Thirty Years PassTension mounts

Southerners fear anti-slavery forces are winning

Now California wants to join as a Free State (da da da DUM!)

More Compromise: The Compromise of 1850

For Abolitionists For Supporters

California enters as a Free State

Outlaws (abolishes) slavery in DC

Stronger fugitive slave law

New Mexico and Utah make their own decisions about slavery

Guess Who’s Still Not Happy

The Georgia PlatformGeorgia decides to

stand with the Union (for now)

BUT – secession does stay in the back of their minds

Georgia delegates wanted to “preserve that Union which has extended … over a vast wilderness to another ocean…”

Fugitive Slave ActEscaped “fugitives”

must be returned

Anyone who helped, hid, or harbored them could face:$1000 fine OR6 months in prison

Excerpt from Fugitive Slave ActSection 7“And be it further enacted, That any person who shall knowingly and willingly obstruct, hinder, or prevent such claimant, his agent or attorney, or any person or persons lawfully assisting him, her, or them, from arresting such a fugitive from service or labor,…or shall harbor or conceal such fugitive, so as to prevent the discovery and arrest of such person, after notice or knowledge of the fact that such person was a fugitive from service or labor as aforesaid, shall, for either of said offences, be subject to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding six months…”

A Plea for Change: Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe of Connecticut

"...the enslaving of the African race is a clear violation of the great law which commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves"

Your TurnYour are a middle class Northerner in the free

state of Ohio.It’s broad-open daylight There is a knock at your back doorThere stands a desperate family of three

(Mom, Dad, daughter) who has escaped a plantation in neighboring Virginia.

It’s January.What would you do?

Kansas-Nebraska ActKansas and

Nebraska territories could decide whether to be Free States or Slave States

Included: Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, SD and ND

This is called popular sovereignty

“Bleeding Kansas”

The Dred Scott CaseDred Scott v. SandfordSlave who lived for a

short time in free Minnesota

Thought he should be free

Supreme Court ruled against him

Said slaves were NOT citizens and couldn’t sue

Cause # 3: A Presidential Election1860 Election

Lincoln represented Northern Republicans

John Breckinridge was Southern Democrats *

Lincoln won with 59% of votes

Days LaterSouth Carolina voted 169 – 0 to Secede from

the Union

Georgia voted 208 – 89 to Secede

Even those who didn’t vote pledge their “lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor to the defense of Georgia.”

Free and independent “Republic of Georgia”

Total States to SecedeSouth CarolinaGeorgiaMississippi AlabamaFlorida

LouisianaTexas, Virginia Arkansas, North Carolina Tennessee

Birth of a New NationConfederate States of America

Created in 1861

President – Jefferson Davis (MS)

Vice President – Robert Toombs (GA)

Capitol – Richmond, VA

Confederate States of America1861