Slavery and Western Expansion OBJECTIVE: TO UNDERSTAND HOW WESTWARD EXPANSION LED TO A DEBATE ABOUT SLAVERY. The Impact of the War with Mexico
The war with Mexico led to the issue whether slavery should be allowed to spread westward.
The Wilmot Proviso proposed that slavery should be forbidden in any territory gained from Mexico.
Senator Lewis Cass proposed that citizens of each territory should be allowed to decide for themselves on slavery. This was called popular sovereignty.
Whig candidate Zachery Taylor avoided the issue of slavery and won a narrow victory over Democratic nominee Lewis Cass and Free Soil party Martin Van Buren. Congress Struggles for a Compromise
James Marshall discovered gold in Sacramento in January 1848. By the end of 1849, nearly 80,000 “Forty-Niners” had arrived in California. Californians decided to seek statehood because the gold rush led to chaos and violence. Henry Clay came up with a compromise that allowed California to become a free state but allowed slavery in the rest of the Mexican succession. It also outlawed the slave trade in the District of Columbia but not slavery itself. Congress passed the Compromise of 1850, which included part of Clay’s original compromise. The Fugitive Slave Act
Part of the compromise was the Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed any slaveholder to point out alleged runaways to have them taken into custody.
Federal officials had a financial incentive to rule in favor of slaveholders.
The Fugitive Slave Act required federal marshals to assist slavecatchers.
Northerners risked heavy fines and prison terms to assist runaway slaves. The Underground Railroad and Uncle Tom’s Cabin
The Underground Railroad was a well organized network of abolitionists who helped thousands of enslaved persons flee north.
Conductors such as Harriet Tubman, transported runaways in secret, gave them food and shelter and saw them to freedom.
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1851.
The book depicted the horrors of slavery and sold over 300,000 copies.
This led to passionate antislavery sentiment in the North and is considered by many historians to be a cause of the Civil War. New Territorial Troubles
The transcontinental railroad (one that would cross the whole country) would reduce the journey to four days and promote further growth in the territories.
Mexico agreed to sell the Gadsden purchase which southerners wanted to use the land for part of the railroad.
Stephen Douglass pushed for the railroad to start at Chicago and go through the Nebraska Territory.
He proposed that the Nebraska Territory be split into two territories (Nebraska and Kansas), and that these territories exercise popular sovereignty on slavery. Bleeding Kansas
Thousands of Northerners migrated to Kansas territory to try and outlaw slavery.
This led to Missourians crossing the border to vote illegally.
This led to Kansas having two governments.
Tensions rose as Missourians crossed over and attacked the town of Lawrence, which was a stronghold of antislavery settlers.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY Caning of Charles Sumner
Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner accused pro-slavery senators of forcing Kansas to become a slave state.
This led Representative Preston Brooks to beat the senator with a cane, leaving Sumner severely injured.