1. Slavery and Westward Expansion

2. Main Idea  The spread of slavery became the preeminent political issue of the 1850s  The proposals, laws, and compromises that defined the decade will ultimately lead to Civil War

3. Wilmot Proviso  Proposal  any territory gained from Mexico should be closed to slavery  David Wilmot  Penn. Democrat in House of Rep.  Southerners = outraged  Forbidding slavery in the west threatened slavery everywhere  Passed the House; Senate refused to vote  Calhoun  Congress had no right to ban slavery in territories

5. Popular Sovereignty  Citizens in the territories should decide whether to permit slavery  Settlers vote on the issue  Proposed by Lewis Cass  Michigan senator  Northerners idea  Believed they would settle most of the new territories & ban slavery

6. Free Soil Party  Combination of anti-slavery Whigs, anti-slavery Democrats, and the abolitionist Liberty Party  Conscience Whigs  unhappy with Zach Taylor’s presidential nomination  Taylor = slaveholder  Opposed Cotton Whigs  northern party members who supported slavery  Democrats  unhappy with Lewis Cass’ presidential nomination  supported Martin van Buren  “Free soil, free speech, free labor, free men.”  Mostly wanted to preserve western land for white men

8. Election of 1848  Lewis Cass- Democrats  Supported popular sovereignty  Promised to veto Wilmot Proviso  Martin Van Buren- Free Soil  Anti-slavery in territories  Supported Wilmot Proviso  Zachary Taylor- Whigs  Avoided the issue (The Great Silence)  Focused on his military feats

9. Cass- Democrat

10. Van Buren-Free Soil

11. Election results  Free Soil Party received no electoral votes, but deprived Cass of 36 in NY  Taylor defeated Cass by exactly 36 electoral votes

12. The California Question  By 1849, about 80,000 “forty-niners” rushed to California after gold was discovered  More than enough people to apply for statehood  California drew up a constitution which forbid slavery and applied for statehood as a free state  Southerners said if CA was admitted, they would leave the union (secede)

14. The Great Debate  Henry Clay came out of retirement to help resolve the California question w/ compromise  Calhoun opposed Clay’s resolutions  Died the following summer  President Taylor opposed Clay as well  Died unexpectedly  VP Millard Fillmore becomes POTUS  Supported the compromise  Illinois Senator, Stephen Douglas, replaces Clay who was exhausted  Divided compromise into smaller bills  GOT IT PASSED

16. The Compromise of 1850  North gets:  California admitted as a FREE state  Slave trade is abolished in Washington DC  NOT SLAVERY  South gets:  Stricter Fugitive Slave Law  Slavery issue will be decided by popular sovereignty in Utah & New Mexico territories

17. Fugitive Slave Act of 1850  All runaway slaves must be returned to masters  “slave catchers” could just say an African-American was an escaped slave  AA had no rights to testify in court  could not defend themselves  Federal commissioners ruled on whether person was an escaped slave or not  Paid $10 to rule person was a slave  $5 if they said the person was free  Federal marshals forced to help “slave catchers”  Any citizen who refused to cooperate  jailed

19. The Underground Railroad  Secret system of routes & safe houses that led runaway slaves to freedom in the North  IT WAS NOT UNDERGROUND. IT WAS NOT A RAILROAD.  “Conductors”  people who helped slaves escape  Gave shelter, food, & money to start new life  Runaway slaves = “passengers”  Levi Coffin  most famous safe house  Over 2,000 AA stopped at Indiana house  Moved to Cincinnati, Ohio & helped another 1,300 escape thru Kentucky

22. Harriet Tubman  Most famous conductor of UGRR  Born into slavery in Maryland  Age 13  overseer fractured her skull after she tried to save another slave from punishment  Escaped in 1849  Nicknamed “Black Moses”  Made 19 trips back into south to help runaways  Helped more than 70 slaves to freedom  Never lost a “passenger” to slave catchers

24. Uncle Tom’s Cabin  Best selling novel of 19 th century  Uncle Tom- Main Character  Good Christian slave who stands up for his beliefs no matter the punishment  Depicts slavery in its truest form  Cruelty of slave owners/ overseers  Breaking up of slave families/runaways  Kindness of some masters as well  Changed Northern perceptions of slavery  Considered to be a cause of the Civil War

26. Kansas-Nebraska Act  Stephen Douglas proposed bill intended to organize territory west of Missouri for the new Transcontinental RR  Undo Missouri Compromise & allow slavery into region  Divide territory into 2 parts  North  Nebraska  South  Kansas  Popular sovereignty used to determine legality of slavery  Nebraska  intended to be free  Kansas  intended to be slave  Passed in Congress in 1854 despite massive opposition

27. “Bleeding Kansas”  Both Anti-slavery northerners & Pro-slavery southerners called on settlers to move into territory and vote on slavery issue  Effectively became a settlement race  March 1856  Kansas had 2 governments  Violence was common between the 2 groups  Lawrence, KS  pro-slavery “border ruffians” plunder and burn the anti-slavery town  End of 1856  200 people dead; $2 million of property destroyed

29. Caning of Charles Sumner  May 1856  Mass. Senator Charles Sumner delivers anti-slavery speech  Singled out Andrew P. Butler of South Carolina  Preston Brooks, House of Rep. & Butler’s cousin, savagely beats Sumner w/ cane  Sumner severely injured  couldn’t work for 3 years  Southerners consider Brooks a hero  Brooks convicted of assault…  Fined $300 & received no prison time  Incident further intensified sectional rivalry over slavery