Renewing the Sectional Struggle 1848-1854

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Renewing the Sectional Struggle1848-1854
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1848 Presidential Election

• Lewis Cass, the Father of Popular Sovereignty
• Popular Sovereignty was the belief that the
  people of a territory would decide issue of
  slavery for themselves (democratic traditionbut
  not to abolitionist)

Whig Zachary Taylor defeated Democrat Lewis Cass
and Free Soilier Martin Van Buren
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Free Soil Party

• Free soil, free speech, free labor, and free
  men
• Party contained abolitionist and Conscience Whigs

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California Gold Rush
First time isthmus canal discussed
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1849 California Gold Rush

• The richest story ever told,Is Californias rush
  for gold,At Sutters Mill the gold was foundThe
  masses came from all aroundThey left lives at
  home, to try out being minersNamed for the year,
  they were called forty-ninersHundreds of
  thousands had rushed to the siteThey all saw
  gold nuggets, and wanted a bite!Half came by the
  land, and the rest came by seaFor riches untold
  and some prosperityFrom countries like Mexico,
  Chile, PeruThen China and Britain and even
  France too

• At first they were profiting, fortunes
  galoreCompared to back east they made fifteen
  times more!The economy saw what was known as a
  boomThere was wealth to be found in a shop or
  saloonBut as the time passed gold was harder to
  findMore people had come, and more land had been
  minedThe average prospector did not make out
  wellLiving was costly without gold to sellGold
  mining companies learned to surviveAnd only they
  stood by eighteen fifty-fiveGold is worth
  money, and its fine decorationBut during the
  gold rush, it helped shape a nation

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Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman

• Tubman's Early Years and Escape from Slavery
  Harriet Tubman's name at birth was Araminta
  Ross. She was one of 11 children of Harriet and
  Benjamin Ross born into slavery in Dorchester
  County, Maryland. As a child, Ross was "hired
  out" by her master as a nursemaid for a small
  baby. Ross had to stay awake all night so that
  the baby would not cry and wake the mother. If
  Ross fell asleep, the baby's mother whipped her.
  From a very young age, Ross was determined to
  gain her freedom.

• As a slave, Araminta Ross was scarred for life
  when she refused to help in the punishment of
  another young slave. A young man had gone to the
  store without permission, and when he returned,
  the overseer wanted to whip him. He asked Ross to
  help but she refused. When the young man started
  to run away, the overseer picked up a heavy iron
  weight and threw it at him. He missed the young
  man and hit Ross instead. The weight nearly
  crushed her skull and left a deep scar. She was
  unconscious for days, and suffered from seizures
  for the rest of her life.

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Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman

• In 1844, Ross married a free black named John
  Tubman and took his last name. She also changed
  her first name, taking her mother's name,
  Harriet. In 1849, worried that she and the other
  slaves on the plantation were going to be sold,
  Tubman decided to run away. Her husband refused
  to go with her, so she set out with her two
  brothers, and followed the North Star in the sky
  to guide her north to freedom. Her brothers
  became frightened and turned back, but she
  continued on and reached Philadelphia. There she
  found work as a household servant and saved her
  money so she could return to help others escape.

• Harriet Tubman was a runaway slave from Maryland
  who became known as the "Moses of her people."
  Over the course of 10 years, and at great
  personal risk, she led hundreds of slaves to
  freedom along the Underground Railroad, a secret
  network of safe houses where runaway slaves could
  stay on their journey north to freedom. She later
  became a leader in the abolitionist movement, and
  during the Civil War she was a spy for the
  federal forces in South Carolina as well as a
  nurse.

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Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad

• After Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery, she
  returned to slave-holding states many times to
  help other slaves escape. She led them safely to
  the northern free states and to Canada. It was
  very dangerous to be a runaway slave. There were
  rewards for their capture, and ads like you see
  here described slaves in detail. Whenever Tubman
  led a group of slaves to freedom, she placed
  herself in great danger. There was a bounty
  offered for her capture because she was a
  fugitive slave herself, and she was breaking the
  law in slave states by helping other slaves
  escape.

• If anyone ever wanted to change his or her mind
  during the journey to freedom and return, Tubman
  pulled out a gun and said, "You'll be free or die
  a slave!" Tubman knew that if anyone turned back,
  it would put her and the other escaping slaves in
  danger of discovery, capture or even death. She
  became so well known for leading slaves to
  freedom that Tubman became known as the "Moses of
  Her People." Many slaves dreaming of freedom sang
  the spiritual "Go Down Moses." Slaves hoped a
  savior would deliver them from slavery just as
  Moses had delivered the Israelites from slavery.

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Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman

• Tubman made 19 trips to Maryland and helped 300
  people to freedom. During these dangerous
  journeys she helped rescue members of her own
  family, including her 70-year-old parents. At one
  point, rewards for Tubman's capture totaled
  40,000. Yet, she was never captured and never
  failed to deliver her "passengers" to safety. As
  Tubman herself said, "On my Underground Railroad
  I never run my train off the track and I
  never lost a passenger."

Harriet Tubman Home
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Building towards the Compromise of 1850

• Texas boarder issues (how far southwest was
  boarder ?)
• California ready for statehood as a result of
  Gold Rush
• Utah and New Mexico ready for territory status
• Balance of power issues
• Abolitionist want slavery in DC eliminated
• Underground Railroad upsets South
• Stronger Fugitive Slave Law demanded by South

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The Compromise of 1850

• Constructed by The Great Compromiser Henry Clay,
  The Little Giant Stephen Douglas, Daniel Webster
  and John C. Calhoun.It was the twilight of the
  Senatorial Giants

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Compromise of 1850
Until 1850, there were equal numbers of slave and
free states in the United States. The Compromise
of 1850 introduced into Congress by Henry Clay
was designed to settle the slavery question
arising from the new western lands acquired after
the Mexican War. The Compromise gave some
satisfaction to both the North and the South. The
bill passed after it was divided into several
parts 1)California enters the Union as a free
state 2) Utah and New Mexico Territories are
opened to slavery on the basis of popular
sovereignty (i.e., territorial voters decide the
issue) 3) Slave trade (but not slavery) was
abolished in Washington D.C. 4) stricter fugitive
slave law that required Northerners to return
escaped slaves to their owners 5) Texas gave up
some land for 10 million dollars from federal
government.
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How Compromise of 1850 won passage

• President Taylor died. He had fallen in line with
  higher order abolitionist like Senator William
  H. Seward of New York. New President was Millard
  Fillmore, he supported the Compromise measure.
• Fire-eater convention
  of
  1850 in Nashville Tennessee discredited

Resolution from Nashville Convention
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Northern Reaction to 1850 Fugitive Slave Law

• Northerners view it as Bloodhound Bill or Man
  Stealing Bill
• Northern states pass Personal Liberty Laws
• to avoid enforcement
• of Fugitive Slave Law.

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1852 Presidential election

• Democrats nominate Franklin Pierce of New
  Hampshire. Platform endorsed Compromise of 1850
• Whigs nominate Winfield Scott, also endorsed
  Compromise of 1850. Finality Whigs of Georgia
  did not accept Scott and cast ballots for Daniel
  Webster
• Free Soil Candidate John P. Hale siphoned votes
  from Scott in the North
• Whig party died out, choking to death on
  Compromise of 1850, legacy of Whig party was that
  it kept Union together for a number of years

Franklin Pierce won election
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Southern stirrings for land

• President Pierce was a Young America
  expansionist whose cabinet was full of
  southerners, including Secretary of War Jefferson
  Davis, future President of the Confederacy
• Failed expedition of William Walker to secure
  Nicaragua as slave territory
• Ostend Manifesto (scheme of Pierce administration
  to buy Cuba from Spain and divide into slave
  states)
• Abolitionists stopped the attempts

President Franklin Pierce
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The Allure of Asia

• Treaty of Wanghia secured trade rights for
  America
• with China in 1844
• Commodore Matthew Perry opens Japan to trade with
  Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854
• European Powers and America begin to carve out
  trading rights in Asia..leads to big stuff in
  20th century

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1853 Gadsden Purchase

• Southwestern tip of land purchased (negotiated by
  James Gadsden) for land to construct a Railroad
  (southern Pacific Railroad)

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Kansas Nebraska Act

• Proposed by Little Giant Stephen Douglas (to
  counter Southern Railroad of Gadsden Purchase)
• Create territories of Kansas and Nebraska with
  concept of popular sovereignty to decide issue of
  slavery

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Kansas Nebraska Act

• Northerners outraged by Nebrascals and repeal
  of 36-30 line.
• Southerners (fire-eaters) outraged that
  northerners now enforce stronger Fugitive Slave
  Law
• Republican Party born
• (Conscience Whigs, Free- Soilers,
  Know-Nothings, foes of Kansas Nebraska Act join)
• Democratic Party being split between Northern and
  Southern parts