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The missouri compromise, 1820

elliottcolwell8 — 2024-03-12 15:53:43 UTC

The missouri compromise was a compromise between the north and the south which was passed by the US congress which stated that Missouri would be the 24th state of the USA. It marked the beginning of a more sectionized conflict over the extension of slavery which led to the American civil war. Before Missouri became a state, it was a territory and in 1817 it applied for statehood. The division between the north and south, and enslavement and no enslavement arose when in 1819 Congress started to consider enabling a legislation that would allow Missouri to make a state constitution. The compromise began when the new york representative attempted to add an anti-enslavement amendment to that legislation and that started some conflict. The Tallmadge (new york representative) amendment prohibited the further introduction of slaves into Missouri and provided emancipation of those already there when they reached age 25. The amendment passed the House of Representatives, which was controlled by the more populous north, but failed in the Senate, which was equally divided between free and slave states. Because of this unresolved problem, Congress adjourned without resolving the solution. However, the following summer some considerable people in the north rallied in support of the Tallmadge proposal which brought the subject back into light for everybody. In december 1819 Maine asked for statehood which it was granted, this made there be 23 states, 12 free from enslavement, and 11 being enslaved states. This further created an argument for Missouri to be a state, and for it to be an enslaved state as well. On March 3, 1820, they admitted Maine as a free state, Missouri as a slave state, and made free soil all western territories north of Missouri’s southern border. Missouri officially became a state on August 10 1821 while on March 15 of the year prior Maine became a state. Although slavery had been a divisive issue in the United States for decades, never before had this issue been so openly shown and threatening as it was in the Missouri crisis. Sectional conflict would grow to the point of civil war after the Missouri Compromise was repealed by the kansas nebraska act in 1854 and was declared unconstitutional in the Dred Scott decision of 1857.

Compromise of 1850

elliottcolwell8 — 2024-03-12 16:15:30 UTC

By the 1840s America was becoming extremely divided and the issue of whether enslavement should be allow to expand into western territories had largely seperated the north and the south as well as the political parties. Many Americans feared the nation would become so broken that states may secede, and after seeing the crisis the US was in at the time, it was clear, many within the United States felt it their right to secede. Congress knew that the territory won in the Mexican American war needed a drastic comromise. The Compromise of 1850 was Henry Clay and later Congress’s solution to the problem. The goal of the compromise was to being the nation together, however, in the end it only delayed the inevitable. In 1845 James polk became president and he wanted to expand the US. He wanted to expand territories in Texas and he admitted their annexation but this broke ties with Mexico since the US thought the Texas Mexico border was farther south than what Mexico thought the border was and Mexico didnt even federally acknowledge Texas independence and saw that action as an act of war. James Polk sent troops to the disputed border of Texas and offered a deal to buy the land Mexico claimed in Texas, and additionally in what is now California and New Mexico, from the Mexican government for 25 to 30 million dollars. In April 1846 Mexican soldiers attacked a small number of American soldiers, sparking a war over the disputed border. The Mexican American War lasted only two years, and concluded with the American army capturing Mexico City. They signed a treaty stating that the texas southern border was the Rio Grande and it gave USA the new mexico and california territories for 15 million dollars. This treaty expanded the US greatly and in turn completed all of James polks campaign promises, however he did not run for a second term. His acquisition created tension which his successor would have to calm. This caused tension between what would happen to these new found places and whether they would allow or disallow enslavement. Texas was a state commited to slavery, and in contrast New Mexico prohibited it. In 1848 Americans started to immigrate to California, and these citizens unanimously voted against enslavement. Southerners began to then fear that the federal government would soon end the practice of enslavement throughout the nation. In 1848 Zachary Taylor was appointed president which was weird because this was his debut into the world of politics. With his election he inherited the new found land and the regional tension that came with it. Taylors solution to the question of slavery in New Mexico and California was =for them to both become free states immediately, a solution which did not please either side. The final compromise was known as the Compromise of 1850 and consisted of a few separate bills. The first of these bills created a new, stricter, Fugitive Slave Law. The new law required federal officials in all states, including those in which slavery was prohibited, to help return escaped slaves to their owners. The second law ended the slave trade in D.C. enslavement remained legal in the district but ended the public trading areas near the =the White House and Congress, which embarrassed many Northerners. Next, Congress admitted California to the Union as a free state. Next, the New Mexico and Utah territories were officially created and given popular sovereignty to decide the issue of slavery. Overall people were happy with this compromise howecer all the deal did was delay the conflict over enslavement and its expansion for 10 years but war was still to come in later years. Many people were unhappy with the fugitive slave act since it caused violence against both free and unfree enslaved african americans. Any black person could be arrested and extraidited without a warrant or trial. This act also inspired the famous Uncle Toms Cabin to be written which convinced many northerners against enslavement and to be an abolistionist. The ten-year armistice established by the compromise only pushed the nation further against slavery, making many in the South fear the end of slavery, and many in the North crave the end of slavery, the very issue which would push the South to secede after Abraham Lincolns election as president and eventually fight in the civil war.

Kansas Nebraska act, 1854

elliottcolwell8 — 2024-03-12 16:15:50 UTC

In 1854 Stephen douglas presented a bill to organize the territory of Nebraska which in todays geography included the states of Kansas, nebraska, montana, and north and south dakota. By the 1850s there was a demand for organization of western territories. The land received from Mexico in 1848 and the californian gold rush of 1849 and the trend for western expansion, pushed farmers, ranchers and more toward the pacific. The mississippi river had served as a highway to north south traffic but western lands needed a river of steel, not of water, a railroad to link the eastern states to the pacific. Stephen douglas wanted a northern route via Chicago, but that would take the rail lines through the unorganized Nebraska territory. Others, especially enslaved owners and their allies preferred a southern route. So to pass this bill, Douglas needed a compromise. Douglas introduced a bill designed for middle ground. He proposed organizing the territory with or without slavery, as their constitutions may prescribe. Known as popular sovereignty, this policy contradicted the missouri compromise and left open the question of slavery. And from this point on the debate was no longer a discussion of railway lines, it was all about enslavement. Douglas introduced his revised bill and the storm between north and south began. For example, Ohio senator Salmon Chase stated the bill as “a gross violation of a sacred pledge.” In a published broadside, Charles Sumners antislavery alliance attacked Stehen Douglas, arguing that his bill would make the new territories “a dreary region of despotism, inhabited by masters and slaves.” The senate voted 37-14 pass the Nebraska bill. It became a law on May 30 1854. This brought violence around the country and something known as Bleeding Kansas which I will talk about in the next storyboard slide.

Bleeding Kansas 1854

elliottcolwell8 — 2024-03-12 16:16:12 UTC

As I have talked about in the Kansas Nebraska act, the vote over the new territory caused both the supporters and the opponents of slavery to be angry. There was a period after this act called bleeding kansas where both sides engaged in a series of brutal confrontations that contributed to the start of the civil war. Thousands of enslavement supporters traveled to Kansas and the bloodshed that followed created the term Bleeding Kansas. Most of the settlers who first moved to Kansas after the land went on sale were small midwestern farmers and non enslaved holders from the Upper South and both groups had little interest in enslavements extension. While there were few slave owning settlers, pro enslavement personnel were determined to legalize slavery in Kansas. The problems started on March 30 1855 when hundreds of heavily armed Missourians poured over the border, exploited a loophole as to what constituted residency in Kansas and voted in the first territorial election. Therefore a high majority of pro enslavement men were voting when they shouldnt have. IN response the anti enslavement men formed their own government in Kansas. With this split between a pro and anti enslavement government it was onlt a matter of time before violence occured. On may 21 1856 hundreds of people crossed the border between Missouri and Kansas and entered Lawrence to wreak havoc. They set fire to buildings and destroyed the printing press of an abolitionist newspaper. During this however, nobody was killed, However this did ignite a guerrilla war between pro and anti enslavement perople. There was lots of sporadic violence in the area since 1855 and lasted until 1859 and it was refered to as Bleeding Kansas. Most of the violence which occured was relatively unorganized. The most horrific accident occured in May 1856 when one night abolitionist John Brown and his sons forced 5 southerners from their homes along the local creek and murdered them in cold blood. Whilst the victims were southerners they didnt hold any slaves but still supported enslavement extension into Kansas. This may sound like one side was perpetrating all this violence but both sides engaged and neither party was innocent. In order to justify their party’s existence, Republicans required evidence of the slave powers continual harassment of northerners, which Bleeding Kansas easily provided. Although horrified over the violence, Republicans used the events in Kansas to their political advantage to build their base, whereas the events only widened the divide between northern and southern Democrats. Bleeding Kansas is just one in a series of growing acts of violence surrounding slavery and abolition in the lead up to the Civil War.

The dred scott decision 1857

elliottcolwell8 — 2024-03-12 16:17:18 UTC

It was a legal case where the supreme court ruled that a enslaved person who had resided in a free state and territory was not entitled to his freedom, that African Americans were not and could never be citezins of the United Stated and that the Missouri COmpromise was unconstitutional. The decision added fuel to the sectional controversy and pushed the country into a civil war. This decision was widely considered as the worst decision by SUpreme court in history. Scott was a enslaved man in Missouri, which was a slave state when his owner moved to Illinois and then to Wisconsin which were both free states and territories. After both of them met their wives in Wisconsin they moved back to Missouri. Later, his owner died and the ownership was passed on to his wife. Scott and his wife tried to purchase his freedom but was declined. They decided to bring it up with state court since thei bond should have been broken since they were in a free state and a free territory. Scotts case was allowed to move forward. This discussion took years to be resolved. In 1850 the state court declared Scott free but it was reversed in 1852 by the Missouri supreme court, which invalidated Missouris long standing doctrine of once free always free. The owners widow then left Missouri and gave control to her brother. The case eventually reached the US supreme court which announced its decision in March 1857, 2 days after the inauguration of James Buchanan. The court had very weak arguements saying that African Americans couldnt be citizins of the US but not of a state. Even with this arguement Taney, the supreme court person could have been accused of nothing worse than faulty reasoning, if he had stopped there. Regarding Scotts freedom, Taney held that Scott could not claim to be free on the basis of his residence in Illinois or Wisconin. Whatever status Scott might have had while in a free state or territory, he argued that once he had returned to Missouri his status depended on local law, not the doctrine of once free always free. Two justices, John McLean of Ohio and Benjamin Curtis of Massachusetts, wrote devastating critiques of Taneys opinion. Curtis in particular undercut most of Taneys historical arguments, showing that African Americans had voted in a number of states at the founding. Thus, Curtis argued, they were members of the nation and could not now be denied the right to claim citizenship. The north also exploded in denunciations of Taneys opinion. Taney is remembered now almost solely for the blatantly pro-slavery decision he wrote and for his demeaning comments about African Americans. When he died in 1864, he was roundly denounced and vilified in the North. Dred Scott did, in fact, get his freedom, but not through the courts. After he and his wife were later bought by the Blow family (who had sold Scott to his owner in the first place), they were freed in 1857. Scott died in St. Louis the following year. Harriet Scott lived until June 1876, long enough to see the Civil War.

Election of 1860

elliottcolwell8 — 2024-03-12 16:17:28 UTC

This was the presidential election in which Abraham Lincoln became the president over John Breckinridge, Stephen Douglas, and John Bell. The electoral split between Northern and souther democrats was an emble of the severe sectional split over enslavement. In the following months following Lincolns election 7 southern states seceded setting the stage and causing the civil war almost directly as Lincoln had no choice. After the dred scott decision of 1857 the election of 186 was sure to further expose sectional differences between those in the north who wanted to abolish slavery and those who sought to protect the institution. Douglas was nominated as the democratic candidate, and then disaffected democrates, mainly southerners then nominated Breckinridge who was a southern democrat. Both Breckinridge and Douglas claimed to be the official democratic candidates. The republican convention which was between William Seward and Lincoln, Lincoln barely edged ahead and became the republican candidate. Then was the Constitutianal union party where John Bell was appointed the nominee. After Lincolns nomination he ran a stay at home campaign where he made no stump speeches. With republicans united as there was only 1 candidate and democrats divided with 2 candidates, Lincolns main concern was Bells candidacy. Douglas and Lincoln were dominant in the north while Breckinridge and Bell were dueling for the south. Lincoln won with electoral votes and popular votes making him the president, and by the time of his inauguration 7 southern states suceeded. THey succeeded because of his ideals about slavery and his advocating towards abolishing it. Then this gave Lincoln no other choice as to rage war on the new confederacy called the US Civil War. This war occurred from 1861 to 1865, over 4 years. In the end the Union won and slavery was to be abolished and the confederacy had to join back. Around 620000 were killed in the war which is equal to the total of american fatalties in the revolutionary war, mexican war, the war of 1812, the spanish american war, world war 1 and 2, and the korean war combined. Lincoln later got assassinated on april 15th, 6 days after he won the war.

Recources

elliottcolwell8 — 2024-03-12 16:17:54 UTC

Missouri compromise, https://www.britannica.com/event/Missouri-Compromise

The 1850 compromise

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/compromise-1850#:~:text=The%20ten-year%20armistice%20established,Abraham%20Lincoln%27s%20election%20as%20president.

Kansas Nebraska act

https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Kansas_Nebraska_Act.htm#:~:text=It%20became%20law%20on%20May,territories%20to%20sway%20the%20vote.

Bleeding Kansas, https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/bleeding-kansas

Dredd Scott, https://www.britannica.com/event/Dred-Scott-decision/Reception-and-significance

1860 election, https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/election-of-1860

https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1860