1. The Union in Peril
Protest, Resistance and Violence

2. Protest, Resistance and Violence
Essential Question
Main Themes
Sectionalism
Slavocracy
When did the North and the South hit the point of no return?

3. Objectives
Describe the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act and how abolitionists defied it
Describe how Douglas thought popular sovereignty would prevent the spread of slavery
Describe the violence that occurred in Kansas in the fight over establishing slavery

4. The Underground Railroad
Participants generally organized in small groups to maintain secrecy because individuals knew some connecting "stations" along the route. To reduce the risk of infiltration, conductors knew only their part of the operation and not of the whole scheme. Escaped slaves would move north along the route from one way station to the next.
Southern newspapers were often filled with pages of notices soliciting information about escaped slaves and offering sizable rewards for their capture and return. Federal marshals and professional bounty hunters known as slave catchers pursued fugitives as far as the Canadian border

5. Harriet Tubman
Born a slave in Dorchester County, Maryland, Harriet Tubman escaped to Philadelphia in 1849, then returned to Maryland to rescue her family. Slowly, one group at a time, she brought relatives with her out of the state, and eventually guided dozens of other slaves to freedom. Traveling by night and in extreme secrecy, Tubman "never lost a passenger".
Harriet Tubman –
In honor of her efforts to rescue family and friends from slavery, William Lloyd Garrison nicknamed her "Moses.” Despite this, Tubman's missions to Maryland remained virtually unknown, and her identity was a carefully guarded secret.

6. “I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”
Harriet Tubman

8. The Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act was the most controversial part of the Compromise of It required that all escaped slaves to be returned to their masters and that citizens of free states had to cooperate. 
Police were required to arrest people suspected of being a runaway slave on as little as a sworn testimony of ownership. The suspected slave could not ask for a jury trial or testify on their own behalf. Any person aiding a runaway was subject to six months’ in jail and a $1,000 fine. Officers who captured a fugitive slave were entitled to a cash bonus
Slave owners needed to supply an affidavit to a Federal marshal to capture an escaped slave. Since a suspected slave was not eligible for a trial, the law resulted in the kidnapping of free blacks into slavery.
The Act adversely affected the prospects of slave escape, particularly in states close to the North.

10. “The colored men’s rights are less than those of a jackass
“The colored men’s rights are less than those of a jackass. No man can take away a jackass without submitting the matter to twelve men in any part of this country. A black man may be carried away without any reference to a jury. It is only necessary to claim him, and that some villain should swear to his identity. There is more protection there for a horse, for a donkey, or anything, rather than a
colored man.”
Frederick Douglass

11. 12 Years a Slave
With demand for slaves high, African Americans in their prime working and reproductive years were seen as valuable commodities. Former slaves and free blacks were sometimes kidnapped and sold into slavery. Two types of kidnapping methods were employed: abduction and trickery.
Solomon Northup -
The slave trader James H. Birch, was arrested and tried, but acquitted because D.C. law prohibited Northup as a black man from testifying against white people.
In New York his northern kidnappers were located and charged, but the case dropped when Washington, D.C. was found to have jurisdiction.

12. Free Papers Certificates of Freedom – (free papers)
It was prudent for Blacks to file papers attesting to their free status with the county deeds office in order to protect them from kidnappers.
The Fugitive Slave Law brought the issue home to anti-slavery citizens in the North. Where before many in the North had little or no opinions or feelings on slavery, this law seemed to demand their direct assent to slavery, and it galvanized Northern sentiments against the institution. 
Moderate abolitionists were faced with the choice of defying what they believed to be an unjust law, or breaking with their own consciences.

13. The North Fights Back Personal Liberty Laws –
Many Northern states provided guarantees of jury trial, authorized severe punishment for illegal seizure and perjury against alleged fugitives, and forced state authorities to recognize claims to fugitives.
Personal Liberty Laws were designed to make a legal system more fair for all people and to ensure the safety of freedmen and escaped slaves without employing the controversial tactic of nullification.
Southern states would later point to Personal Liberty Laws as evidence that the North was out to end slavery and as justification for secession.

14. “I never would obey it. I had assisted thirty slaves to escape to Canada during the last month. If the authorities wanted anything of me, my residence was at 39 Onondaga Street. I would admit that and they could take me and lock me up in the Penitentiary on the hill; but if they did such a foolish thing as that I had friends enough on Onondaga County to level it to the ground before the next morning.”
Reverend Luther Lee

15. Abolitions Grow in Numbers
Inspired by her opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) to highlight slavery’s evils. Southerners thought the book was an attack on their way of life.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin –
Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century (besides the Bible). It is credited with fueling the abolitionist cause in the 1850s. In the first year, 300,000 copies were sold in the US, 1 million in Britain. 
When Abraham Lincoln met Stowe at the start of the Civil War, Lincoln declared, "So this is the little lady who started this great war.”

16. “He declared that the gold made in it was distilled from human blood, from mothers' tears, from the agonies and dying groans of gasping, suffocating men and women, and that it would sear and blister the soul of him that touched it.”
Harriet Beecher Stowe

17. Democrats Choose Pierce
As the 1852 presidential election approached, Democrats were divided over slavery. It was expected that the 1852 Democratic National Convention would be deadlocked.
Due the lack of a strong Southern candidate, Democratic leaders expected that the party would compromise on a lesser-known Northern candidate who held views acceptable to the South. New Hampshire Democrats coalesced around Pierce, a former member of Congress who had served as a brigadier general in the Mexican- American War, as a potential compromise nominee.
To broaden his potential base of southern support as the convention approached, Pierce wrote letters reiterating his support for the Compromise of 1850, including the controversial Fugitive Slave Act.

18. Death of the Whigs
Rejecting incumbent president Fillmore, the Whigs nominated General Winfield Scott. Unable to unify their factions, the convention adopted a platform almost indistinguishable from the Democrats, including support of the Compromise of The lack of differences reduced the campaign to a bitter personality contest and helped to dampen voter turnout in the election to its lowest level since 1836
Scott was harmed by the lack of enthusiasm of anti-slavery northern Whigs for the candidate and the pro-compromise platform; Southern Whigs were even less enthusiastic about Scott, since they feared that his administration would be dominated by anti-slavery northerners.
The Democrats had a popular slogan: “the Democrats will pierce their enemies in 1852 as they poked them in 1844.” In the Congressional elections, the Democrats increased their majorities in both houses.

20. Pierce Takes Office Franklin Pierce – (Democrat 1852-1856)
Pierce was the youngest man to be elected president to that point at
In his inaugural address he hailed an era of peace and prosperity at home and urged an assertion of U.S. interests in its foreign relations, including the acquisition of new territories. Avoiding the word "slavery", he emphasized his desire to put the subject to rest and maintain a peaceful union. He alluded to his own personal tragedy of losing his sonny Benny in a train accident a week before he took office, "You have summoned me in my weakness, you must sustain me by your strength."

21. Presidential Profile: Pierce
1. Pierce lost his only son Benny a few weeks before his inauguration, leaving him without a moral compass during his presidency. He mostly allowed his cabinet and Democrats in Congress to dictate his agenda.
2. Pierce supported the Kansas Nebraska Act, which hurt his credibility, made the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico and failed in his quest to annex Cuba
4. In perhaps the saddest post-presidency in US History, he descended into alcoholism and died a social recluse.

23. The Ostend Manifesto
The victory of the Mexican-American War stimulated the spirit of Manifest Destiny. Cuba was prized by Southerners who saw it as the most desirable slave territory available. 
Provoked by American ships dangerously close to Cuban shores, Spanish officials seized an American ship, the Black Warrior, in President Pierce wanted to provoke a war with Spain over Cuba.
Ostend Manifesto -
Northerners were outraged that another President had was being controlled by the Slavocracy. They successfully blocked the plan.

24. Pacific Railroad
Though the U.S. owned California and Oregon, getting there was difficult. The sea route was too long and the wagon route was dangerous. The only real feasible solution lay in a transcontinental railroad.
Transcontinental Railroad –
The availability of millions of acres of farmland made it necessary to create infrastructure to allow settlement. Railroad interests were eager to start operations since they needed farmers as customers.
Democrats wanted a Southern route originating in New Orleans. Pierce sent minister to Mexico James Gadsden to purchase more land.

25. The Gadsden Purchase Gadsden Purchase – (1853)
The financially-strapped government of Antonio López de Santa Anna agreed to the sale, which netted Mexico $10 million
After the devastating loss of territory, Santa Anna calculated it was better to receive payment rather than have the territory simply seized
The South now appeared to have control of the location of the transcontinental railroad. The North realized that to counter this plan with an Northern route to California, they would have to organize the territory of Nebraska into a state as quickly as possible. Their solution was a bill the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

27. The Kansa-Nebraska Act
As settlers poured Nebraska, and commercial and political interests called for a transcontinental railroad through the region, pressure mounted a quick statehood vote. Organizing the territory was necessary for settlement as the land would not be surveyed nor put up for sale until a territorial government was authorized
Senator Stephen A. Douglas proposed a bill to organize the territory and let local settlers decide whether to allow slavery, effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820, as most of land in question was north of the parallel.
Two new territories would be created: Kansas and Nebraska Territory. The expectation was that the people of the Nebraska would not allow slavery, while the people of the Kansas would.

28. “We have settled the slavery question as far as we are concerned; we have prohibited it in Illinois forever; and in doing so, I think we have done wisely, but when we settled it for ourselves, we exhausted all our power over that subject. We have done our whole duty, and can do no more. We must leave each and every other State to decide for itself the same question. Let Maine take care of her own negroes without interfering with Illinois, and Illinois will not interfere with Maine.”
Stephen A. Douglas

29. Douglas Pressures Pierce
Kansas Nebraska Act – (1854)
Douglas believed that slavery was ill suited for the Great Plains region, and believed that voting would result in free status. He underestimates the tension over slavery.
Douglas is seen as a traitor to the cause of abolition, convincing many that a new political party was necessary. Southerners had never thought of Kansas as a possible slave state, and thus backed the bill. Douglas rammed the Kansas-Nebraska Act through Congress, and it was passed.
It undermined spirit of cooperation that had come out of the Compromise of 1850, and sent American politics into a tailspin.

31. Bleeding Kansas
Even as the Kansas-Nebraska Act was being debated, settlers on both sides poured into the territories so as to secure the outcome they wanted. This resulted in the outbreak of violence known as Bleeding Kansas. 
Bleeding Kansas -
Thousands of pro-slavery “Border Ruffians” came across from Missouri to vote in the election although they were not eligible residents, delivering victory to the South. Pierce supported the outcome despite the irregularities. When Free-Staters drafted the free Topeka Constitution, Pierce called it an act of rebellion and ordered the Army to prevent the Topeka government from meeting.

32. John Brown
Pierce continued to recognize the pro-slavery Kansas legislature, even after a Congressional investigative committee found its election to have been illegitimate. In response to Pierce's actions, several northern states passed resolutions in support of anti-slavery groups in Kansas. 
The violence escalated in 1856, as pro-slavery forces ransacked the town of Lawrence. Violence further escalated with the Pottawatomie massacre, an incident in which an anti-slavery group led by John Brown killed pro- slavery settlers in retaliation.
John Brown –

34. Partisan Re-Alignment
The Compromise of 1850 had split both the Democrats and the Whigs along geographic lines.
The vast majority of northerners did not favor abolition, but northerners were hostile to the extension of slavery into the western territories, since they feared that such extension would lead to the exclusion of settlers from free states.
Southerners, meanwhile, resented any interference with their institutions and believed that slavery's continued existence required the expansion of the practice into the territories.
Pierce demanded that all loyal Democrats support the Kansas-Nebraska Act, hoping that debates over that act and the development of the West would reinvigorate partisan conflict and distract from intra-party battles. But the bill instead polarized legislators sectional lines

35. Know Nothing Party Know Nothing Movement –
It briefly emerged as a political force in-between Adherents were to reply "I know nothing" when asked about its specifics by outsiders. Know Nothings believed a Catholic conspiracy was afoot to subvert civil and religious liberty. They sought to organize native-born Protestants in the defense of traditional values.
The Know Nothings elected Congressman Nathaniel P. Banks of Massachusetts and several others in the 1854 elections and created the American Party. Many hoped that it would seek a middle ground between the pro-slavery positions of the Democrats and the anti-slavery positions of the emerging Republican Party. 

36. The Caning of Sumner
The Kansas-Nebraska Act coincided with the seizure of escaped slave Anthony Burns in Boston. Northerners rallied in support of Burns, but Pierce was determined to follow the Fugitive Slave Act, and dispatched federal troops to enforce Burns' return despite furious crowds
The Fugitive Slave Act alienated many northerners, including those who had formerly accepted it as a sectional compromise.
Caning of Sumner –
Brooks resigned, only to win re-election shortly after. Many in the South supported his actions; the Richmond Enquirer wrote that the "Vulgar Abolitionists must be lashed into submission."

38. The Republican Party
Many Northerners were dissatisfied with their representation in government. The Free Soil Party was not competitive and the Whig Party had refused to embrace the cause of abolition. Led by founding member and influential political newspaper editor Horace Greeley, the Republican party was born in 1854.
The name for a new anti-slavery party was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party.
Republican Party –

39. Critical Thinking Question
What factors contributed to the emergence of the Republican Party?

40. Critical Thinking Answer