sign in sign up
<<
Home , Ostend Manifesto, Panic of 1857

The Coming Crisis the 1850s

I. American Communities A. Illinois Communities Debate Slavery 1. Lincoln-Douglas Debates II. America in 1850 A. Expansion and Growth 1. Territory 2. Population 3. South’s decline B. Politics, Culture, and National Identity 1. “American Renaissance” 2. Nathaniel Hawthorne a. The Scarlet Letter (1850) 3. Herman Melville a. Moby Dick (1851) 4. Harriet Beecher Stowe a. Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1851) III. Cracks in National Unity A. The B. Political Parties Split over Slavery 1. Mexican War’s impact a. Slavery in the territories? 2. Second American Party System a. Whigs & Democrats b. Sectional division C. Congressional Divisions 1. Underlying issues 2. States’ Rights & Slavery a. John C. Calhoun b. States’ rights: nullification c. U.S. Constitution & slavery 3. Northern Fears of “The ” a. Sectional balance: slave v. free D. Two Communities, Two Perspectives 1. Territorial expansion & slavery 2. Basic rights & liberties 3. Sectional stereotypes E. Fugitive Slave Act 1. 2. Effect of Slave Narratives a. Personal liberty laws 3. Provisions 4. case 5. & Harriet Jacobs 6. Effect on the North D. The Election of 1852 1. National Party system threatened 2. v. E. “Young America”: The Politics of Expansion 1. Pierce’s support 2. Filibusteros a. Caribbean & Central America 3. Cuba & IV. The Crisis of the National Party System A. The -Nebraska Act (1854) 1. Stephen A. Douglas 2. Popular sovereignty 3. Political miscalculation B. “” 1. Proslavery: Missouri a. “Border ruffians” 2. Antislavery: New England a. New England Emigrant Aid Society 3. Battleground: “popular sovereignty a. John Brown: Pottawatomie Creek C. The Politics of Nativism 1. Democratic Party: Catholic Irish 2. American Party: Know Nothings 1. Native-born Protestants 2. Sectional split D. The Republican Party and the Election of 1856 1. Origins & Ideology 2. Democrats: Divided Party 3. Three-Way Election a. Consequences

V. The Differences Deepen A. The Sumner-Brooks affair B. Dred Scott Decision 1. Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) a. Roger B. Taney & court’s decision b. Consequences 2. Lincoln-Douglas Debates a. Freeport doctrine C. The Lecompton Constitution 1. Civil war 2. v. Stephen A. Douglas 3. Break-up of Democratic Party D. The 1. Causes & consequences E. John Brown’s Raid 1. South’s reaction VI. The South Secedes A. The Election of 1860 1. Demise of Democratic Party 2. Republican Strategy 3. Slavery’s role 4. Lincoln’s victory B. The South Leaves the Union 1. Movement toward C. The North’s Political Options 1. Indecision and Attempted Compromise D. Establishment of Confederacy 1. Basis for government E. Lincoln’s Inauguration