17.2 Moving Closer to Conflict pp. 545-551

Objectives: Consider why the Kansas-Nebraska Act caused bloodshed. Investigate how the Dred Scott decision affected slaveholding.

Review 1. What legislation was introduced to outlaw slavery in all territory acquired from Mexico? 2. Define sectionalism— 3. Which Michigan senator is best known for introducing the notion of popular sovereignty? 4. Define popular sovereignty— 5. __________________’s application for statehood touched off a long and bitter sectional debate. 6. Which South Carolina senator warned that the South might secede? 7. Define secede— 8. Who was known as the “Great Compromiser”? 9. Who guided Clay’s compromise bills through and won Senate approval for all of them? 10. List the parts of the Compromise of 1850.

A. The Fugitive Slave Act (pp. 545-546) After 1850, it was no longer enough for a runaway slave to reach the North. Under the new Fugitive Slave Act, anyone caught aiding fugitive slaves could be fined $1,000 and jailed for six months. Northerners were now required by law to assist slave catchers in returning fugitives to their owners in the South. Slaveholders sent agents, offered rewards, or traveled north themselves to hunt down those who had run away.

B. Uncle Tom’s Cabin (p.547) Watching fugitives being brutally seized and driven back into slavery convinced more people of the evils of slavery. A new novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, called Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), brought the cruel story of slavery to an even wider audience, moving them to tears and anger. It became the bestselling book of the era.

C. The Kansas-Nebraska Act (pp. 547-548) In 1854 Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act because he wanted Southern support for a railroad originating in Chicago. The act called for two new territories, Nebraska and Kansas, where the issue of slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty (the people living there). The Kansas-Nebraska Act was controversial because it canceled the Missouri Compromise and allowed slavery in an area long considered free.

D. “Bleeding Kansas” (p. 549) The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act started a race to win Kansas for one side or the other. The New England Emigrant Aid Society helped Free-Soilers move to places like Lawrence, Kansas, while hundreds of proslavery Border Ruffians came from Missouri to cast illegal ballots in “Bleeding Kansas.” After proslavery settlers burned the town of Lawrence, John Brown, a fanatical abolitionist from the Northeast, led a group that retaliated by murdering several proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek.

E. Violence in the Senate (p. 549) In the U.S. Senate, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts made an insulting speech denouncing South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler as a supporter of slavery in Kansas. The speech enraged Butler’s nephew, South Carolina representative Preston Brooks, who two days later approached Sumner at his Senate desk and beat him savagely with a cane. Northerners regarded the injured Sumner as an antislavery martyr, while in the South Brooks was viewed as a defender of Southern honor.

The Dred Scott Decision: the worst Supreme Court ruling ever!

F. The Dred Scott Decision (pp. 549-550) In the 1830s a Missouri army doctor moved his household, including slave Dred Scott, to the free state of Illinois. In 1846 Dred Scott sued for his freedom claiming that living in a free territory had made him a free man. But in 1857 Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that Scott had no right to sue because African Americans were not citizens. Taney also ruled that slaves were property protected by the Constitution and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.

Review 11. What legislation made it a crime to help runaway slaves? 12. What best-selling novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe swayed more Northerners than ever against slavery? 13. What 1854 legislation outraged Northerners by effectively canceling the Missouri Compromise and allowing slavery in areas long considered free? 14. Which Kansas town became a Free-Soil stronghold before it was sacked and burned by proslavery settlers? 15. What were drifters from Missouri who crossed the Kansas border to vote illegally for a proslavery government called? 16. Which fanatical abolitionist led a group that murdered several proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek (Kansas)? 17. Because of numerous incidents of violence and lawlessness, Americans began referring to the Kansas territory as “____________ _____________.” 18. Who savagely beat Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in retaliation for an insulting antislavery speech? 19. Who sued for his freedom on the grounds that living in a free territory had made him a free man? 20. List three important rulings in the Dred Scott decision.