Name:______

Notes: 10-2

Settling Differences

The Problem:

-Northerners & Southerners disagreed sharply on whether to allow slavery…

-There was intense debate in Congress, and the South threatened to

secede:

The Compromise of 1850

-Eventually, Congress was able to pass the Compromise of 1850. It was a set of laws that…

1. abolitionists:

2. Members of the Free-Soil party:

3. Proslavery groups

But the Compromise didn’t…

In some ways it actually increased negative feelings between the North & South. For example, the Compromise included the

  • Admission of California as a free state,

which again…

  • The Fugitive Slave Act

-It had been a crime to help runaway slaves since 1763, but with the newFugitive Slave Act,…

-So to avoid being fined & jailed, Northerners…

-Despite the stricter punishments, many former slaves and free-born African Americans…

Notable Abolitionists

-Harriet Tubman guided runaway slaves all the way to Canada with the ______:

-Frederick Douglass and other slaves who had gained freedom spoke at meetings & church services

-Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and other former slaves…

-Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, about enslaved Uncle Tom and his brutal overseer. The novel…

The Kansas-Nebraska Act & Bleeding Kansas

-Only 34 years after the Missouri Compromise had brought a political truce about slavery,…

-The Act:

1. divided the NebraskaTerritory into separate territories-

KansasNebraska

2. allowed the citizens of each territory to vote for…

*Violation of the Missouri Compromise! (which said that all new states north of the 36˚30’ parallel had to be free states)

-The passage of the K-N Act started a race to win Kansas for one side or the other (slave or free)

-Backers of slavery from Missouri & other slave states moved to Kansas so they could vote for it to enter the Union as a slave state

-To counter the proslavery groups, many Free-Soilers…

-Around 1855, hundreds of drifters known as “border ruffians” crossed into Kansas from Missouri

-They harassed the Free-Soiler settlers…

-As a result, Kansas became a slave territory. Laws were passed, including:

1) 5 years in prison…

2) 10 years in prison…

-People who opposed slavery…

-They drafted a free-state Constitution & sent their own representative to Congress

-Violence ensued between the people of opposing sides

-Shootings & barn-burnings became common

-By late 1856,…

-Americans began to call the territory “Bleeding Kansas”

The New Republican Party

-Disagreement over the Kansas-Nebraska Act led some people to change political parties, or even start new ones

-Those who opposed the K-N Act joined Free-Soilers,…

-The new party accused Southerners of forcing slavery on the territories

-All Republicans agreed that Congress should…

-Most, however, did not expect to…

Dred Scott v. Sanford

-Another incident that increased the rift between Northerners & Southerners was the Dred Scott Supreme Court case

-Dred Scott was a slave who had moved with his owner from a slave state to a free state, then to another free state, then back to a slave state

-After his owner died, Scott tried to sue for his freedom, claiming that…

-The case (officially called Dred Scott v. Sanford) eventually made it to the Supreme Court. Many of the Supreme Court justices, though, favored slavery,…

-In the end, the Court ruled against Scott because:

1. slaves were property, not citizens, and only citizens could

sue in federal court

2. according to the 5th Amendment,…

(Scott was property, and couldn’t be “taken” (freed) from the family that owned him)

-The Supreme Court also ruled that the Missouri Compromise ban on slavery north of the 36 30’ parallel was unconstitutional b/c the Constitution did not give Congress…

-Essentially, the decision meant that the Constitution protected slavery. Abolishing slavery…

-As you might expect, the decision angered abolitionists & increased tensions between the North & South

-Many Southerners now considered the territories open to slavery

-Northerners…