American History, Chpt, 15 & 16

Describe the three (3) conflicting views on the slavery issue for the western territories.

1. Abolitionists wanted to stop any attempt to expand slavery into the western territories. 2. Pro-slavery Southerners wanted no restrictions on the spread of slavery into the western territories. 3. Moderates wanted to seek some sort of compromise on the issue. Some proposed simply extending the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific coast and letting this determine whether slavery was to be allowed or not in the territories.

What were the five parts of the Compromise of 1850?

1. California would enter the Union as a free state. 2. The lands of the Mexican Cession would be divided into the territories of New Mexico and Utah. The issue of whether to allow slavery or not in these territories would be decided by their citizens through popular sovereignty. 3. A strict fugitive slave law was enacted. 4. The slave trade in Washington, D.C. was banned. 5. A border dispute between Texas and New Mexico was resolved.

Who were the three (3) candidates for president in 1848 AND explain where each stood on the slavery issue?

1. Martin Van Buren was the candidate of the Free Soil Party. He was opposed to the expansion of slavery into the western territories. 2. Zachary Taylor was the candidate of the Whig Party. He did not take a position on the issue of slavery, but most felt he was a supporter of slavery since he owned some slaves. He would win the election primarily because of his military record during the Mexican-American War. 3. Lewis Cass was the candidate of the Democratic Party. He favored using popular sovereignty to decide the issue of slavery in the western territories.

What is an abolitionist?

An abolitionist is someone who wants to end or abolish slavery completely in the United States.

How did many northerners react to passage of the Fugitive Slave Act?

Antislavery northerners were extremely angry about the Fugitive Slave Act since it made them feel as if they were now part of the institution of slavery.

Explain why Missouri's application for statehood in 1819 created a political crisis.(Tell why letting Missouri become a new state would create a problem.)

As a territory, Missouri had allowed slavery. Now that Missouri was applying for statehood, it would want to enter as a slave state. This would throw off the balance that currently existed in the Senate between slave states and free states.

Explain the significance of the 36° 30' N latitude line in the Missouri Compromise.

As part of the Missouri Compromise, a line was extended along the 36° 30' N latitude line (southern border of Missouri) to the west. This line would divide the lands of the Louisiana Purchase. Slavery would be allowed in lands south of the line, while it would be banned in lands north of the line (with the exception of Missouri). This would decide the issue of slavery in the west for the foreseeable future.

Popular sovereignty is the right of the people to create their own government. How did some moderates want to apply popular sovereignty to the problem over slavery?

By applying popular sovereignty to the issue, the people of the particular territory or state would vote on whether to allow slavery or not.

What was the position or opinion of southern leaders like John C. Calhoun and James Mason during the crisis over California?

Calhoun and other southern hard-liners were opposed to any kind of compromise. They were willing to secede from the country and face the consequences.

What did Henry Clay and Daniel Webster attempt to do in the Senate during the crisis? (What were they saying needed to happen and what were they afraid would happen if this didn't happen?)

Clay and Webster (and other moderates) called for some sort of compromise on the issue. Their fear was that unless both sides were willing to reach a compromise, the country might face separation and civil war.

This chapter's main theme is the growing crisis over slavery. What general decision does Congress have to deal with that pits North versus South?

Congress must decide whether slavery will be allowed or banned in new territories as more settlers move west.

What did the aboltionist Frederick Douglass do?

Douglass was born a slave and would eventually runaway to the North. He became one of the most eloquent and well-known abolitionist leaders since he could speak about his own experiences as a slave.

What did the aboltionist William Lloyd Garrison do?

Garrison was a white abolitionist who was one of the most outspoken of the movement's leaders. His abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, was the most influential anti-slavery newspaper in the country.

Who wrote the book, Uncle Tom's Cabin?

Harriet Beecher Stowe

One of the Underground Railroad's most famous "conductors" was Harriet Tubman. What evidence suggests that she was very good at her job?

Harriet Tubman was a runaway slave that returned to the South to help hundreds of slaves escape to freedom. Slave owners offered a $40,000 reward for her capture.

Why did slavery become an issue again in the late 1840s? After all, we had the Missouri Compromise. (Explain what happened in the 1840s that created a new problem concerning slavery.)

In 1848, the U.S. added a large area of new land to the country that had been won from Mexico in the Mexican-American War. These new lands had not been part of the U.S. when the Missouri Compromise had been passed, so they were not technically included in the provisions of this law. The issue of whether slavery would be allowed to spread to these new lands was again in play.

What caused the political crisis in 1849-50 that led to the Compromise of 1850? (Be complete with your answer.)

In 1850, California applied for statehood. It wanted to enter as a free state which would have thrown off the balance in the Senate in favor of the free states. Since it was apparent that no territory would soon be ready to apply for statehood as a slave state to restore the balance, southerners opposed California's admission.

President Zachary Taylor was opposed to a compromise over the crisis. What happened in 1850 that changed the viewpoint of the Chief Executive?

In 1850, Zachary Taylor died of an unknown intestinal ailment. Vice-President Millard Fillmore became president. Fillmore was a moderate who supported the efforts to reach a compromise. He used his influence to help pass the Compromise of 1850.

Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized a convention in Seneca Falls, New York to draw attention to the problems faced by women. The Seneca Falls Convention modeled their Declaration of Sentiments on the Declaration of Independence. How was its opening statement different from that of the opening statement of Jefferson's work?

In Jefferson's opening statement of the Declaration of Independence, he states "all men are created equal". In the opening statement of the Declaration of Sentiments from the Seneca Falls Convention, it states that "all men AND WOMEN are created equal".

During the mid-1800s, what were ways that reflected how few rights women had?

In the mid-1800s, women could not vote or hold political office. Any property that a wife brought into a marriage became the property of her husband and if she worked outside the home, her wages belonged to him as well. Husbands also had the right to physically abuse their wives if they felt it was appropriate.

What was the impact of the book in the North AND the South? (What did the people of these two areas think about it or how did it make them feel?)

Many northerners who read the book could no longer ignore the issue of slavery. It opened their minds to the evils of slavery. Southerners rejected the book as an exaggeration of brutality of slavery. They claimed that it did not portray a true picture of slave life.

Leaders of the women's rights movement saw education as an important part of achieving their goal. What stood in the way of accomplishing this goal?

Most women in the United States did not have access to an education and those that did were rarely allowed to take the more rigorous subjects that men took.

Read the quote in the box labeled Primary Source on page 466. What is Mr. Delany saying about resisting the Fugitive Slave Act? (IN YOUR OWN WORDS!)

Mr. Delany is saying that a person's home is private and that he would defend his privacy and right to conduct himself there as he saw fit against those who might violate it looking for runaway slaves.

Why did so few African Americans agree with the plans of the American Colonization Society?

Only a few thousand free blacks agreed to move to the colony in Africa. Most blacks living in the United States viewed it as their home since most were generations removed from living in Africa. The colony would eventually become the independent country of Liberia. The experiment proved to be a failure as the African-Americans that did move to Liberia did not assimilate with the Africans natives living there. This led to unrest and a turbulent history for Liberia.

Why did the author write Uncle Tom's Cabin?

She wrote her novel in an attempt to show the evils of slavery and to try to get those who read the book to look at the slavery as a moral evil.

A former slave named Sojourner Truth became an effective advocate for the rights of women. Explain how she got her name.

Sojourner Truth believed that God wanted her to fight slavery. She vowed to travel, or sojourn, across the land speaking the truth. This is where she came up with her new name.

Why did some northerners oppose abolition?

Some northerners opposed abolition. For some, their opposition was based on economics. Northern mills relied on cotton produced using slave labor in the South. An end to slavery could negatively impact their profitability. For others, their opposition came from their fear that freed slaves would come north and compete for jobs.

What senator's efforts led to the final adoption of the Compromise of 1850 after Henry Clay became too ill to continue?

Stephen Douglas

How did the American Colonization Society hope to end slavery in the U.S.?

The American Colonization Society was an organization that attempted to start a colony in West Africa where free blacks could return to their homeland to live.

What did the Fugitive Slave Act do? (Include some of the details of the Act.)

The Fugitive Slave Act required that all citizens (free states included) were responsible for helping to capture and return runaway or fugitive slaves. Failure to do so could result in fines or imprisonment.

What did the aboltionists The Grimke Sisters do?

The Grimke's were two sisters who grew up on a plantation in the South. They saw the demeaning brutality of slavery first-hand and rejected it. They moved to the North and spoke out against slavery. Unfortunately, their story was not as effective as it could have been because they were women and women were not allowed to have the same role as men during that time period.

Henry Clay offered a compromise that solved the problem of admitting Missouri, at least for a while. How did the Missouri Compromise solve the problem created by Missouri's application for statehood? (Explain what the Missouri Compromise did.)

The Missouri Compromise basically called for Missouri to be admitted as a slave state and Maine would be admitted as a free state. Maine had been part of the state of Massachusetts. Maine had wanted to secede from Massachusetts for many years and in 1820 they voted to do so. This meant that the balance in the Senate was maintained.

From America's colonial years, Quakers were opposed to slavery. Explain who the Quakers were and why they believed that slavery was wrong.

The Quakers were a religious group of Protestant reformers found primarily in Pennsylvania. They believed that slavery was wrong because all people were equal in the eyes of God.

What exactly was the Underground Railroad?

The Underground Railroad was a network of black and white abolitionists that secretly helped slaves escape to freedom in the North.

The Wilmot Proviso was a bill (proposed law) that would do what about slavery?

The Wilmot Proviso called for a ban on slavery in any lands obtained from Mexico as a result of the Mexican-American War.

Why didn't the Wilmot Proviso solve the problem?

The bill passed in the House of Representatives, but was defeated in the Senate where the slave states had more power. Even though this attempt to stop the expansion of slavery failed, it convinced many southerners that northerners were intent on ending slavery.

How did the abolitionist movement affect the South?

The growing abolitionist movement caused many in the South to defend slavery with even more zeal. They feared that abolitionists were encouraging slaves to rebel and use violent means to gain their freedom.

Some members of the Whig and Democratic parties wanted a ban on slavery. Why did they feel they needed to leave their respective party and form the Free Soil Party in 1848? (I'm not looking for what they wanted to do about slavery, but why they felt the need to start a new political party.)

The leadership of the Whig and Democratic parties were unwilling to take a strong position or stance on the issue of slavery out of the fear that doing so would cost them votes. For this reason, members of these two parties that did feel strongly about slavery felt it was necessary to leave their current party and start a new party.

The Seneca Falls Convention passed resolutions demanding equal rights in many areas. Which resolution was the most controversial and passed by a narrow margin?

The resolution calling for women to have the right to vote was the most controversial.

What did the aboltionist David Walker do?

Walker was born in the South a free black, but he saw the brutality of slavery. He moved to the North and spoke out against slavery. He advocated ending slavery by any means necessary. This meant that blacks should use violence if they felt it was the only way to gain their freedom.