND WESTERN EXPANSION READING CHECK What was popular sovereignty? VOCABULARY STRATEGY Find the word component in the underlined sentence. Use context clues to help you figure out the meaning of component. READING SKILL Categorize Which two political parties supported the policy of popular sovereignty? The North and the South developed different ways of life. The North developed busy cities, embraced technology, and built factories. The South remained an agrarian, or agricultural, society. By the mid-nineteenth century, cotton cultivation and slavery had spread across the Deep South. Americans questioned whether slavery should be allowed in the new territories west of the Mississippi River. The balance of power between the North and the South depended on this decision. The Wilmot Proviso would have banned slavery from the lands won in Mexico, but the Senate voted it down. Members of the new Free-Soil Party wanted to limit slavery in the territories. Democrats and Whigs hoped to attract voters from all sides of the slavery debate. They supported popular sovereignty. This policy stated that the voters in a territory should decide whether to allow slavery there. The Whig candidate Zachary Taylor won the election. He was a hero of the Mexican-American War and a slave-owner. When gold was discovered in California in 1848, people came from all over the world. In 1849, they drafted a constitution and asked that California be admitted to the Union as a free state. The admission of California would tip the balance in favor of the free states. The South threatened to secede, or break away from the Union. Senator Henry Clay put forth a number of compromise resolutions. Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas steered each component of Clay s plan through Congress separately. The legislation based on Clay s proposals became known as the Compromise of California was admitted as a free state. Popular sovereignty was applied to the territories taken from Mexico. Also, a new Fugitive Slave Act forced citizens to help catch runaway slaves. The Compromise of 1850 ended the crisis for the moment. However, it laid the foundation for conflict in the future. Review Questions 1. What differences were there in the ways of life of the North and the South? 2. How did Congress try to settle the slavery issue in 1850? 78

3 SECTION 2 A RISING TIDE OF PROTEST AND VIOLENCE Focus Question: How did the Fugitive Slave Act and the Kansas- Nebraska Act increase tensions between the North and the South? A. Use the concept web below to record the effects of the Fugitive Slave Act on different groups of people. Vigilance committees Free blacks Fugitive slaves Fugitive Slave Act Slave owners Personal liberty laws Abolitionists 79

4 SECTION 2 A RISING TIDE OF PROTEST AND VIOLENCE Focus Question: How did the Fugitive Slave Act and the Kansas- Nebraska Act increase tensions between the North and the South? B. Use the chart below to trace the series of events that led up to and followed the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Douglas introduces bill to allow popular sovereignty in Kansas Territory. Kansas-Nebraska Act assumes Nebraska will become a free state and Kansas will become a slave state. Kansas is finally admitted as a free state in

5 SECTION 2 Section Summary A RISING TIDE OF PROTEST AND VIOLENCE The new Fugitive Slave Act enraged many northerners. It required citizens to help return runaway slaves. Some northern states passed personal liberty laws. These laws allowed the state to arrest slave catchers for kidnapping. Northern white bystanders refused to intervene to help slave hunters. A network known as the Underground Railroad helped runaway slaves escape to the North or to Canada. One of its most courageous conductors was former slave Harriet Tubman. She was known as Black Moses for leading her people out of bondage. In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom s Cabin. The novel was a condemnation of slavery. Congress tried repeatedly to resolve the question of slavery. The result was a jumble of contradictory policies. In 1854, Senator Douglas introduced a bill to divide the Nebraska Territory into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska. The people of each territory would decide whether to be slave or free when they applied for statehood. The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed slavery to spread to areas that had been free for more than 0 years. Most people who came to Kansas Territory were farmers looking for land. However, Kansas also attracted settlers with political motives. By 1855, there was a proslavery government near the Missouri border. An antislavery government was set up in Topeka. In 1856, the Topeka government petitioned Congress for statehood. On May 21, 1856, a proslavery group raided the antislavery town of Lawrence, Kansas. The abolitionist John Brown quickly retaliated. With his sons and a few friends, Brown killed five proslavery settlers. During the fall of 1856, violent outbreaks occurred around Lawrence. Reporters called the situation Bleeding Kansas. People saw that popular sovereignty could not solve the slavery question. Kansas joined the Union as a free state in READING CHECK What was the Underground Railroad? VOCABULARY STRATEGY Find the word intervene in the underlined sentence. What does intervene mean? You can use word parts to figure it out. The prefix inter- means between. The root -vene means to come. Use these clues to help you figure out what intervene means. READING SKILL Understand Effects What effects did the Fugitive Slave Act have on African Americans? Review Questions 1. How did northerners show their disapproval of the Fugitive Slave Act? 2. What was the outcome of the Kansas-Nebraska Act? 81

6 SECTION POLITICAL REALIGNMENT DEEPENS THE CRISIS Focus Question: What developments deepened the divisions between North and South? Use the timeline below to record significant political events. Early 1850s Whig Party disintegrates Republicans nominate Frémont for President John Brown leads raid on Harpers Ferry

7 SECTION Section Summary POLITICAL REALIGNMENT DEEPENS THE CRISIS Millard Fillmore was the last Whig President. He angered the South by supporting California s entry into the Union as a free state. Northerners left the party because he supported the Fugitive Slave Act and popular sovereignty. By the mid-1800s, an increase in immigrants was changing the country. As a result, an anti-immigrant movement began. It was called the Know-Nothings because its members pretended to know nothing when questioned about their group. By 1855, they had formed the American Party. It soon split over the issue of slavery in the western territories. Antislavery zeal gave rise to the new Republican Party in It grew rapidly in the North. In 1856, Democrat James Buchanan won the presidential election, supported by the large majority of southerners. Then, in 1857, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of a Missouri slave, Dred Scott, who had sued for his freedom. The Court ruled that slaves and their descendants were property. Therefore, they were not entitled to sue in the courts. It also ruled that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional because it was illegal for Congress to deprive an owner of property. In 1850, a series of debates between two candidates for an Illinois Senate seat attracted attention. Republican Abraham Lincoln opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act and its implicit support for the expansion of slavery. His rival, Stephen A. Douglas, promoted popular sovereignty as a solution to regional tensions. Douglas won the election by a slim margin. Both men believed that the slavery issue had to be resolved within the framework of the law. Abolitionist John Brown felt no such constraints. He got recruits to mount an armed assault on slavery. In the fall of 1859, they set out to seize the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown hoped local slaves would join a revolution to destroy slavery. The effort failed. Some of the rebels were killed, and some escaped. Brown s attack deepened the division between the North and the South. Review Questions 1. How did John Brown s raid affect the debate about slavery? READING CHECK Why was the Dred Scott decision important? VOCABULARY STRATEGY Find the word implicit in the underlined sentence. Ask yourself what kind of support the Kansas-Nebraska Act gave to the expansion of slavery. Use this strategy to help you figure out what implicit means. READING SKILL Sequence Look at your timeline. What do the dates and events tell you about the relationship between the North and the South? 2. How was Abraham Lincoln s position on slavery different from Stephen Douglas s position? 8

8 SECTION 4 LINCOLN, SECESSION, AND WAR Focus Question: How did the Union finally collapse into a civil war? Fill in the cause-and-effect chart below to show the events that led to secession. Causes South worries that northern radicals may try to eliminate slavery in original southern states. Events Lincoln wins the election without a single southern electoral vote. Effects South Carolina secedes. Confederates defeat Union at Fort Sumter. 84

9 SECTION 4 Section Summary LINCOLN, SECESSION, AND WAR As the presidential election of 1860 approached, anxiety ran high. Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis convinced Congress to limit federal control over slavery in the territories. He believed that the Constitution prevented Congress from interfering with slavery in states where it already existed. During the 1860 presidential election, the Democrats split into two parties. Northern Democrats supported Stephen A. Douglas who believed in popular sovereignty. Southern Democrats supported Vice President John C. Breckinridge. He wanted to expand slavery into the territories. The Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln. They wanted to end slavery in the territories. They stipulated that there should be no interference with slavery in the states. Lincoln won the election. However, he did not win any electoral votes from the South. After Lincoln was elected, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Six other states quickly followed. In February 1861, they set up the Confederate States of America. The Confederate constitution stressed state independence and protected slavery. The Confederacy wanted to win the support of Britain and France. Therefore, it did not allow new slaves to be imported. The Confederacy chose Jefferson Davis as President. Kentucky Senator John Crittenden tried to compromise with the South. He proposed a new constitutional amendment. If it had passed, the Crittenden Compromise would have allowed slavery in western territories south of the Missouri Compromise line. In his last weeks in office, President Buchanan told Congress that he could not prevent secession. In his inaugural address, Lincoln said he would not interfere with slavery in states where it existed. He promised there would be no war unless the South started it. When South Carolinians fired on Fort Sumter, a Union fort guarding the harbor at Charleston, President Lincoln called for volunteers to fight. READING CHECK What was the Crittenden Compromise? VOCABULARY STRATEGY What does the word stipulated mean in the underlined sentence? Circle the word below that is a synonym for stipulated. denied specified READING SKILL Identify Causes and Effects Why did the constitution of the Confederate States of America prevent new slaves from being imported? Review Questions 1. What was Lincoln s position on slavery during the presidential campaign of 1860? 2. What events led to the start of the war? 85