Tensions Between North and South

Transcription

1 The conflict between the Southern and Northern states did not start suddenly with the attack on Fort Sumter, and it long predates the 1860s. An unavoidable conflict had been long postponed. From at least the beginning of the 19 th century, Southern landowners were becoming increasingly worried that a strong federal government posed a threat to the institution of slavery, and several events testify to the growing tensions between free and slave states In 1820, Congress passed the Missouri Compromise, which created Missouri as a slave state, and Maine as a free state, in order to preserve the balance of power between North and South. However, in 1854, the Missouri Compromise was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which stipulated that the issue of slavery would be decided by the settlers of each territory, an idea known as popular sovereignty. The Act was passed despite the best efforts of Abraham Lincoln, who railed against it in his Peoria Speech. After the passage of the bill, violence erupted between pro- and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas, in an event that foreshadowed the battles of the Civil War. According to the 1857 Supreme Court ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, Congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery in the territories, so the Missouri Compromise was rendered unconstitutional. This ruling pleased Southern slaveholders, and angered their Northern opponents. The Northern anti-slavery perspective was made clear in the Wilmot Proviso of 1846, in which David Wilmot, a Pennsylvania Congressman, proposed that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should exist in lands conquered in the Mexican-American War. Wilmot was not necessarily an abolitionist, but he was dismayed by the thought of having free white workers compete for jobs against slave labor. The Proviso passed the House, but not the Senate, and never became law. 1 Photograph of Henry Clay 2 Portrait of Dred Scott by Louis Schultze 3 Portrait of David Wilmot 1

2 Credits: Forbes, Robert Pierce. The Missouri Compromise and Its Aftermath: Slavery & the Meaning of America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, Varon, Elizabeth R. Disunion!: The Coming of the American Civil War, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, Grade Level Content Expectations: Grade 8 U5.1.4: Describe how the following increased sectional tensions o The Missouri Compromise o The Wilmot Proviso o The Compromise of 1850 including the Fugitive Slave Act o The Kansas-Nebraska Act and subsequent conflict o The Dred Scott v. Sandford decision o Changes in the party system Questions: 1. What was the primary source of tensions between the North and South? 2. Why was the Missouri Compromise repealed, and why was it rendered unconstitutional? 3. Why did Northerners fear the expansion of slavery? Links to Internet Websites: 2

3 Wikimedia Commons Henry Clay, a Kentucky congressman known as the Great Compromiser, played a leading role in brokering the Missouri Compromise. Historians say that the Compromise helped delay the Civil War for decades. 3

4 Missouri Historical Society In 1847, the slave Dred Scott first went to court to sue for his freedom. Ten years later, the Supreme Court ruled that all people of African ancestry could not become U.S. citizens, and therefore could not sue in federal court. It also rules that the federal government could not prohibit slavery in its territories. 4

5 Public Domain Congressman David Wilmot introduced the Wilmot Proviso in the House of Representatives in 1846, hoping to ban slavery in any territory acquired in the Mexican War or in the future. Wilmot was dismayed by the thought of having free white workers compete for jobs against slave labor. The Proviso passed the House, but not the Senate, and never became law. 5