The+Crucial+Decade

Lina Yielin Um 1. Timeline of Key Events media type="custom" key="24901850" 2. Presidents ** Zachary Taylor (1849-1850) ** Free Soil Movement   Compromise of 1850 **Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)** Fugitive Slave Law of 1850  The Underground Railroad   Uncle Tom's Cabin **Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)**  Kansas-Nebraska Act   The Ostend Manifesto   Bleeding Kansas   The caning of Senator Sumner   Lecompton Constitution **James Buchanan (1857-1861)**  The Panic of 1857   Dred Scott vs. Sandford   Lincoln-Douglas Debates   John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry   Secession   Crittenden Compromise

3. Most Important Vocabs
 * Free Soil Movement
 * They did not want to abolish slavery, just keep slavery and free African-Americans from settling in the new territories
 * Wanted to prevent job competition
 * Compromise of 1850
 * California's admission as a free state
 * Utah and New Mexico decide on slavery by popular sovereignty
 * Texas gave up disputed lands in exchange for the Federal government assuming $10 million in public debt
 * Banning of slave trade (not slavery) in the District of Columbia
 * Adoption of a stricter fugitive slave law
 * Popular Sovereignty
 * A compromise proposed by Lewis Cass, a Democratic senator from Michigan
 * The matter is determined by a vote of the people who settled the territory
 * Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
 * One of the major reasons Southerners supported the Compromise of 1850
 * Required the capture and return of slaves that escaped to northern states to their owners
 * Citizens who attempted to hide fugitive slaves or obstruct enforcement of the law were subject to heavy penalties
 * Kansas-Nebraska Act
 * Proposed the Nebraska territory be divided into two territories: Kansas and Nebraska
 * Kansas and Nebraska would decide on slavery by popular sovereignty
 * Appealed to southerners by overturning the Missouri Compromise and allowing slavery north of the 36,30' line
 * The Ostend Manifesto
 * Suggested that the United States should take the Cuba from Spain by force if Spain refused to sell it
 * Abolitionists saw Ostend as a plot to extend slavery
 * Southerners supported the manifesto, as they had feared Cuba would be a free "black republic"
 * Bleeding Kansas
 * Fighting between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces
 * 1856 proslavery forces attacked the free-soil town of Lawrence
 * Pottawatomie Massacre: Two days later John Brown, an abolitionist from Connecticut, retaliated by leading his sons on as attack of a pro-slavery settlement killing five
 * Dred Scott vs. Sandford
 * Major cause of conflict between North and South
 * Dred Scott, a slave in Missouri, argued that living on free soil made him free and sued for his freedom
 * Chief Justice Roger Taney, a southern Democrat made decisions against Scott
 * Dred Scott had no right to sue because the Constitution did not grant citizenship rights to slaves
 * Congress did not have the power to deprive citizens of property
 * Since slaves were property, Congress could not prohibit slavery in any federal territory
 * Therefore, the Missouri Compromise is unconstitutional
 * Lincoln-Douglas Debate
 * Democrat Stephen Douglas ran for reelection as US Senator in illinois in 1858
 * Supported popular sovereignty
 * Republican Abraham Lincoln ran against Douglas
 * Not an abolitionist, but viewed slavery as morally wrong
 * Opposed the expansion of slavery into the west
 * Lincoln challenged Douglas to explain how he could support popular sovereignty and still enforce the Dred Scott decision
 * Douglas won the election but alienated southern Democrats by not fully supporting Dred Scott
 * Lincoln lost but gained national exposure and support from the Republican Party
 * Secession
 * As a result of Lincoln's election, the seven states of the deep south each held state conventions
 * South voted to secede the Union
 * SC seceded first in December of 1861
 * Followed six weeks later by Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas

4. Key Primary Sources
 * Lincoln: First Inaugural Address
 * Advised both the South and the North that he wasn't on either side, but he saw both their point of views
 * He was very careful in order to preserve his beloved Union, not slavery
 * He stated that if he needed to free all the slaves he would do it, if he needed to free some slaves but not others he would do it, and if he had to maintain slavery he would do it, in order to "preserve the union."
 * Lincoln: House Divided Speech
 * The foundation for the argument that secession was wrong that split Union would ultimately fail
 * There had to be a War to reunite the country
 * If the South were allowed to secede then it would eventually wreck America
 * Gave people a reason to side with Lincoln's decision to fight to preserve the Union
 * Lincoln: Cooper Union Address
 * The speech that launched Lincoln on the path to the presidency
 * Provides a good example of how constitutional scholars of the time approached constitutional review
 * Lincoln examined the historical evidence for the positions of the 39 signers of the Constitution on slavery
 * Found that a majority of at least 21 held that Congress had the power to prohibit slavery in the territories
 * Therefore, The Republican Party position to oppose expansion of slavery but not disturb it in the South was merely a continuation of the path begun by the Founding Fathers
 * Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin
 * 1852 publication by Harriet Beecher Stowe
 * Portrayed to the North the evils of slavery by focusing on the splitting of slave families and the physical abuse of slaves
 * Convinced southerners of the North's incurable prejudice towards southern property rights
 * Fitzhugh: Sociology of the South
 * Pro-slavery book by George Fitzhugh
 * Argued that slavery was better for slaves than the conditions of northern "wage slaves" forced to work long hours in factories and mines
 * Attacked the capitalist wage system as worse than slavery

5. Essential Questions
 * How did "popular sovereignty" lead to violence?
 * The Compromise of 1850 gave absolute authority to Kansas and Nebraska on their decisions on slavery. Therefore, both anti-slavery and pro-slavery advocates rushed to the territories in the hope of becoming the majority. Soon, more people gathered into Kansas and Nebraska in order to appeal their opinions on slavery. Since there were many people with different opinions and no authority or regulation, violence took place.
 * How was the Election of 1856 ominous?
 * It became clear that the controversy over slavery led to split of the Union. The country was divided into two parts, one advocating slavery and the other abolishing it. From the result, Republican winning 1.3 million votes and Democrats winning 1.8 million votes, the division within the country on the slavery issue became evident. Thus, the Election of 1856 foreshadowed secession and disagreement in the future.
 * What were the effects of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates?
 * In the end, Douglas won the election; however, he alienated southern Democrats because he did not fully support Dred Scott and argued based on The Freeport Doctrine. Lincoln, on the other hand, gained national exposure and support from the Republican Party. Thus, he was later nominated for the Republican Party in the Election of 1860 and won.
 * What was the reaction of both the North and South to the Harpers Ferry raid?
 * Many anti-slavery northerners viewed Brown as a martyr. Thus, they respected and understood the motivation behind his action. However, southerners saw Brown's raid as evidence of the north's desire to destroy the south. It also became one of reasons that South seceded. Lincoln distanced his party from Brown because he advocated the containment of slavery, not immediate abolition.

media type="custom" key="24901858"
 * Lincoln - Douglas Debate

6. Bibliography
 * United States History Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1856
 * AP U.S. History Crash Course
 * http://totallyhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Millard-Fillmore-1857.png
 * http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres31.html
 * http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O3ppc-UC2s