1. Chapter 19: Drifting Toward Disunion

2. The Debate over Slavery continues
Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Toms Cabin in 1852 selling millions of copies
Awakened passions of the North against slavery
Southerners believed the portrayal of slavery was wrong and unfair
People in great Britain sympathized with Uncle Tom in the story and it deterred many from supporting the South
Hinton R. Helper writes “The Impending Crisis of the South” in an attempt to prove that whites were really the ones being hurt by slavery, not blacks
Published in the North, both books were banned in the south but were widely read in the North
Both books deepen the wedge between the North and South

3. Controversy in Kansas
Northerner's pour into Kansas hoping to turn it into a free state under the idea of popular sovereignty
Southerners are outraged
Southerners called “border ruffians” flood the polls on election day and vote for Kansas to become a slave state
Free-Soilers (Northerners) in defiance set up their own government in Topeka Kansas
Two governments were thus erected, one illegal Free government in Topeka and another fraudulent government in Shawnee (Slave)
In 1856, violence erupts in Kansas over what the issue of slavery and what government is in power

4. Bleeding Kansas & John Brown
In response, abolitionist John Brown leads a group of followers to Pottawatomie Creek and kills 5 pro slavery supporters
By 1857 Kansas had enough people to apply for statehood.
Slavery advocates create the Lecompton Constitution which said people were only allowed to vote for the constitution with slavery or without slavery
If passed without slavery, slaveholders in the state would be protected
Free-soilers boycotted the polls and the Constitution was approved with slavery

5. Bleeding Kansas
President James Buchanan supported the South and the Lecompton Constitution
Stephen Douglas refused to accept the fraudulent vote saying it wasn’t true popular sovereignty and called for another vote
The Free Soilers then storm the voting booths and the Lecompton Constitution fails, thus keeping Kansas a territory until 1861
Democratic Party is divided over the issue

6. “Bully” Brooks and His Bludgeon
Senator Charles Sumner (anti-slavery) and Preston S. Brooks (pro-slavery) get in fight on the Congress floor
Brooks beats Sumner with a cane to a bloody pulp
Southern Congressman cheer him on as others watch
Sumner follows the event with a speech titled “ The Crime Against Kansas”
Read by thousands, Spurs support for the North.

7. Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott was a slave whose master took him north into free states where he lived for years
His master dies and he sues his new master for his freedom
Claimed he had been In free territory and was therefore free
He won and the Missouri Supreme court freed him
His new master appealed and the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the decision

8. Dred Scott Outcomes Supreme Court Rules… Supreme Court also Rules…
No slave could be a citizen
Legislature/Congress cannot outlaw slavery because it would go against the 5th amendment saying that a persons property cannot be taken without due process of law
Supreme Court also Rules…
The Missouri Compromise had been unconstitutional due to the second point listed above

9. Dred Scott Reaction Infuriated northern abolitionists against slavery
Northern defiance increased
People in the South celebrate
The slavery battle now favored the South
South had a Southern President, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution on its side

10. Lincoln Douglas Debates
Abraham Lincoln (Republican nominee for senate) challenged Stephen Douglas to a series of debates in 1858
Lincoln: “Suppose the people of a territory should vote down slavery. The Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision had decreed that they could not. Who would prevail, the Court or the people?
The answer to this question by Douglas came to be known as the Freeport Doctrine
“No matter how the supreme court ruled, slavery would stay down if the people voted it down.

11. Significance of the Debates
Lincoln loses the senate seat in the upcoming election but wins a moral victory
Received national attention and pushed Lincoln into the spotlight
Becomes a potential Republican nominee for president

12. Murderer or Martyr?
John Brown planned to invade the south and start a slave rebellion