3/17/2014 Northwest Ordinance (1787) (1787) Banned slavery in the Northwest territories A Road Map to Civil War: An Uneasy Compromise Louisiana Purchase (1803) Missouri Compromise (1820) Lead to the debate on expansion of slavery Created MO/ME and banned slavery north of the 36 °°° parallel Doubled the size 36’30 Line of the U.S. Kept the balance of free & slave states 1 3/17/2014 Slavery and Abolitionism Mexican Cession and Gold Rush • Abolitionists • Opened up new debate believed slavery about the expansion of was morally wrong slavery should be ended immediately • Many northerners did not want slavery to expand west • Southerners denied the • Southerners defended the allegations of expansion of slavery, Abolitionists and defended slavery arguing that slaves were and the treatment property of African Americans • The population boom in California lead to its admittance as a free state and an unbalance of power in Congress between free and slave states Wilmot Proviso The Debate of 1850 Debate in Congress centered on California becoming a state The Great Three took the lead in Congress Clay seeks a compromise and makes over 70 speeches in the House (Webster supported holding the Union together) In the Senate, Calhoun (too sick to read his own statements) calls for the south to secede – DIES DURING THE DEBATE 2 3/17/2014 Compromise of 1850 Fugitive Slave Law • Helped California admitted slaveholders as a free state return escaped slaves to the south • Fugitives held without warrants • Commissioners Slave trade paid $5 to release ended in and $10 for return to slave owner D.C. •. Rest of the Mexican Cession open to slavery Texas gave up by popular sovereignty western lands Stronger Fugitive Slave Law to help southern slaveholders recapture runaway slaves in the north Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) American Expansion and Division Nebraska Territory split Popular Sovereignty would decide issue of slavery in Kansas/Nebraska 3.