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Dredd Scott
Dred Scott, a slave who lived in a free state and territory in which slavery was forbidden, sued for his freedom. Justice Taney declared that Negros could not be citizens of the US and that Scott had no right o sue in federal court. He wrote that under the "takings" clause of the Constitution, Congress could not stop Southern citizens from moving their property to wherever they would like. This ruling brought much controversy over slavery and furthered the division in the country. -
Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad
The underground railroad was a system that funneled fugitive slaves from the south to the North from 1810 to 1050. It operated primarily under the cover of the darkness, and a group of individuals moved the runaways from home to home in secret, attempting to get them to the North or Canada to their freedom. Run by a group of individuals, one of it's most famous 'conductors' is Harriet Tubman. An escaped slave herself, she escorted more than 300 slaves to their freedom. PBS -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner was educated by his slave family, and he went out as a traveling preacher to education slaves about Christianity. HE held secret meetings to discuss about rebelling, but only 30-40 people actually joined. Eventual, the rebels were caught and used as a demonstration as why to not rebel. The effect of this rebellion were tougher slave codes and restrictions. -
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Slavery in the South
Rahma Jamac -
End of Whigs: Division over Slavery
As the expansion of Whigs became a great issue in American politics, the Whig party began to decline due to their different stances on the issue. After the formation of the Republican party that worked to keep slavery from expanding, the Whig party continued to decline. The plantation owners a part of the Whig party wanted to expand, as their cash crops tended to deplete their soil. The party was split over their anti-slavery and pro-slavery sentiments, and thus they 'ended.' -
Wilmot Proviso
This was a bill proposed by David Wilmot. It was meant to negotiate territory between Mexico and the United States. Wilmot added an amendment, however, that stipulated that none of the territory acquired in the Mexican American War should be open to slavery. The bill passed the House, but the Senate drew up its own bill, excluding the proviso. This caused great bitterness between the North and the South, furthering the conflict over the division fo slavery. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was introduced by Henry Clay in order to create a compromise between those who support the expansion of slavery in the west and those who oppose it. As part of it, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended, and slave trade in D.C. was Abolished. California entered the Union as a free state and a territorial government was created in Utah. The boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico was settled in an Act that also established a territorial government in NM. -
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
Passed by Congress in the 1850s, these allowed for the return of runaway slaves in the United States. This law also placed the control of individual cases in the hands of federal commissioners. They were paid more for returning a suspected slave rather than freeing them, and many argued that this law was biased in favor of the Southerners. The URR reached it's peak during this time, with slaves freeing to Canada to escape US jurisdiction. The law was met with extreme criticism by abolitionists. -
Harriet Beecher: Uncle Tom's Cabin
In 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom's Cabin. It was a fictional story that takes the position that slavery only brings out the worst in their white masters, and thus they commit atrocities that they would otherwise not commit. In the north, the readers became more aware about the horrors of slavery, and in the south, they were outraged and the book was branded as an irresponsible distortion of events. The book rivaled the Bible in publications, with over 300,000 copies sold. -
Missouri Comprise Repealed
The Missouri compromise was passed in 1820-21, was meant to end the controversy of the expansion of slavery, by prohibiting it 36°30′N lat of the remaining land of the Louisiana Purchase. It held until 1854, until the Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed it, which renew tensions between those with pro-slavery and anti-slavery sentiments. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debate
In a series of debates with Stephen Douglas, they debated among the expansion of slavery as one of their topics. Douglas declared his support of white supremacy and attracted Lincoln for supporting "negro equality." Lincoln argued that free blacks should have equal economic opportunity, not equal political rights. They also spoke about the Dred Scott case. Ultimately Lincoln lost the election for Senate, he gained national prominence.
