Renewing the Sectional Struggle 1848-1854

1. Renewing the Sectional Struggle1848-1854

2. 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 tradition…but not to abolitionist) Whig Zachary Taylor defeated Democrat Lewis Cass and Free Soilier Martin Van Buren

3. Free Soil Party • “Free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men” • Party contained abolitionist and Conscience Whigs

4. California Gold Rush First time isthmus canal discussed

5. 1849 California Gold Rush • The richest story ever told,Is California’s rush for gold,At Sutter’s 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 it’s fine decorationBut during the gold rush, it helped shape a nation

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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.

14. 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

15. 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.

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 1853 Gadsden Purchase • Southwestern tip of land purchased (negotiated by James Gadsden) for land to construct a Railroad (southern Pacific Railroad)

20. 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

21. 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