Video Analysis: on the Underground Railroad

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African Americans:
A Concise History, Combined Volume, 5e
Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, Stanley C. Harrold

Chapter 9

Let Your Motto
Be Resistance
1833–1850

Theodor Kaufmann (1814–1896), “On to Liberty,” 1867, Oil on canvas, 36 × 56 in (91.4 × 142.2 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gift of Erving and Joyce Wolf, 1982 (1982.443.3). Photograph © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. /Art Resource, NY

A group of women and children prepare to ford a river as they escape from slavery. Most escapees were young men, but people of both sexes and all age-groups undertook to reach freedom in the North or Canada.

  • The artist who painted On to Liberty, Theodore Kaufmann, was one of a number of participants in Germany’s democratic revolution of 1848 who emigrated to the United States
  • He joined the anti-slavery cause and fought in the Union Army, with many of his paintings illustrating the idea of liberty

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Learning Objectives

9-1 How did the racism and violence of the 1830s and 1840s affect the antislavery movement?

9-2 What roles did black institutions and moral suasion play in the antislavery movement?

9-3 What was the role of black churches and black newspapers in the abolitionist movement?

9-4 What were the reasons for the breakup of the American Anti-Slavery Society and what organizations emerged to replace it?

9-5 How did abolitionism become more aggressive during the 1840s and 1850s?

9-6 How did the views of Frederick Douglass differ from those of Henry Highland Garnet?

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A Rising Tide of Racism and Violence

  • Manifest Destiny defines political and economic progress in racial terms
  • American ethnologists argued racial differences inherent, whites superior
  • Scientific racism gave justification for continued enslavement
  • A wave of racially motivated violence, committed by the federal and state governments and white vigilantes, accompanied these developments

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  • Militancy among abolitionists reflected increasing American racism and violence from the 1830s through the Civil War
  • Starting in the 1790s, the army waged a systematic campaign to remove American Indians from the states

A Rising Tide of Racism and Violence (cont'd)

  • Manifest Destiny
  • A doctrine, prevalent during the nineteenth century, holding that God intended the United States to expand territorially over all of North America and the Caribbean islands, or over the entire Western Hemisphere

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  • White Americans’ embrace of an exuberant nationalism called Manifest Destiny contributed to the trend of increasing racism and violence

A Rising Tide of Racism and Violence (cont'd)

  • Antiblack and Antiabolitionist Riots

Riots in Cincinnati, Providence, New York, Philadelphia

1829: three-day riot instigated by politicians led black Cincinnatians to flee to Canada

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  • Antiblack riots coincided with the start of immediate abolitionism during the late 1820s; increased in 1830s, 1840s
  • No city had more or worse race riots than Philadelphia—antiblack rampages in 1820, 1829, 1834, 1835, 1838, 1842, and 1849
  • The graph highlights the increasing tension related to the anti-slavery movement throughout the United States
  • As the number of abolitionist newspapers and periodicals spread, antislavery views became more widespread in the fast-growing cities of the North

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A Rising Tide of Racism and Violence (cont'd)

  • Texas and the War Against Mexico

Texas declares independence from Mexico, 1836

applied for annexation as slave state

War against Mexico, U.S. gains New Mexico, California

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  • Under President James K. Polk, the United States adopted a belligerent foreign policy toward the Republic of Mexico
  • Mexico had gained its independence from Spain in 1822 and in 1829 had abolished slavery
  • The desire for new territory, encouraged by Manifest Destiny and an expanding slave-labor economy, encourages U.S. politicians to annex Texas as slave state
  • Compromise of 1850 tries to satisfy slave and free states regarding new states in the west
  • Widespread fear of slave rebellions in the South and black competition for jobs and other economic resources in the north contributed to periodic riots and massacres throughout the United States

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A Rising Tide of Racism and Violence (cont'd)

f

LO 9-1. _____________ was a policy that defined political and economic progress in racial terms, holding that God intended the United States to expand its territory.

A: Moral suasion

B: Monroe Doctrine

C: Manifest Destiny

D: Empire of Liberty

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A Rising Tide of Racism and Violence (cont'd)

f

LO 9-1. _____________ was a policy that defined political and economic progress in racial terms, holding that God intended the United States to expand its territory.

A: Moral suasion

B: Monroe Doctrine

C: Manifest Destiny

D: Empire of Liberty

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A Rising Tide of Racism and Violence (cont'd)

LO 9-1. In 1836, Texas won independence and applied for annexation to the United States as a free state, largely as a result of abolitionists moving into the region.

A: True

B: False

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A Rising Tide of Racism and Violence (cont'd)

LO 9-1. In 1836, Texas won independence and applied for annexation to the United States as a free state, largely as a result of abolitionists moving into the region.

A: True

B: False

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The Antislavery Movement

  • Race-related violence increased, created difficulties
  • White abolitionists set policies
  • Abolitionists commitment to nonviolence weakened

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  • Even though African Americans found loyal white allies within the movement, interracial understanding did not come easily
  • White abolitionists assumed they should set policy, so their black colleagues became resentful

The Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

  • The American Anti-Slavery Society

AASS dedicated to immediate, uncompensated emancipation: turning point in Abolitionist cause

Three African Americans—James McCrummell, Robert Purvis, and James G. Barbadoes—helped found the AASS

William Lloyd Garrison

White American worked hard to bridge racial differences

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  • Abolitionists organized the AASS in December 1833 at Philadelphia’s Adelphi Hall
  • Garrison spoke to black groups, stayed in the homes of African Americans when he traveled, and welcomed them to his home
  • But Garrison, like most other white abolitionists, remained stiff and condescending in conversation with black colleague

The Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

  • Black and Women’s Antislavery Societies

Black men, women formed auxiliary to AASS

Women’s organizations racially integrated

Main tasks was fundraising, bake sales, bazaars, fairs

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  • Often, African Americans belonged to all-black and integrated, predominantly white organizations
  • Black organizations arose in part because of racial discord in the predominantly white organizations and because of a black desire for racial solidarity
  • Proceeds of women’s society’s fundraising went to the AASS or to antislavery newspapers

Wealthy black abolitionist Robert Purvis is at the very center of this undated photograph of the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society. The famous Quaker abolitionist Lucretia Mott and her husband James Mott are seated to Purvis’s left. Equally significant as Purvis’s central location in the photograph is that he is the only African American pictured

  • The above photo highlights the role of women in the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery society, which worked for sexual as well as racial equality, and whose first meeting was held in a schoolroom
  • Several members of the society were African-American

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The Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

  • Black and Women’s Antislavery Societies (cont'd)

Creation of feminism challenged male culture

Wrote essays, poems gave public speeches

1850s, Sojourner Truth, famous African-American speaker

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  • Women’s societies also inspired feminism by creating awareness that women had rights and interests that a male-dominated society had to recognize
  • Writing essays and poems on political subjects and making public speeches helped abolitionist women challenge a culture that relegated respectable women to domestic duties
  • Sojourner Truth emphasized that all black women, through their physical labor and the pain they suffered in slavery, had earned equal standing with men

The Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

  • Moral Suasion

AASS appealed for abolition based on Christian conscience

Argued slavery was sin, crime, inefficient labor system

AASS tried to persuade northerners to pressure slaveholders

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  • Slaveholding, the AASS argued, was a sin and a crime that deprived African Americans of the freedom of conscience they needed to save their souls
  • Slaveholding led masters to damnation through their indolence, sexual exploitation of black women, and brutality
  • Abolitionists said that northern industrialists thrived by manufacturing cloth from cotton produced by slave labor
  • Also said that Northerners who profited from slave-produced cotton and supported government with their votes and taxes faced divine punishment

In an effort to stir antiabolitionist feelings, this broadside announces an upcoming abolitionist lecture at a local New York church.

  • Churches were often the site of abolitionist meetings, lending moral force to the effort to end slavery
  • Anti-abolitionists also used churches as symbols of peaceable union to lobby against the “divisive” abolitionists

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The Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

  • Moral Suasion (cont'd)
  • Reaction in North, South not what AASS anticipated
  • Southern postmasters burned antislavery literature
  • Congress passed Gag Rue prohibiting slave pamphlets
  • Northern mobs continued to assault abolitionists

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  • By speaking of racial justice and exemplifying interracial cooperation, abolitionists trod new ground
  • Black abolitionists did not dare denounce slavery when and if they visited the South
  • In 1836, Congress passed the Gag Rule forbidding petitions related to slavery from being introduced in the House of Representatives

The Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

f

LO 9-2. In 1836, Congress passed the , forbidding petitions related to slavery from being introduced in the House of Representatives.

A: 11th Amendment

B: Gag Rule

C: 12th Amendment

D: Compromise of 1836

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The Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

f

LO 9-2. In 1836, Congress passed the , forbidding petitions related to slavery from being introduced in the House of Representatives.

A: 11th Amendment

B: Gag Rule

C: 12th Amendment

D: Compromise of 1836

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The Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

LO 9-2. The most significant abolitionist organization of the 1830s was American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).

A: True

B: False

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The Antislavery Movement (cont’d)

LO 9-2. The most significant abolitionist organization of the 1830s was American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).

A: True

B: False

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Black Community Support

  • The Black Convention Movement

Forum for black male abolitionists

Abolition of slavery

Improve conditions for northern black people

Integrate public schools

Black suffrage

Juries

Testify against white people in court

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  • African-American community undergirded the antislavery movement and helped it survive violent opposition
  • Dozens of local, state, and national black conventions held in the North between 1830 and 1864 helped inspire a larger black community
  • Conventions also manifested the antebellum American reform impulse, transcending the antislavery cause

Black Community Support

  • Black Churches in the Antislavery Cause

Leading black abolitionists were ministers

Provided forums for abolitionist speakers

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  • Black churches were more important than black conventions in the antislavery movement
  • Black ministers led congregations affiliated with African-American churches--African Baptist Church or African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church

Black Community Support

  • Black Newspapers

Important voice in abolition movement

Freedom’s Journal

Samuel Cornish

Colored American

Phillip A. Bell

Charles Ray

North Star

Frederick Douglass

Financial difficulties: African Americans mostly poor and illiterate

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  • Reform—as opposed to commercial—newspapers were a luxury that not many subscribers, black or white, could afford
  • Black newspapers faced added difficulties finding readers because most African Americans were poor, and many were illiterate

Black Community Support

f

LO 9-3. Black played the most important role in the development of the African-American antislavery movement.

A: newspapers

B: conventions

C: churches

D: anti-slavery organizations

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Black Community Support

f

LO 9-3. Black played the most important role in the development of the African-American antislavery movement.

A: newspapers

B: conventions

C: churches

D: anti-slavery organizations

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Black Community Support

LO 9-3. Frederick Douglass’s North Star and its successor Frederick Douglass’ Paper were the most influential black antislavery newspapers of the late 1840s and the 1850s.

A: True

B: False

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Black Community Support

LO 9-3. Frederick Douglass’s North Star and its successor Frederick Douglass’ Paper were the most influential black antislavery newspapers of the late 1840s and the 1850s.

A: True

B: False

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The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and the Liberty Party

  • In 1840, AASS splintered; most members became AFASS
  • Garrison retained control of AASS, known as the “Old Organization”
  • Divided by failure of moral suasion
  • Called for separation of North, South
  • Role of women in abolitionism

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  • In part, the split between AASS and AFASS resulted from long-standing disagreements about the role of women in abolitionism
  • Garrison declares that slavery had irrevocably corrupted the existing American society, denounces organized religion as irrevocably proslavery, becomes a feminist, and embraces a form of Christian anarchy
  • Garrison seems to lose sight of main goal of abolition

The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and the Liberty Party (cont'd)

  • Members form the AFASS
  • More traditional stand on women
  • Led by Lewis Tappan
  • Liberty party
  • First antislavery political party
  • Led by James G. Birney, 1840

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  • Those who withdrew from the AASS took a more traditional stand on the role of women, and believed the country’s churches could be converted to abolitionism
  • James G. Birney, a slaveholder-turned-abolitionist, is Liberty party candidate in the 1840 presidential election

The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and the Liberty Party (cont'd)

  • American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS, 1840–1855)
  • An organization of church-oriented abolitionists
  • Liberty Party (1840–1848)
  • The first antislavery political party; most of its supporters joined the Free-Soil Party in 1848, although its radical New York wing maintained a Liberty organization into the 1850s

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  • Of all the antislavery organizations, the New York Liberty Party advocated the most aggressive action against slavery in the South and became most involved in helping slaves escape

The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and the Liberty Party (cont'd)

f

LO 9-4. In 1840, most AASS members left to establish the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS) and the

, the first antislavery political party.

A: Liberty Party

B: Democratic Party

C: Republican Party

D: Whig Party

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The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and the Liberty Party (cont'd)

f

LO 9-4. In 1840, most AASS members left to establish the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS) and the

, the first antislavery political party.

A: Liberty Party

B: Democratic Party

C: Republican Party

D: Whig Party

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The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and the Liberty Party (cont'd)

LO 9-4. By 1842, Garrison and his followers de-emphasized moral suasion and begun calling for disunion—the separation of the North from the South.

A: True

B: False

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The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and the Liberty Party (cont'd)

LO 9-4. By 1842, Garrison and his followers de-emphasized moral suasion and begun calling for disunion—the separation of the North from the South.

A: True

B: False

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A More Aggressive Abolitionism

  • Liberty Party maintained Constitution outlawed slavery
  • The Amistad and the Creole
  • Two maritime slave revolts encouraged northern abolitionist militancy
  • Joseph Cinque, Madison Washington
  • Cinque seized control of Amistad
  • Washington led revolt aboard Creole

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  • Gradual radicalization of abolition: NY Liberty Party argues that neither northern state militias nor the U.S. Army should help suppress slave revolts
  • Liberty Party also argued that, since masters had no legal right to own human beings, slaves who escaped and those who aided them acted within the law

Mutiny, painted by Hale Woodruff in 1939

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  • Mutiny, painted by Hale Woodruff in 1939, provides a dramatic and stylized portrayal of the successful uprising of African slaves on board the Spanish schooner Amistad in 1839 Savery Library Archives, Talladega College, Talladega, Alabama

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A More Aggressive Abolitionism (cont’d)

  • The Amistad And The Creole

Inspired others to help African Americans escape bondage

Amistad

A Spanish schooner on which West African Joseph Cinque led a successful slave revolt in 1839

Creole

An American brig on which Madison Washington led a successful slave revolt in 1841

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  • After the Africans from Amistad lost their way in an attempt to return to their homeland, a U.S. warship captured them off the coast of Long Island
  • Amistad slaves imprisoned in New Haven, Connecticut
  • The Africans soon gained the assistance of Lewis Tappan and other abolitionists
  • As a result of that aid and arguments presented by Congressman John Quincy Adams, the Supreme Court in November 1841 freed Cinque and the others

This 1840 engraving provides a dramatic portrayal of the successful uprising of African slaves on board the Spanish schooner Amistad in 1839. The Granger Collection.

.

  • The killing of the slave ship captain portrayed above became a key element in publicizing the case in which African captives were ultimately set free after a lengthy court case in the United States

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A More Aggressive Abolitionism (cont’d)

  • The Underground Railroad

Semi-secret network helped slaves escape

Escapees were not passive “passengers” in the underground railroad network

1840s, escapees raised money for transportation

Recruited, helped others escape

Some became underground railroad agents

1850s, Harriet Tubman, a fugitive slave, becomes most active worker on underground railroad

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  • Underground railroad exists within context of increasing southern white violence against black families, slave resistance, and aggressive northern abolitionism
  • The organized escape of slaves from the Chesapeake, Kentucky, and Missouri along predetermined routes to Canada became common only after the mid-1830s
  • The best-documented underground railroad organizations centered in Ripley, Ohio, and Washington, D.C.

Classroom Activity: pull up the interactive Underground Railroad map from the PBS website at http://www.pbs.org/wned/underground-railroad/locations/.

A More Aggressive Abolitionism (cont'd)

  • Underground Railroad
  • Refers to several loosely organized, semi-secret biracial networks that helped slaves escape from the border South to the North and Canada; the earliest networks appeared during the first decade of the nineteenth century; others operated into the Civil War years

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Classroom Activity: Pull up the National Geographic website on the Underground Railroad at www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/. compare the site to the PBS site on the Underground Railroad at http://www.pbs.org/wned/underground-railroad/locations/.

Harriet Tubman, standing at the left, is shown in this undated photograph with a group of people she helped escape from slavery. Because she worked in secret during the 1850s, she was known only to others engaged in the underground railroad, the people she helped, and a few other abolitionists.
Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College.

  • Harriet Tubman led more than 300 slaves to freedom during nineteen missions as part of the Underground Railroad
  • During the Civil War, she worked as a cook, nurse, armed scout, and spy for the Union
  • In 1863, she led an armed expedition which freed 700 slaves in South Carolina during a Union raid

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A More Aggressive Abolitionism (cont'd)

  • Technology and the Underground Railroad

Before the1830s, those who helped slaves escape referred to their networks as “lines of posts” or “chains of friends”

Railroads and steam boats promoted northward escape

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  • As rail lines spread, masters in Maryland and Virginia despaired of recapturing slaves who crossed the Mason-Dixon Line
  • Knowledge of Underground Railroad routes was highly compartmentalized so that conductors and people associated with it knew only part of the operation
  • Conductors would usually guide slaves from a plantation to safe houses or “stations” during the night, where they would rest during the day in preparation for the following night’s journey

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A More Aggressive Abolitionism (cont'd)

  • Canada West
  • Ultimate destination for many African Americans on the underground railroad was Canada West
  • Present-day Ontario
  • Several communal black settlements in Canada West
  • Stronger fugitive slave law after 1850 makes Canada more important refuge for African Americans

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  • Black Americans began to settle in Canada West as early as the 1820s
  • Because the British Empire after 1833 prohibited slavery, fugitive slaves were safe there
  • Mary Ann Shadd Cary became the chief advocate of black migration to Canada West—supports racial integration

This is the only surviving photograph of Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823–1893). An advocate, during the 1850s, of black migration to Canada, Cary also promoted racial integration.

  • Because of the Fugitive Slave Act, even escaped slaves who reached northern states were not safe
  • Many escaped to Ontario, Canada, where slavery was illegal

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A More Aggressive Abolitionism (cont'd)

f

LO 9-5. The maintained that the U.S. Constitution, interpreted in the light of the Bible and natural law, outlawed slavery throughout the country.

A: New York Times

B: AASS

C: Whig Party

D: New York Liberty Party

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A More Aggressive Abolitionism (cont'd)

f

LO 9-5. The maintained that the U.S. Constitution, interpreted in the light of the Bible and natural law, outlawed slavery throughout the country.

A: New York Times

B: AASS

C: Whig Party

D: New York Liberty Party

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A More Aggressive Abolitionism (cont'd)

LO 9-5. The best-documented underground railroad organizations centered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C..

A: True

B: False

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A More Aggressive Abolitionism (cont'd)

LO 9-5. The best-documented underground railroad organizations centered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C..

A: True

B: False

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Black Militancy

  • Rise in militancy had several causes
  • Breakup of AASS weakened loyalty to national organizations
  • White, black abolitionists considered new antislavery tactics
  • Blacks charge white abolitionists with duplicity

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  • More black abolitionist conventions occur after 1840; more black-owned abolitionist newspapers appear
  • Black abolitionists, like white abolitionists, approached the subjects of violence and slave rebellion cautiously
  • Local vigilance organizations appeared during the mid-1830s; often had white as well as black members

Henry Highland Garnet rivaled Frederick Douglass as a black leader during the antebellum decades. While Douglass emphasized assimilation, Garnet advocated black nationalism. The two men had much in common, however, and by the Civil War their views were almost indistinguishable

  • An active member of the American Anti-Slavery society, minister, and educator, Henry Garnet argued decades before the Civil War that armed rebellion of slaves as the most effective way to end slavery

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Black Militancy (cont'd)

  • Vigilance organizations reacted against violence of “slave catchers”
  • Black abolitionists disappointed with white efforts

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  • Blacks charge that white abolitionists did not live up to their words in favor of racial justice, especially relating to economics
  • AFASS: 1852, a black delegate demanded to know why Lewis Tappan did not employ a black clerk in his business

Black Militancy (cont'd)

  • Frederick Douglass

Douglass left AASS, published North Star

Felt that white abolitionists wanted him to continue role of fugitive slave

Lack of acknowledgement of his skills

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  • Career of Frederick Douglass illustrates the impact of the failure of some white abolitionists to live up to their egalitarian ideals
  • After 1847 when he moved to Rochester, NY, Douglass continued to work closely with white abolitionists; he could now do it on his own terms

By the mid-1840s, Frederick Douglass had emerged as one of the more powerful speakers of his time. He began publishing his influential newspaper, the North Star, in 1847. Frederick Douglass (1817?–95). Oil on canvas, ©1844, attr. to E. Hammond. The Granger Collection.

  • A man of wide interests and incisive intellect, Frederick Douglass was one of the most influential abolitionists in the country as well as a forceful proponent of women’s rights
  • A believer in education and the political process, Douglass was also outspoken—his 1852 address, "What to the slave is the 4th of July?” to a Rochester’s Women’s group became a classic depiction of the hypocrisy of the United States and the Christian church.

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Black Militancy (cont'd)

  • Revival of Black Nationalism

Douglass was integrationist, opposed to black churches, schools

Leaders Garnet and Delaney disagreed, favored migration, nationalism

Believed better to be free in Africa than slave in U.S.

Douglass and other abolitionists rejected outlook, supported U.S. freedom

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  • Douglass predicted that African Americans would eventually merge into a greater American identity
  • Emigration plans Garnet and Delany developed during the 1850s became a significant part of African-American reform culture
  • Little came of these nationalist visions, largely because of the successes of the antislavery movement
  • This timeline offers a summary of the intensification of the antislavery struggle in the United States in the 1840s, illustrating the legal obstacles of helping slaves to freedom

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Black Militancy (cont'd)

f

LO 9-6. The black abolitionist desire to go beyond rhetoric found its best outlet in .

A: joining antislavery political parties

B: local vigilance organizations

C: joining the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society

D: the underground railroad

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Black Militancy (cont'd)

f

LO 9-6. The black abolitionist desire to go beyond rhetoric found its best outlet in .

A: joining antislavery political parties

B: local vigilance organizations

C: joining the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society

D: the underground railroad

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Black Militancy (cont'd)

LO 9-6. Black and white abolitionists helped convince most white northerners that slave-labor and slaveholder control of the national government threatened their economic and political interests.

A: True

B: False

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Black Militancy (cont'd)

LO 9-6. Black and white abolitionists helped convince most white northerners that slave-labor and slaveholder control of the national government threatened their economic and political interests.

A: True

B: False

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Conclusion

  • Radical movement for immediate abolition of slavery
  • Moral suasion, political involvement, direct action
  • Minority wanted independent black nation outside U.S.

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  • Black and white abolitionists, although not perfect allies, awoke many in the North to the brutalities of slavery
  • During the 1840s, abolitionists adjusted their antislavery tactics to deal with increasing racism and antiblack violence
  • Although much has changed since the abolitionist era, these two perspectives remain characteristic of the African-American community

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  • The Chapter Nine timeline highlights the development of the abolitionist and antislavery efforts next to a chronicle of national political events

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Chapter Discussion Question

Why did so many black abolitionists leave white-led organizations such as the AASS and strike out on their own to act independently after 1840?

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African Americans:
A Concise History, Combined Volume, 5e
Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, Stanley C. Harrold

Chapter 10

“And Black People Were at the Heart of It”:
The United States Disunites over Slavery 1846–1861

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In January 1856, Margaret Garner, her husband Robert, and their four children escaped from Kentucky to Ohio across the frozen Ohio River. They were pursued to the home of a black man by slave owners as well as deputy marshals. The Garners fiercely resisted. Robert Garner shot and wounded one of the deputies. But when it became clear that they were about to be captured, Margaret killed her daughter rather than have the child returned to slavery.

  • After a lengthy trial, Margaret Garner and her husband were returned slavery in Kentucky and then sent further south to Arkansas and finally New Orleans where they were sold to a local judge to work on his plantation
  • Margaret died in 1858 of typhoid fever

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Learning Objectives

10-1 Why was the expansion of slavery such a divisive issue?

10-2 How did African Americans react to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850?

10-3 Why did many Americans oppose the immigration of Europeans by the 1850s?

10-4 What was the Dred Scott case and the reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision in the case?

10-5 What were the positions of Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln on racial equality?

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Learning Objectives (cont’d)

10-6 What was the impact of John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry?

10-7 How did African Americans and white southerners react to the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860?

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The Lure of the West

  • Fertile valleys attracted hundreds of Americans
  • Oregon Territory forbade black settlements
  • Blacks settled the Washington Territory

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  • George Washington Bush and family moves from Missouri and settled in what later became the Washington Territory because Oregon’s territorial constitution forbade black settlement
  • Oregon--black residents were legally subject to whipping every six months until they departed—law stays on the books until the 1920s
  • Westward expansion revived the issue of slavery’s future in the territories

The Lure of the West (cont’d)

  • Free Labor Versus Slave Labor

Free men, women worked for compensation

Free labor

Mid-nineteenth-century Americans who were free and worked for income or compensation to advance themselves, as opposed to slave labor, which was work done with no financial compensation by people who were not free

05/19/11

*

  • By the mid-nineteenth century, northern black and white people embraced the system of free labor

The Lure of the West (cont’d)

  • The Wilmot Proviso

Prohibited slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico—fails to become law

White southerners enraged

Felt it attempted to eliminate slavery

Saw slavery as positive good

Formation of Free-Soil Party, 1848

Mostly whites wanted to stop slavery expansion

Some black, white abolitionists supported it

05/19/11

*

  • Wilmot later explained that he wanted neither slavery nor black people to taint territory that should be reserved exclusively for whites
  • White southerners had convinced themselves that black people were a childlike and irresponsible race wholly incapable of surviving as a free people if they were emancipated

The Lure of the West (cont’d)

  • The Wilmot Proviso (cont'd)

Wilmot Proviso

A measure introduced in Congress in 1845 to prohibit slavery in any lands acquired from Mexico; it did not pass

05/19/11

*

  • Free-Soil candidate for president in 1848 was the former Democratic president Martin Van Buren
  • 10 Free Soil congressmen elected

The Lure of the West (cont’d)

  • African Americans and the Gold Rush

Mostly whites but some Europeans, Asians, African Americans

Most Forty-Niners are placer miners; used basic technology

Hydraulic mining and quartz mining require more technology and investment

05/19/11

*

  • By 1850, nearly 900 black men (and fewer than 100 black women) were living in California
  • Few of these placer miners struck it rich--but many of them made a modest living from the gold they recovered

The Lure of the West (cont’d)

  • African Americans and the Gold Rush (cont'd)

Richer veins required more sophisticated technology

Quartz mining required costly machinery, run by corporations

Forty-Niners

The men and women who rushed to California in 1849 after gold had been discovered there

05/19/11

*

  • A select few African Americans work or supervise hydraulic and quartz mining operations

The Lure of the West (cont’d)

  • California and the Compromise of 1850

California applies for admission as free state

White southerners refused to consider unless slavery allowed

05/19/11

*

  • With the gold rush, California’s population soared to more than 100,000
  • Most northerners would not accept California as slave state

The Lure of the West (cont’d)

  • California and the Compromise of 1850 (cont'd)

Clay’s Compromise of 1850

Proposed admitting California as free state

Stronger fugitive slave laws to satisfy white southerners

Southerners wouldn’t tolerate free state

Northerners wouldn’t tolerate tougher slave laws

05/19/11

*

  • Whig Senator Clay put together Compromise of 1850, designed not only to settle the controversy over California but also to resolve the issue of slavery’s expansion
  • Clays compromise offers something to both Northerners and Southerner
  • Bill would not pass---neither side would compromised while Taylor was alive

The Lure of the West (cont’d)

  • California and the Compromise of 1850 (cont'd)

President Taylor, wanted California admitted as free state

Compromise passed by Fillmore after Taylor’s death

05/19/11

*

  • Stephen Douglas, senator from Illinois, guided Clay’s compromise through Congress by breaking it into separate bills
  • California entered the Union as a free state, and a stronger fugitive slave law entered the federal legal code

The Lure of the West (cont’d)

  • California and the Compromise of 1850 (cont'd)

Compromise of 1850

An attempt by the U.S. Congress to settle divisive issues between the North and South, including slavery expansion, apprehension in the North of fugitive slaves, and slavery in the District of Columbia

05/19/11

*

  • Taylor’s successor, Millard Fillmore, was willing to accept the compromise
  • Much of the tension between the North and South before the Civil War focused on whether or not newly acquired territories west of the Mississippi River would allow slavery or not
  • Leaders of southern states feared that banning slavery in those new territories would damage their crusade to maintain the “peculiar institution”

05/19/11

*

The Lure of the West (cont’d)

  • Fugitive Slave Laws

Earlier Fugitive slave law, 1793

Permitted recovery of escaped slaves

Too weak to overcome northern resistance

Personal liberty laws

State officials not obligated to aid recovery

Fugitive Slave Law of 1850

One of harshest measures Congress ever passed

Everyone must help capture suspects

05/19/11

*

  • Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 created bitter resentment among black and white abolitionists and made slavery a more emotional and personal issue for many white people
  • The fugitive slave law of 1793 permitted slave owners to recover slaves who had escaped to other states—escaped slaves had no rights
  • By the 1830s and 1840s, hundreds if not thousands of slaves had escaped to freedom by way of the underground railroad
  • Northern states had enacted personal liberty laws that made it illegal for state law enforcement officials to help capture runaways; creates mass resistance in some northern communities

The Lure of the West (cont’d)

  • Fugitive Slave Laws (cont'd)

All caught under the law most certainly returned to slavery

Fugitive Slave Law, 1850

Part of the Compromise of 1850, it required law enforcement officials as well as civilians to assist in capturing runaway slaves

05/19/11

*

  • Law required U.S. marshals, their deputies, and even ordinary citizens to help seize suspected runaways

The Lure of the West (cont’d)

  • Fugitive Slave Laws (cont'd)

Habeas corpus

A court order that a person arrested or detained by law enforcement officers must be brought to court and charged with a crime and not held indefinitely

05/19/11

*

  • Fugitive Slave Law made it nearly impossible for black people to prove they were free
  • Slave owners and their agents only had to provide legal documentation or the testimony of white witnesses before a federal commissioner that the captive was a runaway slave

The Lure of the West (cont’d)

f

LO 10-1. Henry Clay’s Compromise of 1850 was passed only after .

A: Abraham Lincoln guided the bill through the Senate

B: more citizens from free states moved to California

C: Senator John C. Calhoun died

D: President Zachary Taylor died

05/12/11

*

The Lure of the West (cont’d)

f

LO 10-1. Henry Clay’s Compromise of 1850 was passed only after .

A: Abraham Lincoln guided the bill through the Senate

B: more citizens from free states moved to California

C: Senator John C. Calhoun died

D: President Zachary Taylor died

05/12/11

*

The Lure of the West (cont’d)

LO 10-1. The California Gold Rush attracted fewer than 100 black men and women to the west.

A: True

B: False

05/12/11

*

The Lure of the West (cont’d)

LO 10-1. The California Gold Rush attracted fewer than 100 black men and women to the west.

A: True

B: False

05/12/11

*

Fugitive Slaves

  • Northerners exposed to cruelty of hunting, capturing slaves
  • William and Ellen Craft
  • Escaped capture by posing as “white man” and “slave”
  • Shadrach Minkins
  • Band of black men spirited him to freedom

05/19/11

*

  • Many white people and virtually all black people felt revulsion over this crackdown on those who had fled from slavery to freedom
  • The Crafts sailed to England after eluding capture in Boston with aid of local vigilance committee
  • Federal authorities brought charges against four black men and four white men who aided Minkins but local juries refused to convict them

Leaflets like this reflected the outrage many northerners felt in response to the capture and reenslavement of African Americans that resulted from the passage of a tougher fugitive slave law as part of the Compromise of 1850

  • The disappearance of slavery in the north and the relatively few number of blacks living there, compared with a burgeoning white population, led to greater sympathy for escaped slaves

05/19/11

*

Fugitive Slaves (cont’d)

  • The Battle at Christina

1851: armed blacks, whites battle, kill slave owner

Fillmore sends Marines, men acquitted, charges dropped

05/19/11

*

  • After killing of Gorsuch, slaves’ owner, runaway slaves flees to Canada
  • Thirty-six black men and five white men were arrested and indicted for treason by a federal grand jury and acquitted

Fugitive Slaves (cont’d)

  • Anthony Burns

Fugitive slave recaptured

Abolitionists storm courthouse, U.S. Marshall killed

President Pierce sends hundreds of troops

Sole black men taken from freedom to slavery

Government indicted rioters, charged dropped

05/19/11

*

  • No fugitive slave case elicited more support or sorrow than that of Anthony Burns, 1854
  • Several months later, black Bostonians led by the Rev. Grimes purchased Burns for $1,300
  • Burns moves to Ontario, Canada

The “trial” and subsequent return of Anthony Burns to slavery in 1854 resulted in the publication of a popular pamphlet in Boston. Documents like this generated increased support—and funds—for the abolitionist cause.

  • The focus on escaped slaves such as Anthony Burns raised the issue of their depiction as victims, in need of assistance
  • More activist abolitionists strongly argued that slaves, both escaped and those still in bondage, should actively resist and rise up in violent rebellion

05/19/11

*

Fugitive Slaves (cont’d)

  • Margaret Garner

Escaped to Cincinnati in 1856 with other slaves

Before arrested, she slits her daughter’s throat

Garner was disarmed before killing her two sons

Basis of Tony Morrison’s novel Beloved

05/19/11

*

  • Garner returned to Kentucky and then sent to Arkansas with her surviving children to be sold
  • Youngest son drowned in shipwreck returning south to be sold
  • Garner sold at slave market in New Orleans

Fugitive Slaves (cont’d)

  • The Rochester Convention, 1853

Called for greater unity among black people

Sought ways to improve their economic prospects

Asserted claims to citizenship

Equal protection

Frederick Douglass

Called for vocational training

05/19/11

*

  • In 1853, while northern communities grappled with the consequences of the fugitive slave law, African-American leaders gathered for a national convention
  • Delegates warned that black Americans were not prepared to submit to a government more concerned about the interests of slave owners than people seeking to free themselves from bondage

Fugitive Slaves (cont’d)

  • The Rochester Convention, 1853 (cont'd)

Rochester Convention, 1853

African-American leaders assembled in Rochester, New York, to discuss slavery, abolition, the recently passed Fugitive Slave Law, and their prospects for life in America

05/19/11

*

  • Beginning in 1830 and continuing until the end of the 19th century, black leaders held a series of national conventions
  • Those that were held prior to the Civil War focused on the abolition of slavery and met in Northern cities such as Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Rochester
  • Following the war, the gatherings occurred in Washington and Nashville among other places with the emphasis on the rights and opportunities of African Americans

Fugitive Slaves (cont’d)

f

LO 10-2. After the Battle at Christiana, forty one men were indicted for treason because they .

A: killed escaped slaves

B: raided Pennsylvania to recover escaped slaves

C: violently resisted the recovery of escaped slaves

D: killed U.S. Marshalls while hunting escaped slaves

05/12/11

*

Fugitive Slaves (cont’d)

f

LO 10-2. After the Battle at Christiana, forty one men were indicted for treason because they .

A: killed escaped slaves

B: raided Pennsylvania to recover escaped slaves

C: violently resisted the recovery of escaped slaves

D: killed U.S. Marshalls while hunting escaped slaves

05/12/11

*

Fugitive Slaves (cont’d)

LO 10-2. Before she was recaptured, escaped slave Margaret Garner slit the throat of her daughter rather than see the child returned to slavery.

A: True

B: False

05/12/11

*

Fugitive Slaves (cont’d)

LO 10-2. Before she was recaptured, escaped slave Margaret Garner slit the throat of her daughter rather than see the child returned to slavery.

A: True

B: False

05/12/11

*

Nativism and the Know-Nothings

  • Rising anti-immigrant feeling
  • Roman Catholic Irish and German immigrants
  • Alarmed native-born white Protestants
  • Fears of Catholic conspiracy
  • Added to political turmoil
  • Attacks on Catholic churches and convents
  • Know-Nothing Party, founded 1854
  • Some political success
  • Party split into northern, southern factions

05/19/11

*

  • Hundreds of thousands of Europeans arrived in the 1840s and 1850s; in one year, 1854, 430,000 people arrived on American shores
  • Mass starvation that accompanied the potato famine of the 1840s in Ireland drove thousands of Irish people to the United States

Nativism and the Know-Nothings (cont’d)

  • Nativism and the Know-Nothings (cont'd)

“Know-Nothing Party”

The nickname applied to members of the American Party, which opposed immigration in the 1850s

05/19/11

*

  • Party was strong in Kentucky, Texas, Massachusetts, elsewhere
  • Although Know-Nothings opposed immigrants and Catholics, they disagreed among themselves over slavery and its expansion

Nativism and the Know-Nothings (cont’d)

  • Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Sold 300,000 copies in a year

Made brutality of slavery personal

Infuriated southerners

False depiction of their way of life

Stowe had never visited the Deep South

05/19/11

*

  • No one contributed more to the growing opposition to slavery among white northerners than Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • Stowe developed a hatred of slavery that she converted into a melodramatic but moving novel about slaves and their lives
  • Uncle Tom’s Cabin moved northerners to tears and made slavery more emotional to readers

Nativism and the Know-Nothings (cont’d)

  • The Kansas-Nebraska Act

Stephen Douglas introduces bill, 1854

Transcontinental railroad

Divided territory

Popular Sovereignty

Repeal of Missouri Compromise

Won southern support

Destroyed Whig party

Divided North and South

05/19/11

*

  • Bill in Congress to organize the Kansas and Nebraska Territories provokes white settlers in Kansas to kill each other over slavery
  • Douglas’s primary concern was to secure Kansas and Nebraska for construction of a transcontinental railroad
  • Congress passes the bill, but its enactment destroyed an already divided Whig Party

Nativism and the Know-Nothings (cont’d)

  • The Kansas-Nebraska Act (cont'd)

Anti-Nebraska parties form

Violence erupted in Kansas and Congress

“Bleeding Kansas”

Popular sovereignty

The residents of a territory (such as Kansas) would vote to legalize or prohibit slavery in that territory

05/19/11

*

  • Kansas-Nebraska Act would repeal the limitation of Missouri Compromise of 1820 and allow settlers in Kansas to vote on slavery there
  • “Border ruffians” from Missouri invaded Kansas to attack antislavery settlers and to vote illegally

Nativism and the Know-Nothings (cont’d)

  • The Kansas-Nebraska Act (cont'd)

Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

Legislation introduced by Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas to organize the Kansas and Nebraska territories. It provided for “popular sovereignty,” whereby settlers would decide whether slavery would be legal or illegal

05/19/11

*

  • More than 200 people died in the escalating violence
  • Abolitionist John Brown and four of his sons sought revenge for Border ruffian invasion by hacking five proslavery men to death in Pottawattamie
  • The passions ignited by the fight over “bloody Kansas” can be viewed as a precursor to the beginning of the Civil War less than a decade later
  • Armed groups fought a series of vicious skirmishes in pursuit of their goals

05/19/11

*

Nativism and the Know-Nothings (cont’d)

  • The Kansas-Nebraska Act (cont'd)

Border ruffians

Pro-slavery advocates and vigilantes from Missouri who crossed the border into Kansas in 1855–1857 to support slavery in Kansas by threatening and attacking antislavery settlers

05/19/11

*

  • Some 500 border ruffians attacked the antislavery town of Lawrence, damaging businesses and killing one person
  • Civil war erupted in Kansas—prompting the press to label the territory “Bleeding Kansas”

Nativism and the Know-Nothings (cont’d)

  • Preston Brooks Attacks Charles Sumner

Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner

In 1856 he denounces “Crime Against Kansas”

Denounces South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler

South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks

Beats Sumner unconscious on Senate floor

“Defends Southern honor”

05/19/11

*

  • Sumner accused South Carolina Senator Andrew P. Butler of keeping slavery as his lover
  • Brooks resigned from the House of Representatives, paid a $300 fine, and went home to South Carolina a hero

Nativism and the Know-Nothings (cont’d)

f

LO 10-3. No one contributed more to the growing opposition to slavery among white northerners than .

A: the Know-Nothing Party

B: the Whig Party

C: Harriet Beecher Stowe

D: Anthony Burns

05/12/11

*

Nativism and the Know-Nothings (cont’d)

f

LO 10-3. No one contributed more to the growing opposition to slavery among white northerners than .

A: the Know-Nothing Party

B: the Whig Party

C: Harriet Beecher Stowe

D: Anthony Burns

05/12/11

*

Nativism and the Know-Nothings (cont’d)

LO 10-3. The Kansas-Nebraska act based on “popular sovereignty” drew the support of northerners because it eliminated the possibility that slavery might expand to areas where it had been prohibited.

A: True

B: False

05/12/11

*

Nativism and the Know-Nothings (cont’d)

LO 10-3. The Kansas-Nebraska act based on “popular sovereignty” drew the support of northerners because it eliminated the possibility that slavery might expand to areas where it had been prohibited.

A: True

B: False

05/12/11

*

The Dred Scott Decision

  • Dred Scott, slave, sued for freedom
  • Taken to state where slavery illegal, claimed he was free
  • Lost first case, won second, lost again on appeal

05/19/11

*

  • In 1856, Dred Scott was in his fifties and had been entangled in the judicial system for more than a decade
  • Scott was born in Virginia, but by the 1830s he belonged to John Emerson, an army doctor in Missouri

The Dred Scott Decision (cont’d)

  • The Dred Scott Decision (cont'd)

Questions for the court

Could a black man sue in federal court?

Did taking a slave to a state or territory where bondage was prohibited free the slave?

Roger Taney

Blacks not citizens

No rights the white man bound to respect

Missouri Compromise unconstitutional

05/19/11

*

  • After Emerson’s death and with the support of white friends, Scott and his wife filed separate suits for their freedom

The Dred Scott Decision (cont'd)

  • Dred Scott v. Sanford
  • The 1857 U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled against Missouri slave Dred Scott by declaring that black people were not citizens, that they possessed no constitutional rights, and were considered to be property.

05/19/11

*

  • Scott, according to the Supreme Court majority was slave property—and the slave owner’s property rights took precedence over other laws
  • The Court also ruled that Congress could not pass laws—including the Missouri Compromise or the Kansas-Nebraska Act—that prevented slave owners from taking their property into any territory

The Dred Scott case was front-page news on Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper in 1857. Harriet and Dred with their two daughters are depicted sympathetically as members of the middle class rather than as abused and mistreated slaves.

.

  • One of the key decisions of the Supreme Court in U.S. history, the Dred Scott case made it clear that the answer to whether the nation would remain half-slave and half-free would have to be resolved through either political compromise or militarily if the South were to secede.

05/19/11

*

The Dred Scott Decision (cont'd)

  • Reaction to the Dred Scott Decision

Whites were divided

White southerners delighted with Taney’s decision

Blacks discouraged, disgusted, defiant

Frederick Douglass believed decision would help destroy slavery

05/19/11

*

  • Instead of earning the acceptance—let alone the approval—of most Americans, the case further inflamed the controversy over slavery
  • Black Americans were discouraged, disgusted, and defiant

The Dred Scott Decision (cont'd)

  • White Northerners and Black Americans

Racism

Most white northerners fearful, hostile toward blacks

Ohio, Illinois, Indiana white people

Supported Fugitive Slave Law

Opposed slavery expansion

Free blacks in Northern states

Indiana, Iowa banned blacks, free or slaves, 1851

Illinois, 1853

05/19/11

*

  • By the 1850s, 200,000 black people lived in the northern states, and many white people there were not pleased with their presence
  • The same white northerners who opposed the expansion of slavery to California or Kansas also opposed the migration of free black people to northern states and communities
  • In 1851-1853 Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa outlawed the emigration to their territory of black people, slave or free

The Dred Scott Decision (cont'd)

f

LO 10-4. Chief Justice Roger Taney of Maryland framed two questions for the Court to decide in the Dred Scott case: Could Scott, a black man, sue in a federal court? And

?

A: was Scott forever a slave because he was born one

B: was Scott free because he had been taken to a state where slavery was prohibited

C: was Scott a slave because he presently resided in a slave state

D: was slavery unconstitutional

05/12/11

*

The Dred Scott Decision (cont'd)

f

LO 10-4. Chief Justice Roger Taney of Maryland framed two questions for the Court to decide in the Dred Scott case: Could Scott, a black man, sue in a federal court? And

?

A: was Scott forever a slave because he was born one

B: was Scott free because he had been taken to a state where slavery was prohibited?

C: was Scott a slave because he presently resided in a slave state?

D: was slavery unconstitutional?

05/12/11

*

The Dred Scott Decision (cont'd)

LO 10-4. Following the Supreme Court decision, a new owner freed Dred and Harriet Scott.

A: True

B: False

05/12/11

*

The Dred Scott Decision (cont'd)

LO 10-4. Following the Supreme Court decision, a new owner freed Dred and Harriet Scott.

A: True

B: False

05/12/11

*

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

  • Main issues slavery and race
  • Douglas’s position
  • Defended Dred Scott
  • Popular sovereignty
  • Slave owners could take slaves where they pleased

05/19/11

*

  • 1858 - Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois, a Democrat, ran for reelection to the Senate against Republican Abraham Lincoln
  • In carefully reasoned speeches and responses, these experienced and articulate lawyers focused almost exclusively on slavery’s expansion and its future
  • Douglas wants to be president, argues that states’ populations will decide on slavery

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (cont’d)

  • Abraham Lincoln and Black People

Democrats’ image of Republicans

Believed Republicans promoted image of blacks over whites

Lincoln did not believe in racial equality

Opposed slavery but did not support equality

05/19/11

*

  • The debates sometimes degenerated into crude exchanges about which candidate favored white people more and black people less—Douglas goaded Lincoln as promoting black interests
  • Lincoln: “I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.... “
  • Lincoln may have won the debate in the minds of many, but Douglas won the election

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (cont’d)

  • Abraham Lincoln and Black People (cont'd)

Lincoln-Douglas debates

Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debated seven times in the 1858 U.S. Senate race in Illinois. They spent most of their time arguing over slavery, its expansion, the Dred Scott decision, and the character of African Americans. Douglas won the election.

05/19/11

*

  • Lincoln, while losing the election, made a name for himself that would work to his political advantage in the near future
  • Douglas, despite his best efforts, had thoroughly offended many southerners

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (cont’d)

f

LO 10-5. In the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Stephen Douglas argued .

A: in support of popular sovereignty and the Dred Scott decision

B: against popular sovereignty and the Dred Scott decision

C: against slave owners taking slaves to free states

D: that African Americans had equal rights

05/12/11

*

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (cont’d)

f

LO 10-5. In the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Stephen Douglas argued .

A: in support of popular sovereignty and the Dred Scott decision

B: against popular sovereignty and the Dred Scott decision

C: against slave owners taking slaves to free states

D: that African Americans had equal rights

05/12/11

*

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (cont’d)

LO 10-5. Abraham Lincoln explained that merely because he opposed slavery did not mean he believed in equality.

A: True

B: False

05/12/11

*

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (cont’d)

LO 10-5. Abraham Lincoln explained that merely because he opposed slavery did not mean he believed in equality.

A: True

B: False

05/12/11

*

John Brown and the Raid on Harpers Ferry

  • Brown began to plan the overthrow of slavery in South

05/19/11

*

  • Brown was determined to invade the South and end slavery; he hoped to attract legions of slaves as his “army” moved down the Appalachian Mountains

John Brown and the Raid on Harpers Ferry (cont’d)

  • Planning the Raid

John Brown staunchly religious

Plans to attract and arm slaves

Turned down by Douglass, Tubman, and other leaders

Incite insurrection and end slavery

Financial support from white abolitionists

05/19/11

*

  • By the summer of 1859, at a farm in rural Maryland, Brown had assembled an “army” consisting of 17 white men and five black men

John Brown and the Raid on Harpers Ferry (cont’d)

  • The Raid

October 16th, 1859 raid at Harpers Ferry, VA

Utter failure

U.S. Marines wounded and captured Brown

150 slaves joined in the raid

05/19/11

*

  • Brown hoped to secure weapons and then advance south, but the operation went awry from the start
  • First person Brown’s band killed was ironically a free black man, Heyward Shepard, who was a baggage handler
  • Several slaves managed to flee to freedom in the North
  • Perhaps a dozen black men—in addition to those who accompanied Brown—died during and after the raid

John Brown was captured in the Engine House at Harpers Ferry on October 18, 1859. He was quickly tried for treason and convicted. On December 2, 1859, he was hanged. His raid helped catapult the nation toward civil war.

  • John Brown’s raid was a key event which signaled the hardening positions of Northerners and Southerners
  • While many in the North saw Brown as a heroic defender of liberty, most Southerners viewed him as a criminal madman

05/19/11

*

John Brown and the Raid on Harpers Ferry (cont’d)

  • The Reaction

Increased tensions, North and South

Southerners traumatized and terrified

Northern approbation enraged southerners

Justified long-held beliefs about northern agitation

Brown executed, becomes a Northern hero

Moved South closer to secession and end to slavery

05/19/11

*

  • Brown and his men succeeded in intensifying the deep emotions of those who supported and those who opposed slavery
  • The dignity and assurance that Brown, Green, and Copeland displayed as they awaited the gallows impressed many black and white northerners
  • A wave of hysteria and paranoia swept the South as incredulous white people wondered how northerners could admire a man who sought to kill slave owners

John Brown and
the Raid on Harpers Ferry (cont'd)

  • John Brown’s raid
  • Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in October 1859 failed to lead to a major slave insurrection, but it inflamed the controversy over slavery in the North and South

05/19/11

*

  • Although neither he nor anyone else realized it at the time, Brown and his “army” had propelled the South toward secession from the Union

“Border ruffians” were armed men from Missouri who crossed the border to support proslavery forces in the Kansas territory. These men sought the legalization of slavery in Kansas. They—as well as the opponents of slavery—were willing to resort to violence to achieve their aims.

  • Border ruffians were precursors of Confederate groups who fought on the frontiers of the main Civil War conflicts after 1861
  • Often loosely affiliated with local Confederate forces, these militias were known for their ferocity and brutality

05/19/11

*

  • Slaves were a majority or near-majority of many lower South states, while border states such as Tennessee and Kentucky had many fewer slaves
  • Restrictions on slave movements tended to be greater in the lower South

05/19/11

*

John Brown and the Raid on Harpers Ferry (cont’d)

f

LO 10-6. After his attack on a Kansas town, John Brown began to plan to .

A: raid Alabama in hopes of inspiring an slave uprising

B: invade the South, starting with a raid on a federal arsenal

C: take slave-owners as hostages in border states

D: kill as many slave-owners as possible

05/12/11

*

John Brown and the Raid on Harpers Ferry (cont’d)

f

LO 10-6. After his attack on a Kansas town, John Brown began to plan to .

A: raid Alabama in hopes of inspiring an slave uprising

B: invade the South, starting with a raid on a federal arsenal

C: take slave-owners as hostages in border states

D: kill as many slave-owners as possible

05/12/11

*

John Brown and the Raid on Harpers Ferry (cont’d)

LO 10-6. John Brown and his supporters were viewed as crazed zealots and insane fanatics even by black and white northerners after he was executed.

A: True

B: False

05/12/11

*

John Brown and the Raid on Harpers Ferry (cont’d)

LO 10-6. John Brown and his supporters were viewed as crazed zealots and insane fanatics even by black and white northerners after he was executed.

A: True

B: False

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The Election of Abraham Lincoln

  • Four candidates ran for president in 1860
  • John Bell, John C. Breckenridge
  • John Bell, Abraham Lincoln
  • Candidacy based on Republican opposition to slavery expansion
  • Southerner’s believed Lincoln would abolish slavery

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  • The Democrats split into a northern faction, which nominated Stephen Douglas, and a southern faction, which nominated John C. Breckenridge
  • The breakup of the Democratic Party assured victory for the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln
  • Lincoln’s name was not even on the ballot in most southern states because his candidacy was based on the Republican Party’s adamant opposition to the expansion of slavery

 

Points to consider: Lincoln, a Republican, was a long-shot candidate to win in 1860, but the Democrats became thoroughly divided over the issue of the spread of slavery to the western territories. Moreover, a third party, the Constitutional Union Party, also took votes away from the Democratic Party. Finally, Lincoln won the northern states, the most densely populated portion of the country which therefore provided the most popular and electoral college votes of any region of the nation.

  • The overwhelming majority of electoral votes accumulated by Lincoln pointed to the overwhelming increase in northern population by 1860, which would have resulted in future anti-slavery electoral victories had the South not seceded

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  • The timeline highlights the increasing momentum of the anti-slavery movement and increasing resistance of the South toward any compromise that would limit slavery

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The Election of Abraham Lincoln (cont’d)

  • Black People Respond to Lincoln’s Election

Black northerners, white abolitionists not enthusiastic

Dismayed by Lincoln’s opposition and tolerance of slavery

Lincoln condemned African Americans as inferior

Abolitionists felt Lincoln too tolerant of slaveholders interests

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  • After Lincoln’s election, black leaders almost welcomed the secession of southern states
  • Frederick Douglass wrote, “Lincoln’s election will indicate growth in the right direction”
  • Southern whites did not heed him; slavery was too essential to give up merely to preserve the Union

The Election of Abraham Lincoln (cont’d)

  • Disunion
  • South Carolina secedes December 20th, 1860
  • By February, seven Deep South states seceded

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  • By February 1861 seven states seceded—South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas

The Election of Abraham Lincoln (cont’d)

  • Disunion (cont'd)

Lincoln tried to calm southern fears

“Only” dispute was over the expansion of slavery

Promised to enforce the Constitution

Not interfere with slavery where it existed

Not tolerate secession

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  • Abraham Lincoln tried to persuade the seceding states to reconsider in his inaugural address
  • Southern whites did not heed him; slavery was too essential to give up merely to preserve the Union

The Election of Abraham Lincoln (cont’d)

f

LO 10-7. After the secession of seven states before his inauguration, Lincoln .

A: began planning offensive military campaigns against the South

B: tried to limit secession to only seven states

C: immediately called for the end of slavery nationwide

D: tried to calm white southerners but said he would not tolerate withdrawal from the Union

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The Election of Abraham Lincoln (cont’d)

f

LO 10-7. After the secession of seven states before his inauguration, Lincoln .

A: began planning offensive military campaigns against the South

B: tried to limit secession to only seven states

C: immediately called for the end of slavery nationwide

D: tried to calm white southerners but said he would not tolerate withdrawal from the Union

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The Election of Abraham Lincoln (cont’d)

LO 10-7. Black northerners and white abolitionists were eager to see Abraham Lincoln become president.

A: True

B: False

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The Election of Abraham Lincoln (cont’d)

LO 10-7. Black northerners and white abolitionists were eager to see Abraham Lincoln become president.

A: True

B: False

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Conclusion

  • Every minor, major events 1846-1861 involves slavery
  • Increasingly polarized Americans
  • No secession and no Civil War
  • Without the agitation over slavery in the territories

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  • White Americans were increasingly perplexed about how the nation could remain half slave and half free
  • Without the presence of black people in America, neither secession nor civil war would have occurred
  • Yet the Civil War began because white Americans had developed contradictory visions of the future
  • This timeline illustrates the increasing disunion within the United States over the issue of slavery with African-American efforts to end slavery compared to national political and cultural events

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Chapter Discussion Question

If you were a black person—either slave or free--what would your attitude be toward the secession of the southern states? Why?

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Resources

  • 1. The Underground Railroad
  • http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/
  • This National Park Service site provides locations, documents, and stories surrounding the operations of the Underground Railroad during the first half of the 1800s.
  • 2. The Abolitionists
  • http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/interactive-map/abolitionists-map/
  • In conjunction with the PBS production The Abolitionists, several museums provided data to create an interactive map on the PBS website of abolitionist places and people plotted by location throughout the U.S. for the first half of the 1850s.
  • 3. WPA Slave Narratives
  • http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/wpa/wpahome.html
  • This site maintained by the University of Virginia contains a selection of WPA interviews with ex-slaves in the 1930s, a wealth of information dealing with the underground railroad, the Civil War, and life as slaves.
  • 4. Supreme Court documents on Dred Scott Case
  • http://www.oyez.org/oyez/frontpage
  • This media site examines issues and documents associated with the U.S. Supreme Court. It provides links to primary documents dealing with the Dred Scott case.