2. VOCABULARY Compromise of 1850 – Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 –
Civil War –

4. And the story continues. . .
Slave codes are passed by many southern states to discourage black slaves from rebelling or running away. A slave, Nat Turner goes on a killing spree, murdering his master’s family and 60 other white southerners. Over 200 innocent slaves are killed in the aftermath.
Abolitionists took many forms (newspaper editor, public speaker and “conductors”) to help encourage slaves to escape to the North. The Underground Railroad helped many slaves to freedom.
With the tariffs, a separation between the North and South becomes wider. The economy of the South depends on cotton and slave labor. The economy of the North depends on industry and paid labor.
As more people move west, and more territories becoming states, the issue of slavery heats up! The Missouri Compromise is passed keeping the balance of power in the Senate. A new political party emerges called the Free Soil Party. Their main goal was to keep slavery OUT of the western territories.

5. For several decades the Missouri Compromise handled the slavery issue well. Despite the ongoing tension between North and South, both slave and free states entered the Union peacefully.
Up until 1850, states continued to be added to the Union in pairs, one free and one slave. This balanced the number of senators from each type of state.

6. In 1848, when gold was found in California, people from all over the world arrived to California causing a population boom!
It was only couple of years later in 1850, that California asked to become a state in the Union (since they had reached the required population needed).

7. The Missouri Compromise only regulated slavery in the Louisiana territory, not the territory acquired from Mexico.
When California requested admission to the Union as a free state in 1850, it threatened the balance of power in the Senate (think: more free states than slave states!)

8. Congress is divided into two branches
Congress is divided into two branches. The House of Representatives and the Senate. In the Senate, each state receives two votes.
In 1849, there were 15 slave states and 15 free states in the nation, if California was admitted as a free state, then the free states would have MORE votes (more power!) than the slave states!

9. California did not want to enter the Union as a slave state since it had no slaves! But if it didn’t enter the Union as a slave state, the balance of power in the Senate would be broken.
Furthermore, it seemed quite possible that Oregon, Utah, and New Mexico might also join the Union as free states.
Many southerners feared that the South would be hopelessly outvoted in the Senate.

10. Henry Clay had won the nickname “the Great Compromiser” for working out the Missouri Compromise in the 1820s.
Now, nearly thirty years later, the 73-year-old Clay was frail and sickly. Still, he pleaded for the North and South to reach an agreement.
Henry Clay warned if the states could not once again compromise, the nation could break apart.

11. John C. Calhoun of South Carolina prepared the South’s reply to Henry Clay.
Calhoun was dying of tuberculosis and could not speak loudly enough to address the Senate.
He stared defiantly at the northern senators while Senator James Mason of Virginia read his speech.

12. Calhoun refused to compromise
Calhoun refused to compromise. He insisted that slavery be allowed in the western territories.
Calhoun also demanded that fugitive (run away) slaves be returned to their owners in the South.
He wanted northerners to admit that southern slaveholders had the right to reclaim their “property.”

13. If the North would not agree to the South’s demands, Calhoun told the Senate,
Everyone knew what Calhoun meant. If an agreement could not be reached, the South would secede (leave) from the Union!

14. Webster supported Clay’s plea to save the Union and spoke after Calhoun. Webster said,
Webster feared that the states could not separate without a civil war.
Civil war = a war between people of the same country.

15. Like many northerners, Webster believed that slavery was immoral and evil. But having the South leave the United States, essentially tearing the country in half, however, he believed was worse.
To save the Union, Webster was willing to compromise with the South. The South wanted northerners to be required to return fugitive run-away slaves back to their southern owners.

16. Henry Clay gave more than seventy speeches pleading to the north and south to reach a compromise. He eventually became too sick to continue.
Stephen Douglas, a senator from Illinois, took up the fight for him.
Douglass tirelessly led the fight to get each part of Henry Clay’s plan, called the Compromise of 1850, through Congress.

17. It allowed California to enter the Union as a free state.
It divided the rest of the Mexican Cession into the territories of New Mexico and Utah. Voters would decide (popular sovereignty) if it becomes a slave or free state.

18. A strict fugitive slave law was created.
The slave trade was ended in Washington D.C.
It settled the border dispute between Texas and New Mexico.

19. Most northerners had ignored the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793.
Fugitive slaves often lived as free citizens in northern cities without fear of being returned.
The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was harder to ignore.

20. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 required:
All citizens to help catch run-away slaves.
People who let fugitives escape would be fined $1,000 and jailed for 6 months.
Special courts were set up to handle cases of runaways.
Fugitive = a person who has escaped from a place or is in hiding, especially to avoid arrest or persecution.

21. = = Judge receives $5.00 Judge receives $10.00
Allow accused runaway slave to go free.
Judge receives $5.00 =
Send an accused runaway slave back to the South.
Judge receives $10.00 =

22. The Fugitive Slave Law made anti-slavery Northerners very angry!
The new laws practically forced northerners to catch runaway slaves. It made citizens who believed slavery was wrong feel as if they were now part of the slave system.
In many Northern cities, anti-slavery crowds tried to free fugitive slaves from their captors.

23. The United States had reached a compromise
The United States had reached a compromise. Still, it did nothing to ease the tensions between the North and South because neither side got everything that it wanted.
The new Fugitive Slave Law was especially hard for Northerners to accept.
Each time the law was enforced, it convinced more Northerners that slavery was wrong.