1. “How to Rip a Country Apart”
From Steve Sheinkin’s Two Miserable Presidents

2. Step 1: Plant Cotton Eli Whitney, 1791 Cotton gin
Cotton production rises—huge profits
“Cotton is King”
Good for Southern plantation owners and Northern factory owners
Bad for slaves
Slaves jumped from 1 million to 4 million from 1820 to 1860

3. Step 2: Grow Apart Slavery rising in the South, dying in the North
Early 1800s, Market Revolution led to huge changes in North while South unchanged
Moving to cities
Working in factories
Tariffs=North loved, South hated

4. Step 3: Keep Your Balance
1819: 22 states total; 11 slave, 11 free
What to do with land west of Mississippi? Slave states or free states?
Missouri Compromise: 1820
Missouri joined as slave state
Maine as free state
Line from southern Missouri border west
North=Free, South=Slave

5. Step 4: Fight Slavery Frederick Douglass Runaway slave
Stole “free papers”: ID proving African American was not a slave
Escaped to Maryland
Became active abolitionist: a movement to end slavery in the United States

6. Step 5: Build a Railroad
Underground Railroad: secret system of routes out of the South to help people escape slavery
Houses where slaves could hide called “stations”
“Conductors” helped people to Canada where slavery illegal
Harriet Tubman
Most famous conductor
Escaped slavery—wanted to go back for her family
Carried out at least 13 rescue missions
Led about 300 people to freedom
Angered South: slaves are property being stolen by Northerners

7. Step 6: Get More Land Manifest Destiny/Waves of Expansion 1845-1853
Now15 free states; 15 slave states
1848—Gold discovered in California; wanted to make it a state quick!
California wanted to be a free state—would upset balance permanently
Talk of Disunion began

8. Step 7: Try to Compromise
John C. Calhoun
Union saved only if North
Stopped helping escaped slaves
Stopped the abolitionist movement
Promise to keep balance between free and slave
William Seward
Slavery will end whether Calhoun likes it or not
Compromise of 1850
Henry Clay’s idea
California admitted as free state
Congress pass the Fugitive Slave Act
Make it easier for slave-owners to capture runaway slaves
Proposed by Daniel Webster, passed Congress

9. Step 8: Chase Fugitives Fugitive Slave Act
Any African American suspected of being a fugitive slave could be captured and brought before a judge
Accused had no right to testify; no right to trial by jury
Judge simply decided if he or she was a runaway
Got $5 for freeing the person; $10 for sending to slavery
Angered Northerners as a cruel and unjust law

10. Step 9: Write Books Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Tried to show horrors of slavery
Forced parents to imagine the torment of losing their child to a slave trader.
Inspired new hatred of slavery in the North
Southern writers fired back
Slaves were well treated and happy
Much better off than factory workers in the North

11. Step 10: Divide Nebraska
Stephen Douglas wanted to divide Nebraska Territory into smaller states
Problem: all land was north of Missouri Compromise line
Proposal: Replace Missouri Compromise with Kansas- Nebraska Act (1854)
Divide in two: Nebraska in North; Kansas in South
Popular sovereignty: let the people in the territories decide if slave or free state
Passed Congress
Abraham Lincoln (Douglas’ rival)
Does a white man have the right to vote on whether he can own a black man? Is that self-government?

12. Step 11: Race to Kansas
Supporters and opponents of slavery flood into Kansas
Beginning of 1856—two governments
Initial vote on slavery won, but due to thousands of Missouri residents voting illegally
“Free-Soilers” held their own election and chose their own government
By May, fighting broke out in Lawrence
800 pro-slavery men chased out Free-Soilers
Northern papers talked of slaughter, though no one was killed
Infuriated Northerners

13. Step 12: Insult Senators Senator Charles Sumner
Gave “Crime Against Kansas” speech
Slammed the pro-slavery army, senators who supported Kansas-Nebraska Act, and personally attacked Andrew Butler
Accused Butler of loving slavery and making fun of the fact that he spit and stammered when he talked
Low blow: Butler had actually suffered from a stroke that left him partially paralyzed

14. Step 13: Hit Him Again! Preston Brooks, cousin of Senator Butler
Beat Sumner over the head with a cane for “libel” against Butler and South Carolina
Became a hero to Southerners
Sent him canes with sayings like, “Hit Him Again!”
Southern reaction stunned Northerners
Mirrored the growing conflict between the North and the South
Like the attack on Sumner, “the conflict between the North and the South was bitter, personal, and a little bit bloody.”

15. Other items of note: “Bleeding Kansas” May 24, 1856
John Brown led the attack
Began as a retaliation against attack on Free-Soilers
Led to fighting between both sides that killed 200 men
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott was a slave whose master lived with him on free soil for several years
Sued for his freedom
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney ruled that Scott was still a slave
Did not have rights of citizen so could not bring case before court
Ruled that slavery allowed in the territories because Congress cannot ban it—Southerners can take their property (slaves) anywhere