The Fugitive Slave Act to Bleeding Kansas

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE  First published in 1852  Sold 300,000 copies in its first year  Reactions in the North and South  Why do some historians see this book as a cause of the Civil War?

 Slave owners could demand the return of slaves and send bounty hunter to return slaves by force.  Federal magistrates and marshals were required to aid in the return of escaped slaves.  Northerners could be compelled to aid in the capture of escaped slaves.  Northern resistance grew in intensity ranging from civil disobedience to violence.

 Unofficial system used to aid escaped slaves find freedom in the North or Canada  Conductors gave food shelter and transportation  Harriet Tubman

 Sec. of War Jefferson Davis sent James Gadsden to purchase land from Mexico  1853 Mexico sold the land to the US for $10 million  Stephen Douglas and the Nebraska territory

 Douglas managed to pass the Kansas-Nebraska Act.  The act split the Nebraska territory forming the Kansas and Nebraska territories  Pro and Anti Slavery supporters crossed the Kansas border  Two separate state governments were elected in Kansas in March 1856

 In 1855 “border ruffians” crossed over from Missouri and illegally voted in the election  Border ruffians attacked the city of Lawrence, Kansas  By 1856 Over 200 people and $2 million in property damage

 Oct. 16, 1859 John Brown, a radical abolitionist from Kansas, tried to seize the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Va.  The raid was defeated by marines led by Robert E. Lee after only 36 hours.  Brown was tried for treason.  Executed on Dec. 2, 1859.

 “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”