(tr)CORBIS, (br)Courtesy of the United States Naval ... Suez Canal completed 1871 Bismarck unifies Germany 1890 Poll taxes and literacy tests begin in Mississippi Union and Confederate

520

1846Bear Flagrevolt takesplace

1850California isadmitted toUnion as afree state

1824Chumash Indiansrevolt at Californiamissions

1848The CommunistManifesto ispublished

1853CommodorePerry arrivesin Japan

1820Congress passesMissouri Compromise

Because of the issue of slavery, relations between the Northand the South grew more hostile. Soon the two sides met inthe most horrible war the country had ever seen. With theNorth’s victory slavery was ended, but the reunited nationfaced key issues that would take many decades to reconcile.

• While the North and South had made several compromises onslavery over the years, the issue eventually split the country.

• The Civil War and Reconstruction freed the slaves, but issuesrelated to civil rights and equal opportunity still exist today.

1850CongresspassesCompromiseof 1850

1820 18401820 18401857Supreme Courtannounces Dred Scottdecision

Dred Scott

Commodore Perry

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1861The Civil Warbegins

1877Reconstructionends

1860 1880 19001860 1880 1900

1870Ward v. Floodkeeps AfricanAmericansout of whiteschools

1872Modoc War is last NativeAmerican armed resistance

1879NewCaliforniaConstitutionis adopted

1869Suez Canalcompleted

1871Bismarck unifies Germany

1890Poll taxes and literacytests begin in Mississippi

Union and Confederate flags

Otto von Bismarck

Captain Jack,Modoc Chief

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30°N

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ATLaNTICOCEaN

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Washington, D.C.

Confederate States

Union States

The U.S. in 1861

Richmond, VA

Fort Sumter

New Orleans

(tl)Michigan Capitol Committee, photography by Peter Glendinning, (tr)Museum of the Confederacy, (c)CORBIS, (b)Image Select/Art Resource, NY

522

FORT SUMTER

See Road to Civil WarChapter 12

GETTYSBURG

See The Civil WarChapter 13

c. 1817–1895African American

leaderChapter 12, page 532

c. 1797–1883African American

leaderChapter 12, page 532

c. 1800–1857Subject of Supreme

Court case on slaveryChapter 12, page 549

1809–1865Sixteenth presidentof the United States

Chapter 12, page 552

Frederick DouglassFrederick Douglass Sojourner TruthSojourner Truth Dred ScottDred Scott Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln

(bkgd)Worldsat International Inc. 2004, All Rights Reserved, (t)Bettmann/CORBIS, (c)Thad Samuels Abell II/Getty Images, (bl)Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, PA, (bcl)Collection of William Gladstone, (bcr)Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, (br)CORBIS

523

FORD’S THEATER

See ReconstructionChapter 14

APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE

See The Civil WarChapter 13

1807–1870Confederate generalChapter 13, page 611

1821–1912Civil War nurse


1808–1875Seventeenth president

of the United StatesChapter 14, page 628

1822–1885Union general


Ulysses S. GrantUlysses S. Grant Robert E. LeeRobert E. Lee Clara BartonClara Barton Andrew JohnsonAndrew Johnson

(t)Joseph Sohm; ChromoSohm Inc./CORBIS, (c)Lee Snider/Photo Images/CORBIS, (bl)National Archives, (bcl)CORBIS, (bcr)FPG, (br)White House Historical Association

1820MissouriCompromiseis passed

1860AbrahamLincoln elected president

1861Civil Warbegins

Slave States,1861

1820MissouriCompromiseis passed

1860AbrahamLincolnelected president

1861Civil Warbegins

Slave States,1861

1820 1845 1870

Fort Sumter is where the Civil War began.

1845Texasbecomesa state

William A. Bake/CORBIS

CHAPTER 12 • Road to Civil War 525

Sequencing Events Make and use this foldable to sequence some of the key eventsthat led to the Civil War.

Reading and WritingAs you read, write factsabout the events undereach appropriate tab ofyour foldable. How didthese events lead to theCivil War?

Step 1 Fold a sheet ofpaper in half from side to side, leaving a —1

2— inch

tab along the side.

12

Leave inch tab

here.

Step 2 Cut the top flap to make 5 tabs.

Make fivetabs.

Step 3 Label your foldableas shown.

Slavery& theWest

Abolitionists

Acts of1850 &

1854

Dred Scott& Lincoln/

DouglasDebates

1860Election

The Road to Civil War

AbolitionistsReactions to social injustice can lead to reform movements. Many

reformers turned their attention to eliminating slavery.

Slavery and the WestDifferences in economic, political, and social beliefs and practices can lead to

division within a nation and have lasting consequences. The questionof whether to admit new states as free states or slave states arose.

A Nation DividingDifferences in economic, political, and social beliefs and practices can lead

to division within a nation and have lasting consequences. Growingtensions over slavery eventually led to violence in the new territories.

Challenges to SlaveryConflict often brings about great change. A new antislavery party and a

Supreme Court decision divided the nation further on slavery.

Secession and WarConflict often brings about great change. In response to Lincoln’s election

as president, most Southern states left the Union.

View the Chapter 12 video in the Glencoe Video Program.

for a preview of Chapter 12.

Chapter Overview Visit ca.hss.glencoe.com

http://ca.hss.glencoe.com

Making Inferences

Good readers make inferences to help them understand text.Another way to describe this skill is “reading between the lines.”Use this skill to look for clues that might explain what is occur-ring in the passage even though it may not be explicitly stated.Think about what you already know and draw conclusions basedon this knowledge. Because it is impossible to include everydetail, the author relies on a reader’s ability to infer. Makinginferences will draw on many of the other reading strategies youhave been using in this book, including recognizing bias andquestioning.When you read the paragraph below, answer thequestion “What did the people in Boston think of slavery?”

526

On May 24, 1854, the people of Bostonerupted in outrage. Federal officers hadseized Anthony Burns, a runaway slavewho lived in Boston, to send him back toslavery. Abolitionists tried to rescue Burnsfrom the federal courthouse, and cityleaders attempted to buy his freedom. Allefforts failed. . . . In a gesture of bitterprotest, Bostonians draped buildings inblack and hung the American flag upsidedown.

—from page 533

As you read, ask yourself

“What facts or information

does the author expect me

to already know about this

topic?”

With a partner, discuss these questions to make more infer-ences from the passage about Anthony Burns. Be sure to dis-cuss why this account may have been included by the author.

• What was the opinion ofthe Boston public? The cityleaders?

• What message did theywant to send to the federalgovernment?

• A flag flown upside downis a naval distress signal.Why did they choose thissignal?

• The issue of slaverydivided Americans in the1850s. What are someissues today that divideAmericans? What distin-guishes a divisive issuefrom one that can be solvedthrough compromise?

As you read this chapter, practice your skill at makinginferences by making connections and asking questions.Try to think about the information “between the lines.”

Can you rewrite thepassage about AnthonyBurns from his perspec-tive? Use the same factsbut convey a differentimpression.

Read to Write


Pamphlet, 1854

Getty Images

528 CHAPTER 12 • Road to Civil War

Abolitionists

Looking Back, Looking AheadYou learned earlier that slave labor wasimportant to the South. You will nowread about how groups and individualsworked to end slavery and to freeindividual enslaved people.

Focusing on the • By the early 1800s, a growing number

of Americans had begun to demand animmediate end to slavery in the South.(page 529)

• The issue of slavery became the mostpressing social issue for reformers,beginning in the 1830s. (page 530)

• Abolitionists established a network ofroutes and risked their lives to helpAfrican Americans escape slavery.(page 533)

Meeting PeopleWilliam Lloyd GarrisonSarah and Angelina GrimkéDavid WalkerFrederick DouglassSojourner Truth

Content Vocabularyabolitionist (A • buh• LIH• shuhn• ihst)Underground Railroad

(UHN•duhr•GROWND RAYUHL•ROHD)

Academic Vocabularynotion (NOH• shuhn)publication (PUH •bluh•KAY• shuhn)

Reading StrategyOrganizing Information Create adiagram like the one below. As you readthe section, identify five abolitionists.Below each name, write a sentencedescribing his or her role in themovement.

Abolitionists

Slaveholdingregion

HistorySocial ScienceStandardsUS8.9 Students analyzethe early and steadyattempts to abolish slav-ery and to realize theideals of the Declarationof Independence.

1847Liberia becomesan independentcountry

1815 1830 1845 1860

1822First AfricanAmericans settle in Liberia

1831William LloydGarrison foundsThe Liberator

1816AmericanColonizationSociety isformed

US8.9 Students analyze the early and steady attempts to abolish slavery and to realize the ideals of the Declaration ofIndependence.

Early Efforts to End SlaveryBy the early 1800s, a growing num-

ber of Americans had begun to demand animmediate end to slavery in the South.

Reading Connection Can you think of an issuethat caused disagreement in your family or group offriends? Read to learn how divisive the issue of slav-ery was to the nation.

William Lloyd Garrison, a dramatic andspirited man, fought strongly for the right ofAfrican Americans to be free. On one occasion,Garrison was present when FrederickDouglass, an African American who hadescaped from slavery, spoke to a white audienceabout life as a slave. Douglass electrified his lis-teners with a powerful speech. Suddenly,Garrison leaped to his feet. “Is this a man,” hedemanded of the audience, “or a thing?”Garrison shared Douglass’s outrage at thenotion that people could be bought and soldlike objects.

The spirit of reform that swept the UnitedStates in the early 1800s was not limited toimproving education and expanding the arts. Italso included the efforts of abolitionists (A •buh •LIH • shuhn • ihsts) like Garrison and Douglass—members of the growing band of reformers whoworked to abolish, or end, slavery.

Even before the American Revolution, someAmericans had tried to limit or end slavery. Atthe Constitutional Convention in 1787, the del-egates had reached a compromise on the diffi-cult issue, agreeing to let each state decidewhether to allow slavery. By the early 1800s,Northern states had ended slavery, but it con-tinued in the South.

The religious revival and the reform move-ment of the early and mid-1800s gave new lifeto the antislavery movement. Many Americanscame to believe that slavery was wrong. Yet notall Northerners shared this view. The conflictover slavery continued to build.

Many of the men and women who led theantislavery movement came from the Quakerfaith. One Quaker, Benjamin Lundy, wrote:

“I heard the wail of the captive; I felt his pang of distress, and theiron entered my soul.”

—from Historical Collections of Ohio

Lundy founded a newspaper in 1821 tospread the abolitionist message.

American Colonization Society The firstlarge-scale antislavery effort was aimed atresettling African Americans in Africa or theCaribbean. The American Colonization Society,formed in 1816 by a group of white Virginians,attempted to free enslaved workers graduallyby buying them from slaveholders and sendingthem abroad to start new lives.

The society raised enough money from pri-vate donors, Congress, and a few state legisla-tures to send several groups of AfricanAmericans out of the country. Some went to thewest coast of Africa, where the society hadacquired land for a colony. In 1822 the firstAfrican American settlers arrived in this colony,called Liberia, Latin for “place of freedom.”

In 1847 Liberia became an independentcountry. American emigration to Liberia contin-ued until the Civil War. Some 12,000 to 20,000African Americans settled in the new countrybetween 1822 and 1865.

The American Colonization Society did nothalt the growth of slavery. The number ofenslaved people continued to increase at asteady pace, and the society could only resettlea small number of African Americans.Furthermore, most African Americans regardedthe United States as their home and were notprepared to migrate to another continent. Manywere from families that had lived in Americafor several generations. They simply wanted tobe free in American society.

Explain How did theAmerican Colonization Society fight slavery?


US8.9.1 Describe the leaders of the movement (e.g., John Quincy Adams and his proposed constitutional amendment; JohnBrown and the armed resistance, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Weld, WilliamLloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass).

The New AbolitionistsThe issue of slavery became the

most pressing social issue for reformers, begin-ning in the 1830s.

Reading Connection Think of a person or a leaderwhom you admire. Does he or she stand up for others? Read to learn how abolitionists worked toend slavery.

The Movement Changes Reformers realizedthat the gradual approach to ending slavery hadfailed. Moreover, the numbers of enslaved per-sons had sharply increased because the cottonboom in the Deep South made planters increas-ingly dependent on slave labor. Beginning inabout 1830, the American antislavery move-ment took on new life. Soon it became the mostpressing social issue for reformers.

William Lloyd Garrison An abolitionistnamed William Lloyd Garrison stimulated thegrowth of the antislavery movement. In 1829Garrison left Massachusetts to work for thecountry’s leading antislavery newspaper inBaltimore. Impatient with the paper’s moderateposition, Garrison returned to Boston in 1831 tofound his own newspaper, The Liberator.

Garrison was one of the first white aboli-tionists to call for the “immediate and completeemancipation [freeing]” of enslaved people. Inthe first issue of his paper, he wrote: “I will notretreat a single inch—AND I WILL BE HEARD.”

Garrison was heard. He attracted enough fol-lowers to start the New England Anti-SlaverySociety in 1832 and the American Anti-SlaverySociety the next year. The abolitionist movementgrew rapidly. By 1838 the antislavery societies Garrison started had more than 1,000 chapters, or local branches.

The Grimké Sisters Among the first womenwho spoke out publicly against slavery wereSarah and Angelina Grimké. Born in SouthCarolina to a wealthy slaveholding family, thesisters moved to Philadelphia in 1832.

In the North, the Grimké sisters lecturedand wrote against slavery. At one antislaverymeeting, Angelina Grimké exclaimed:

“As a Southerner, I feel that it is my duty to stand up . . . againstslavery. I have seen it—I have seen it.”

—Angelina Grimké, lecture, 1838

The Grimkés persuaded their mother togive them their share of the family inheritance.Instead of money or land, the sisters asked forseveral of the enslaved workers, whom theyimmediately freed.

The Grimkés and Angelina’s husband, abo-litionist Theodore Weld, wrote American SlaveryAs It Is in 1839. This collection of firsthandaccounts of life under slavery was an influentialabolitionist publication, selling more than100,000 copies in its first year.


In 1831 William Lloyd Garrison began publishinga newspaper called The Liberator. What wasGarrison’s position regarding slavery?

Peabody Essex Museum/Mark Sexton

African American Abolitionists Whiteabolitionists drew public attention to the cause,but African Americans played a major role inthe abolitionist movement from the start. Theabolition of slavery was an especially importantgoal to the free African Americans of the North.

Many African Americans in the North livedin poverty in cities. Although they wereexcluded from most jobs and were oftenattacked by white mobs, a great many of theseAfrican Americans were intensely proud oftheir freedom and wanted to help those whowere still enslaved.

African Americans took an active part inorganizing and directing the American Anti-Slavery Society, and they subscribed in largenumbers to William Lloyd Garrison’s TheLiberator. In 1827 Samuel Cornish and John

Russwurm started the country’s first AfricanAmerican newspaper, Freedom’s Journal. Most ofthe other newspapers that African Americansfounded before the Civil War also promotedabolition.

Born a free man in North Carolina, writerDavid Walker of Boston published an impas-sioned argument against slavery, challengingAfrican Americans to rebel and overthrow slav-ery by force. “America is more our country thanit is the whites’—we have enriched it with ourblood and tears,” he wrote.

In 1830 free African American leaders heldtheir first convention in Philadelphia. Delegatesmet “to devise ways and means for the better-ing of our condition.” They discussed startingan African American college and encouragingfree African Americans to emigrate to Canada.


Abolishing SlaveryWhile serving in the House of

Representatives, former President JohnQuincy Adams battled slavery. In 1839 heproposed a constitutional amendment thatprovided for the abolition of slavery. Itsthree provisions follow.

1st From and after the 4th of July, 1842,there shall be, throughout the UnitedStates, no hereditary slavery;but on and after that day every childborn within the United States, theirTerritories or jurisdiction, shall be born free.

2d. With the exception of the Territoryof Florida, there shall henceforth neverbe admitted into this Union any State,the constitution of which shall toleratewithin the same the existence of slavery.

3d. From and after the 4th of July, 1845,there shall be neither slavery nor slavetrade at the seat of Government of theUnited States.

1. How would each part of the amendmentbring about the end of slavery?

2. Was Adams providing for its immediate orgradual end? Why do you think he chosethis method?


JohnQuincyAdams

CORBIS

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass, themost widely known African American aboli-tionist, was born enslaved in Maryland. Afterteaching himself to read and write, he escapedfrom slavery in Maryland in 1838 and settledfirst in Massachusetts and then in New York.

As a runaway, Douglass could have been cap-tured and returned to slavery. Still, he joined theMassachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and traveledwidely to address abolitionist meetings. A power-ful speaker, Douglass often moved listeners totears with his message. At an Independence Daygathering, he told the audience:

“What, to the American slave, isyour [Fourth] of July? I answer; aday that reveals to him, more thanall other days in the year, the grossinjustice and cruelty to which he isthe constant victim. To him, yourcelebration is a sham . . . yournational greatness, swelling vanity;your sounds of rejoicing are emptyand heartless . . . your shouts ofliberty and equality, hollowmockery.”

—from Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings

For 16 years, Douglass edited an antislaverynewspaper called the North Star. Douglass wonadmiration as a powerful and influentialspeaker and writer. He traveled abroad, speak-ing to huge antislavery audiences in Londonand the West Indies.

Douglass returned to the United Statesbecause he believed abolitionists must fight slav-ery at its source. He insisted that AfricanAmericans receive not only their freedom but fullequality with whites as well. In 1847 friendshelped Douglass purchase his freedom from theslaveholder in Maryland from whom he had fled.

Sojourner Truth “I was born a slave in UlsterCounty, New York,” Isabella Baumfree beganwhen she told her story to audiences. Called

“Belle,” she lived in the cellar of a slaveholder’shouse. She escaped in 1826 and gained officialfreedom in 1827 when New York banned slav-ery. Quaker friends then helped her recover oneson who had been sold as a slave. She eventu-ally settled in New York City with her twoyoungest children. She supported her family bydoing domestic work. During this time, shebegan preaching in the streets.

In 1843 Belle chose a new name. “SojournerTruth is my name,” she said, “because from thisday I will walk in the light of [God’s] truth.”She dedicated her life to the movements forabolition and for women’s rights.

Explain Why did FrederickDouglass return to the United States?

Col

lect

ion

of W

illia

m G

lads

tone


Sojourner Truth learned about abolition in1843 when she was preaching inMassachusetts. How did Sojourner Truthget and keep her freedom?

533

US8.9.1 Describe the leaders of the movement (e.g., John Quincy Adams and his proposed constitutional amendment; JohnBrown and the armed resistance, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Weld, WilliamLloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass).

The Underground RailroadAbolitionists established a network

of routes and risked their lives to help AfricanAmericans escape slavery.

Reading Connection Can you think of an examplein recent times when people fled to avoid oppression?Read and find out about the Underground Railroad.

On May 24, 1854, the people of Bostonerupted in outrage. Federal officers had seizedAnthony Burns, a runaway slave who lived inBoston, to send him back to slavery. Abolitioniststried to rescue Burns from the federal courthouse,and city leaders attempted to buy his freedom.

All efforts failed. Local militia units joined themarines and cavalry in Boston to keep order.Federal troops escorted Burns to a ship thatwould carry him back to Virginia and slavery. Ina gesture of bitter protest, Bostonians drapedbuildings in black and hung the American flagupside down.

The Fugitive Slave Act The Fugitive SlaveAct of 1850 required all citizens to help catch run-aways. Anyone who aided a fugitive could befined or imprisoned. People in the South believedthe law would force Northerners to recognize therights of Southerners. Instead, enforcement of thelaw led to mounting anger in the North, convinc-ing more people of the evils of slavery. After pas-sage of the Fugitive Slave Act, slaveholdersstepped up efforts to catch runaway slaves.

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The Underground Railroad

Many enslaved African Americans escaped to freedomwith the help of the Underground Railroad.1.Movement Which river did enslaved persons

cross before reaching Indiana and Ohio?2.Analyze About how many miles did an

enslaved person travel from Montgomery,Alabama, to Windsor, Canada?

UndergroundRailroad routesSlaveholding regions

Non-slaveholding regions

“I sometimes dream that I am pursued, and when I wake, I am scared almost to death.”

—Nancy Howard, 1855


Slaveholders even tried to capture run-aways who had lived in freedom in the Northfor years. Sometimes they seized AfricanAmericans who were not escaped slaves andforced them into slavery.

Resistance to the Law In spite of the penal-ties, many Northerners refused to cooperatewith the law’s enforcement. The UndergroundRailroad, a network of free African Americansand whites, helped runaways make their wayto freedom. Antislavery groups tried to rescueAfrican Americans who were being pursued orto free those who were captured. In Boston,members of one such group followed federalagents shouting, “Slave hunters—there go theslave hunters.” People contributed funds to buythe freedom of African Americans. Northernjuries refused to convict those accused of break-ing the Fugitive Slave Law.

Harriet Tubman Born as a slave in Maryland,Harriet Tubman worked in plantation fieldsuntil she was nearly 30 years old. Then shemade her break for freedom, escaping to theNorth with the help of the UndergroundRailroad. Settling in Philadelphia, Tubman metmany abolitionists who shared her desire tobring Southern slaves to the North. Realizingthe risks of being captured, Tubman coura-geously made 19 trips back into the South dur-ing the 1850s to help other enslaved peopleescape. Altogether she assisted about 70 individ-uals—including her parents—to escape fromslavery. Tubman became the most successfulconductor on the Underground Railroad. Shewas known as the “Moses of her people” forleading slaves to freedom in the North.

Identify What was theUnderground Railroad?

Reading SummaryReview the • In the early 1800s, one major

antislavery movement workedto resettle freed slaves in thecountry of Liberia in Africa.

• The antislavery movementbecame stronger in the 1830s,spurred on by a number of aboli-tionists, both white, such asWilliam Lloyd Garrison and theGrimké sisters, and AfricanAmerican, such as FrederickDouglass and Sojourner Truth.

• Abolitionists helped runawayslaves escape, but many othersin both the North and the Southopposed abolition.

1. Describe the AmericanColonization Society’s solution to slavery.

2. How did William LloydGarrison help the abolitionistmovement?

Critical Thinking3. Organizing Information

Use a diagram like the onebelow to identify actionsthat abolitionists took tofree enslaved people.

4. What roledid Harriet Tubman play inthe antislavery movement?

5. Compare How did the goals and strategies of theAmerican ColonizationSociety differ from those ofthe abolitionist movement?

6. MakingInferences Reread the primary source quotes fromthis section. Write a para-graph that makes inferencesto describe each person’sviews of slavery. CA 8RC2.0

CA HR5.

CA HI1.

CA CS1.

What Did You Learn?

Freeing of Enslaved People

abolitionism? Visit ca.hss.glencoe.com andclick on Study Central.

Study Central Need help understanding


Slavery andthe West

Looking Back, Looking AheadAs you know, abolitionists tried to endslavery. At the same time, the possiblespread of slavery into the West was anissue that repeatedly divided the nation.

Focusing on the • The Missouri Compromise helped

resolve the issue of whether newstates would be slave states or freestates. (page 536)

• The Kentucky Resolution first advancedthe doctrine of nullification. (page 537)

• In the 1840s, the issue of slavery innew territories was once again at theforefront. (page 539)

• Henry Clay presented a plan to settlethe slavery debate that resulted in theCompromise of 1850. (page 541)

Meeting PeopleJames K. PolkMillard FillmoreStephen A. Douglas

Content Vocabularysectionalism (SEHK• shnuh• LIH • zuhm)nullify (NUH• luh• FY)protective tariff

(pruh•TEHK•tihv TAR•uhf)fugitive (FYOO• juh• tihv)secede (sih•SEED)abstain (uhb•STAYN)

Academic Vocabulary debatecontroversy (KAHN• truh• VUHR • see)collapse

Reading StrategyOrganizing Information As you read thesection, describe how these compromisesdealt with the admission of new states.


US8.10 Students ana-lyze the multiple causes,key events, and complexconsequences of the CivilWar.


Free statesand territories,

1850

Californiaadmitted1850

Washington,D.C.

Admission of New States

The MissouriCompromise

The Compromiseof 1850

1848Free-Soil

Party nominatesVan Buren

1845Texasbecomesa state

1820MissouriCompromise is passed

1850Compromiseof 1850diverts war

1820 1840 1860

The Missouri CompromiseThe Missouri Compromise helped

resolve the issue of whether new states wouldbe slave states or free states.

Reading Connection Do you compete with anearby school in sports or another activity? If so,you probably feel loyalty to the school you attend.Read to learn how in the early 1800s, differencesbetween the North and South led to sectionalism,which is loyalty to a particular region.

“The deed is done. The . . . chains of slaveryare forged for [many] yet unborn. Humbleyourselves in the dust, ye high-minded citizensof Connecticut. Let your cheeks be red as crim-son. On your representatives rests the stigma ofthis foul disgrace.” These biting, fiery wordswere published in a Connecticut newspaper in1820. They were in response to members ofCongress who had helped pave the way for theadmission of Missouri as a slaveholding state.

What Is Sectionalism? The request by slave-holding Missouri to join the Union in 1819caused an angry debate that worried formerpresident Thomas Jefferson and Secretary ofState John Quincy Adams. Jefferson called thedispute “a fire-bell in the night” that “awakened

and filled me with terror.” Adams accuratelypredicted that the bitter debate was “a mere pre-amble—a title-page to a great tragic volume.”

Many Missouri settlers had broughtenslaved African Americans into the territorywith them. By 1819 the Missouri Territoryincluded about 50,000 whites and 10,000 slaves.When Missouri applied to Congress for admis-sion as a state, its constitution allowed slavery.

In 1819 eleven states permitted slavery and eleven did not. The Senate—with two membersfrom each state—was therefore evenly balancedbetween slave and free states. The admission ofa new state would upset that balance.

In addition the North and the South, withtheir different economic systems, were compet-ing for new lands in the western territories. At the same time, a growing number ofNortherners wanted to restrict or ban slavery.Southerners, even those who disliked slavery,opposed these antislavery efforts. They resentedthe interference by outsiders in Southerners’affairs. These differences between the North andthe South grew into sectionalism (SEHK • shnuh •LIH • zuhm)—an exaggerated loyalty to a particu-lar region of the country.

Clay’s Proposal The Senate suggested a wayto resolve the crisis by allowing Missouri’sadmittance as a slave state while simultane-ously admitting Maine as a free state. Maine,formerly part of Massachusetts, had alsoapplied for admission to the Union. The Senatealso sought to settle the issue of slavery in theterritories for good. It proposed prohibitingslavery in the remainder of the LouisianaPurchase north of 36°30'N latitude.

Speaker of the House Henry Clay ofKentucky skillfully maneuvered the Senate billto passage in 1820 by dividing it into three pro-posals. The Missouri Compromise preservedthe balance between slave and free states in theSenate and quieted the bitter debate in Congressover slavery. However, this would not last.

Explain How did sectional-ism contribute to the ongoing debate about theadmission of states?

US8.9.5 Analyze the significance of the States’ Rights Doctrine, the Missouri Compromise (1820), the Wilmot Proviso (1846),the Compromise of 1850, Henry Clay’s role in the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act(1854), the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision (1857), and the Lincoln-Douglas debates (1858).

“I know no South,no North, noEast, no West, to which Iowe any allegiance.”

–Henry Clay

New York Historical Society

US8.10.1 Compare the conflicting interpretations of state and federal authority as emphasized in the speeches and writings ofstatesmen such as Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun. US8.10.3 Identify the constitutional issues posed by the doctrine ofnullification and secession and the earliest origins of that doctrine.

Nullification The Kentucky Resolution first

advanced the doctrine of nullification.

Reading Connection Have you ever wanted tooverturn a decision that you thought was unfair?Read to learn how nullification legally permittedstates to overturn unconstitutional laws.

Southerners argued that states could nullify(NUH • luh • FY), or legally overturn, federal lawsthat they considered unconstitutional. The issueof nullification arose again and again in thenation’s early history.

Virginia and Kentucky ResolutionsNullification was first expressed in the Virginiaand Kentucky Resolutions of 1798–1799. Theseresolutions, written by Thomas Jefferson andJames Madison, declared that the Federalists’Alien and Sedition laws were unconstitutional.(See page 295-96.) Jefferson and Madison used theideas of John Locke and the Tenth Amendmentto the Constitution to argue that the federalgovernment had been formed by a contractamong the states. The federal government pos-sessed only certain powers. Whenever a statedecided that the federal government passed alaw that went beyond these powers, the statehad the right to nullify the law.

What Was the Hartford Convention? Theissue of nullification reappeared during the Warof 1812, this time among Federalists in NewEngland. Many New Englanders opposed thewar. One reason was that many people theremade their living by trade, which was greatlyhurt when the war began. Many Federalists alsobelieved that Republicans in the South and Westbrought about the war. Delegates from the NewEngland states revived the idea of nullificationand proposed amendments to the Constitutionat a meeting called the Hartford Convention. (See

page 359.) The Federalists made no progress withtheir demands, and with the end of the war, thepower of the Federalist party declined.

The Tariff Controversy The nullification controversy arose again in the 1820s and 1830s,this time over the issue of protective tariffs.Protective tariffs (pruh • TEHK • tihv TAR • uhfs)are taxes that are placed on goods that comefrom another country. Protective tariffs raise theprice of goods from other countries. A tax onimported shoes, for example, makes American-made shoes more attractive to consumers.

By the 1820s, most Southerners had becomeconvinced that protective tariffs were harmfulto the South. Although such tariffs helped theyoung industries of the North, they also raisedthe prices of manufactured goods purchased inthe South. People in the South felt that it wasunjust for them to bear the expense for thedevelopment of another region of the country.

Ordinance of Nullification When Congresspassed the tariff of 1828, John C. Calhoun ofSouth Carolina argued that the tariff was“unconstitutional, oppressive, and unjust.”Calhoun based his argument on the ideas thatJefferson and Madison had used in defendingthe Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. In 1832Congress passed a new tariff law. Although thetax rates were lower than those of 1828, theywere still high. South Carolina called a specialconvention that voted for an Ordinance ofNullification against the new tariff.

CHAPTER 12 • Road to Civil War 537CHAPTER 12 • Road to Civil War 537CHAPTER 12 • Road to Civil War 537

Calhoun was a nationalistin his early career, but hechanged to a championof states’ rights. Howwere the Ordinance ofNullification and theVirginia and KentuckyResolutions alike?

US8.10.1 Compare the conflicting interpretations of state and federal authority as emphasized in the speeches and writings ofstatesmen such as Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun US8.10.3 Identify the constitutional issues posed by the doctrine ofnullification and secession and the earliest origins of that doctrine.

Bettmann/CORBIS

Calhoun had raised an important issue—the supremacy of the national government ver-sus state sovereignty. The states’ rightsdoctrine, first found in the Virginia andKentucky Resolutions, had taken a giant steptoward secession. If states were sovereign, theyhad a right to secede from the Union.

Can a State Nullify a Law? Early in 1830,Calhoun’s doctrine of nullification came beforethe United States Senate during a debate overland policy. People in the West were angrybecause of a bill that would limit the sale ofwestern lands. Robert Y. Hayne of SouthCarolina argued that the western states couldnullify the bill if it became law.

Daniel Webster of Massachusetts replied toHayne. Webster denied that the Constitution

was just a compact between the states, to beinterpreted as each state chose. On the contrary,he said, only the Supreme Court could decidewhether a law was constitutional. Websterargued that the federal government was sover-eign, that the Union was perpetual, and thatany attempt to dismember it was nothing lessthan treason. Webster closed with this ringingstatement: “Liberty and Union, now and for-ever, one and inseparable.”

In 1833 the nullification crisis was settled by a compromise. The tariff was lowered and, inresponse, South Carolina withdrew its Ordinanceof Nullification. Both sides claimed victory, andthe issue was laid to rest—at least temporarily.

Analyze Why did the Southand the Northeast try to use nullification?

Agrarians andIndustrialists

Sectionalism, the rivalry between one regionand another, was based on economic and

political interests. One rivalry that developedwas between agrarians and industrialists.

AgrarianismThomas Jefferson believed that the strength

of the United States was its independent farm-ers. His ideas are sometimes referred to asagrarianism. Jefferson argued that owning land

enabled people to be independent. As long asmost people owned their own land, they wouldfight to preserve the Republic.

Jefferson believed that too much of anemphasis on industry and trade would lead to asociety that was divided between the rich whoowned everything and the poor who workedfor wages. He also believed that the wealthywould corrupt the government and threaten therights and liberties of ordinary people.

538

Early railroads helped industry grow.

file photo

New Western LandsIn the 1840s, the issue of slavery in

new territories was once again at the forefront.

Reading Connection Can you think of a debateyou have been a part of that turned out to be diffi-cult to resolve? Read to learn how Congress contin-ued to struggle with a solution concerning slavery.

For the next 25 years, Congress avoided theissue of slavery’s expansion. In the 1840s, how-ever, this heated debate moved back intoCongress. Again, the dispute was over slavery innew territories. The territories involved wereTexas, which had won its independence fromMexico in 1836, and New Mexico and California,which were still part of Mexico.

Many Southerners hoped to see Texas,where slavery already existed, join the Union.As a result, the annexation of Texas became themain issue in the presidential election of 1844.Democrat James K. Polk of Tennessee won theelection and pressed forward on acquiringTexas. Texas became a state in 1845. At the sametime, support for taking over New Mexico andCalifornia also grew in the South. The federalgovernment’s actions on these lands led to warwith Mexico.

Conflicting Views Just months after the warwith Mexico began, Representative DavidWilmot of Pennsylvania introduced a proposalin Congress. Called the Wilmot Proviso, it spec-ified that slavery should be prohibited in anylands that might be acquired from Mexico.


During the 1800s, many Americans keptJefferson’s ideal of small, independent farm-ing communities as the model society.Agrarians, particularly in the South, werealarmed at the changes that industrializationwas producing in the nation’s cities. Theyviewed independent farming as a way toescape degrading factory work and theunhealthy and overcrowded large cities.

IndustrialismThe Industrial Revolution changed the

Northeast from a region where families livedand worked together at farming, crafts, andhome-based businesses to one in which peo-ple earned their livings by working for oth-ers in industry. Many Americans believedthat manufacturing and trade were the basisof national wealth and power. They favoredpolicies that would support these areas ofthe economy.

Although industrial growth causedproblems, economic progress also made life

easier in many ways. Improved transporta-tion and mass production meant that moregoods were available to more people.American living standards were surpassingthose of European countries.

In the cities, people were beginning toenjoy new comforts and conveniences suchas gas streetlights and better sewer systems.Some Americans came to believe that theywere living in an age of progress. Theyexpected that new inventions, along withAmerica’s abundant resources, wouldimprove life for Americans and set anexample for other countries of the world.

Many Americans made their living by farming.

The Corcoran Gallery of Art/CORBIS


Southerners protested furiously. Theywanted to keep open the possibility of introduc-ing slavery to California and New Mexico.Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolinacountered Wilmot’s proposal with another. Itstated that neither Congress nor any territorialgovernment had the authority to ban slaveryfrom a territory or regulate it in any way.

Neither Wilmot’s nor Calhoun’s proposalpassed, but both caused bitter debate. By thetime of the 1848 presidential election, the UnitedStates had acquired the territories of Californiaand New Mexico from Mexico but had taken noaction on the issue of slavery in those areas.

The Free-Soil Party The debate over slaveryled to the formation of a new political party. In1848 the Whigs chose Zachary Taylor, aSoutherner and a hero of the war with Mexico, astheir presidential candidate. The Democratsselected Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan.Neither candidate took a stand on slavery in theterritories. They were both afraid of losing votes.

This failure to take a position angered voters.Many antislavery Democrats and Whigs left theirparties and joined with members of the oldLiberty Party to form the Free-Soil Party. The newparty proclaimed “Free Soil, Free Speech, FreeLabor, and Free Men,” and endorsed the WilmotProviso. The party nominated former presidentMartin Van Buren as its presidential candidate.

Whig candidate Zachary Taylor won theelection, receiving 163 electoral votes to 127 forCass. The Whig’s strategy of maintaining neu-trality helped them win the election. Van Burenfailed to receive a single electoral vote, and cap-tured only 14 percent of the popular vote in theNorth. However, several candidates of the Free-Soil Party won seats in Congress.

Explain How was John C.Calhoun’s proposal different from the WilmotProviso?

By 1848 the population of San Francisco was about1,000 residents. The population of the city and theCalifornia territory would grow greatly during thegold rush. What issue during the presidentialelection campaign of 1848 involved California?

Gianni Dagli Orti/CORBIS

US8.9.4 Discuss the importance of the slavery issue as raised by the annexation of Texas and California’s admission to the union as afree state under the Compromise of 1850. US8.9.5 Analyze the significance of the States’ Rights Doctrine, the Missouri Compromise(1820), the Wilmot Proviso (1846), the Compromise of 1850, Henry Clay’s role in the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision (1857), and the Lincoln-Douglas debates (1858).

The Search for CompromiseHenry Clay presented a plan to set-

tle the slavery debate that resulted in theCompromise of 1850.

Reading Connection Do you remember an argu-ment you have had recently? How did you resolvethe argument? Read to learn how Congress settledits dividing issues in 1850.

Once in office, President Zachary Taylorurged leaders in the two territories of Californiaand New Mexico to apply for statehood imme-diately. After these lands had become states, hereasoned, their citizens could decide whether toallow slavery. New Mexico did not apply forstatehood, but California did in 1850.

Taylor’s plan ran into trouble whenCalifornia’s statehood became tangled up withother issues before Congress. Antislavery forceswanted to abolish slavery in the District ofColumbia, the nation’s capital. Southernerswanted a strong national law requiring states to return fugitive (FYOO • juh • tihv), or runaway,slaves to their masters. Another disputeinvolved the New Mexico–Texas border.

The greatest obstacle to Taylor’s plan wasconcern over the balance of power in theSenate. In 1849 the nation included 15 slave

states and 15 free states. If California entered asa free state—and New Mexico, Oregon, andUtah followed as free states––which seemedlikely—the South would be hopelessly out-voted in the Senate. As tension grew, someSoutherners began talking about having theirstates secede (sih • SEED) from, or leave, theUnited States.

The Debate Begins In January 1850, HenryClay, now a senator, presented a plan to settleall the issues dividing Congress. First,California would be admitted as a free state.Second, the New Mexico Territory would haveno restrictions on slavery. Third, the NewMexico–Texas border dispute would be settledin favor of New Mexico. Fourth, the slave trade,but not slavery itself, would be abolished in theDistrict of Columbia. Finally, Clay pushed for astronger fugitive slave law.

Clay’s proposal launched an emotionaldebate in Congress that raged for sevenmonths. Senator Calhoun opposed Clay’s plan.He believed that the only way to save the Unionwas to protect slavery. If Congress admittedCalifornia as a free state, Calhoun warned, theSouthern states would have to leave the Union.

Senator Daniel Webster supported Clay’splan. He argued that antislavery forces lost little in agreeing to the compromise.

DanielWebster

Henry Clay John C.Calhoun

The Great Debate over theCompromise of 1850 raged formonths. Why did Daniel Websterfavor this compromise?

New York Public Library, print division.

the issue of slavery in the West? Visitca.hss.glencoe.com and click on StudyCentral.


Reading SummaryReview the • The Missouri Compromise

allowed both Missouri andMaine to enter the Union inorder to maintain the balancebetween slave and free states.

• In the 1820s and 1830s, SouthCarolina threatened to nullifyfederal tariff laws.

• The acquisition of new territo-ries in the West—Texas, NewMexico, and California—createdmore conflicts over slavery.

• The Compromise of 1850, devel-oped by Henry Clay, included anumber of provisions dealingwith slavery that temporarilyresolved the debate between the North and South.

1. List the provisions of theMissouri Compromise.

2. Why did it matter ifCalifornia entered as a slave state or a free state?

Critical Thinking3. Comparing Re-create the

table below and describewhat the North and Southeach gained from theCompromise of 1850.

4. Why wasthe Free-Soil Party created?

5. Analyze What was theWilmot Proviso? Why was it controversial?

6. Persuasive Writing Create aposter for the Free-Soil Partypresidential candidate. Includeslogans and symbols to gain popular support.

7. MakingConnections Make a time line highlighting key issues of federal sovereignty versusstates’ rights. Include theVirginia-Kentucky Reso-lutions of 1798–99 and the Compromise of 1850.

CA CS2.

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CA CS1.

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What Did You Learn?

Webster reasoned that geography wouldprevent slavery from taking root in the new ter-ritories, because most of the land was not suitedfor plantations. What was most important wasto preserve the Union.

The Compromise of 1850 Clay’s plan couldnot pass as a complete package. Too manymembers of Congress objected to one part of itor another. On July 4, 1850, before the issuecould be decided, President Taylor collapsedwith a severe stomach illness. He died five dayslater, having served just 16 months as president.The new president, Millard Fillmore, sup-ported some form of compromise. At the sametime, Stephen A. Douglas, a young senatorfrom Illinois, took charge of efforts to resolvethe crisis. Douglas divided Clay’s plan into aseries of measures that Congress could vote on

separately. In this way, members of Congresswould not have to support proposals theyopposed.

President Fillmore persuaded several Whigrepresentatives to abstain (uhb • STAYN)—notto cast votes—on measures they opposed.Congress finally passed a series of five separatebills in August and September of 1850. Takentogether these laws, known as the Compromiseof 1850, contained the five main points of Clay’soriginal plan. Fillmore believed they settled theconflict between North and South. The presi-dent would soon be proved wrong.

Explain How did theCompromise of 1850 affect the New MexicoTerritory? What role did California play in this?


Compromise of 1850

Northern gains Southern gains


A Nation Dividing

Looking Back, Looking AheadThe Compromise of 1850 seemed tohave settled the problem of slavery innew states. When statehood for Kansasand Nebraska drew near, however, slaveryagain divided the nation.

Focusing on the • The Kansas-Nebraska Act resulted

from another dispute over slavery inCongress. (page 544)

• Violence erupted as proslavery andantislavery forces came to arms whenthe new proslavery Kansas legislaturewas elected. (page 546)

Locating PlacesKansasNebraska

Meeting PeopleHarriet Beecher StoweJohn BrownCharles SumnerPreston Brooks

Content Vocabularypopular sovereignty (SAH•vruhn• tee)border ruffians (RUH• fee•uhns)civil war

Academic Vocabulary revealinevitable (ih•NEH•vuh• tuh•buhl)

Reading StrategyTaking Notes As you read the section,re-create the table below and describehow Southerners and Northernersreacted to the Kansas-Nebraska Act.



KANSAS andNEBRASKATERR., 1854

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Southern reaction Northern reaction

1850 1853 1856

1852Uncle Tom’sCabin ispublished

1850FugitiveSlaveAct ispassed

1854Kansas-NebraskaAct ispassed

1856CharlesSumner isattackedin Senate


The Kansas-Nebraska ActThe Kansas-Nebraska Act resulted

from another dispute over slavery in Congress.

Reading Connection Do you know where thepresent-day states of Kansas and Nebraska arelocated? Find them on the Reference Atlas maps inthe front of your book. Read to learn what happenedin this part of the country in the mid-1850s.

Franklin Pierce, a New Hampshire Demo-crat who supported the Fugitive Slave Act,became president in 1853. Pierce intended toenforce the Fugitive Slave Act, and hisactions hardened the opposition to slavery.Harriet Beecher Stowe’s popular book UncleTom’s Cabin added fuel to antislavery feelingswith its description of slavery as a cruel andinhuman system.

In 1854 the dispute over slavery erupted inCongress again. The cause was a bill introducedby Stephen A. Douglas, the Illinois senator whohad forged the Compromise of 1850. Hoping toencourage settlement of the West and open theway for a transcontinental railroad, Douglas

proposed organizing the region west of Missouriand Iowa as the territories of Kansas andNebraska. Douglas was developing a plan forthe nation to expand that both the North and theSouth would accept. Instead his bill reopenedthe conflict about slavery in the territories.

Geography of Slavery Because of their loca-tion, Kansas and Nebraska seemed likely tobecome free states. Both lay north of 36°30’N lat-itude, the line established in the MissouriCompromise as the boundary of slavery.Douglas knew that Southerners would object tohaving Kansas and Nebraska become free statesbecause it would give the North more membersin the Senate. As a result, Douglas proposedabandoning the Missouri Compromise and let-ting the settlers in each territory vote onwhether to allow slavery. He called this popularsovereignty (SAH • vruhn • tee)—allowing thepeople to decide.

Passage of the Act Many Northerners pro-tested strongly. Douglas’s plan to repeal theMissouri Compromise would allow slaveryinto areas that had been free for more than 30 years. Opponents of the bill demanded thatCongress vote down the bill.

Southerners in Congress, however, pro-vided solid support for the bill. They expectedthat Kansas would be settled in large part byslaveholders from Missouri who would vote tokeep slavery legal. With some support fromNorthern Democrats and the backing ofPresident Pierce, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in May 1854.

Division Grows Northern Democrats in theHouse split almost evenly on the vote, revealingdeep divisions in the party. Many Northernersbecame convinced that compromise with theSouth was no longer possible. Sam Houston,senator from Texas, predicted that the bill “willconvulse [upset] the country from Maine to theRio Grande.”

Describe Write a definitionof popular sovereignty in your own words.


Stephen Douglas enthusiastically supportednational expansion. Why did the Kansas-Nebraska Act reopen the question of whetherslavery should be allowed in the territories?

Bettmann/CORBIS

545

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE1811–1896

Writer Harriet Beecher Stowe called the Fugitive

Slave Act a “nightmare abomination.” Stowe, born

Harriet Elizabeth Beecher to a New England minister,

moved to Cincinnati with her family when she was 21.

There, on the banks of the Ohio River, she saw enslaved

people being loaded onto ships to be taken to slave

markets. Stowe was introduced to many abolitionists,

some of whom owned safe houses along the

Underground Railroad. Stowe strongly opposed slavery,

but for some time, she did not know how she could help

end it. With the help of her children and husband, Stowe

developed an antislavery story called Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Packed with dramatic incidents and vivid characters, the

novel shows slavery as a cruel and brutal system.

Published in 1852, Uncle Tom’s Cabin quickly

became a sensation, selling more than 300,000 copies

in the first year. Some people, however, strongly

opposed the book. Its sales were banned in the South,

and many slaveholders said the book unfairly and inac-

curately represented their way of life. To counter these

accusations, Stowe published A Key to Uncle Tom’s

Cabin; Presenting the Original Facts and Documents

Upon Which It Is Based. This book detailed Stowe’s extensive research into slavery in

the South. The book had such an impact on public feelings about slavery that when

Abraham Lincoln was introduced to Stowe during the Civil War, he said, “so you’re

the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.”

After the Civil War, Stowe continued to

write. She began to speak publicly and gave

readings of Uncle Tom’s Cabin to many large

audiences. In 1896, at the age of 85, Stowe

died. Her famous book has since been adapted

into plays and songs, and remains a much-read

novel from the Civil War era.

“[I hope these writings]awaken sympathy and feelingfor the African race, as theyexist among us; to show theirwrongs and sorrows. . .”

—Harriet Beecher Stowe

Write a short story similar to Uncle Tom’s Cabinabout a group of people who are unfairly treatedin today’s world. Be sure to research the topic sothat your story remains as factual as possible.

US8.9 Students analyze the early andsteady attempts to abolish slavery and torealize the ideals of the Declaration ofIndependence.

Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University

US8.9.1 Describe the leaders of the movement (e.g., John Quincy Adams and his proposed constitutional amendment, JohnBrown and the armed resistance, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Weld, WilliamLloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass.)

Conflict in KansasViolence erupted as proslavery and

antislavery forces came to arms when the newproslavery Kansas legislature was elected.

Reading Connection Think of an issue that isimportant to you. What would you be willing to doto stand up for that issue? Read to learn how therival groups in Kansas clashed in the mid-1800s overslavery.

Right after passage of the Kansas-NebraskaAct, proslavery and antislavery groups rushedsupporters into Kansas. In the spring of 1855,when elections took place in Kansas, a proslav-ery legislature was elected.

Although only about 1,500 voters lived inKansas at the time, more than 6,000 people castballots in the elections. Thousands of proslav-ery supporters from Missouri had crossed theborder just to vote in the election. These

Missourians traveled in armed groups andbecame known as border ruffians (RUH • fee •uhns). Soon after the election, the new Kansaslegislature passed laws supporting slavery. Onelaw even restricted political office to only thosecandidates who supported slavery.

The antislavery people refused to acceptthese laws. Instead they armed themselves,held their own elections, and adopted a consti-tution that banned slavery. By January 1856,rival governments existed in Kansas, one forand one against slavery. Each asked Congressfor recognition. To confuse matters further,President Pierce and the U.S. Senate favored theproslavery government, and the U.S. House ofRepresentatives backed the forces that wereopposed to slavery.

With proslavery and antislavery forces inKansas arming themselves, the outbreak of vio-lence became inevitable. In May 1856, about 800 slavery supporters attacked the town ofLawrence, the antislavery capital.


OREGONTERR.

UTAHTERR.

NEW MEXICOTERR.

CALIF.(1850)

UNORGANIZEDTERR.

MINNESOTATERR.

Slavery and Sectionalism

Free statesSlave statesTerritory closedto slaveholding

Territory opento slaveholding

Indian Territory

WASHINGTONTERR.

NEBRASKATERR.

KANSASTERR.

OREGONTERR.

1.Region How did the Kansas-NebraskaAct change the amount of territory thatwas open to slaveholding?

2.Analyze Which territories were non-slaveholding in 1854?

The Compromise of 1850 Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

The slavery supporters destroyed the town,burned the hotel and the home of the governor,and tore down two newspaper offices. Soonafter, forces opposed to slavery retaliated.

“Bleeding Kansas” John Brown, a ferventabolitionist, believed God had chosen him to endslavery. When he heard of the attack onLawrence, Brown went into a rage. He vowed to“strike terror in the hearts of the proslavery peo-ple.” One night, Brown led four of his sons andtwo other men along Pottawatomie Creek, wherethey seized and killed five supporters of slavery.

More violence followed as armed bandsroamed the territory. Newspapers began refer-ring to “Bleeding Kansas” and “the Civil War inKansas.” A civil war is a conflict between citi-zens of the same country. Not until October of1856 did John Geary, the newly appointed terri-torial governor, stop the bloodshed in Kansas.Geary ordered 1,300 federal troops to suppressthe guerrilla forces.

Violence in Congress The violence thaterupted in Kansas spilled over to the halls ofthe U.S. Congress as well. Abolitionist senatorCharles Sumner of Massachusetts delivered aspeech entitled “The Crime Against Kansas.”Sumner lashed out against proslavery forces inKansas. He also criticized proslavery senators,repeatedly attacking Andrew P. Butler of SouthCarolina.

Two days after the speech, Butler’s distantcousin, Representative Preston Brooks, walkedinto the Senate chamber. He hit Sumner againand again over the head and shoulders with acane. Sumner fell to the floor, unconscious andbleeding. He suffered injuries so severe that hedid not return to the Senate for several years.The Brooks-Sumner incident and the fighting in“Bleeding Kansas” revealed the rising level ofhostility between North and South.

Predict Who do you predictwill be the combatants if the United States istorn apart by Civil War?


Reading SummaryReview the • The Kansas-Nebraska Act aban-

doned the provisions of theMissouri Compromise and putin place the doctrine of popularsovereignty to decide the issueof slavery in new territories.

• In Kansas antislavery andproslavery forces came intoviolent conflict.

1. Who were the border ruffians?

2. How many cast votes in theKansas elections? How didthat compare with the popu-lation at the time?

Critical Thinking 3. Organizing Information

Re-create the diagram belowand list the steps that led tobloodshed in Kansas.

4. How didpopular sovereignty lead toviolence in Kansas?

5. Predicting ConsequencesCould the violence in Kansashave been prevented ifCongress had not abandonedthe Missouri Compromise?Explain.

6. Persuasive Writing Decidewhether you would have beenfor or against the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the conceptof popular sovereignty. Thenwrite a newspaper editorialarguing your position.

CA 8WA2.4

CA HR3.

CA HI2.

CA CS1.

What Did You Learn?

Step

StepStep Bloodshed

in Kansas

the Kansas-Nebraska Act and its effects? Visitca.hss.glencoe.com and click on StudyCentral.




Challengesto Slavery

Looking Back, Looking AheadYou learned that the issue of slavery ledto civil war in Kansas. You will next readabout how slavery led to the founding ofa new political party and additionalbloodshed.

Focusing on the • The Supreme Court’s decision in the

Dred Scott case resulted in even moredivision in the country. (page 549)

• The Lincoln-Douglas debates helpedLincoln emerge as a leader. (page 552)

Meeting PeopleJohn C. FrémontJames BuchananDred ScottRoger B. Taney (TAW•nee)Abraham Lincoln

Content Vocabularyarsenal (AHR• suhn•uhl)martyr (MAHR• tuhr)

Academic Vocabularyrestricttopic

Reading StrategyClassifying Information As you readthe section, re-create the diagram belowand list major events that occurred ineach year.


US8.10 Students ana-lyze the multiple causes,key events, and complexconsequences of the CivilWar.

18581846 1854 1856

1857Dred Scott decisionstates that allslaves are property

1859John Brownraids HarpersFerry, Virginia

1854RepublicanParty isformed

John BrownDred Scott

1856JamesBuchanan is electedpresident James Buchanan

1854 1856 1858 1860

(l)White House Historical Association, (c)Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, (r)National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

US8.9.5 Analyze the significance of the States’ Rights Doctrine, the Missouri Compromise (1820), the Wilmot Proviso (1846),the Compromise of 1850, Henry Clay’s role in the Missouri Compromise and the Comprise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act(1854), the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision (1857), and the Lincoln-Douglas debates (1858).

The Dred Scott DecisionThe Supreme Court’s decision in the

Dred Scott case resulted in even more divisionin the country.

Reading Connection How would you feel if theSupreme Court decided that you were “property”?Read to find out how the decision in the Dred Scottcase shocked the nation.

Many people considered John Brown to be aradical murderer, but others viewed him as afighter for the cause of freedom. When he wasexecuted in 1859, a magazine published thisimaginative account of Brown’s exit fromthe jail,

“a black woman, with her littlechild in arms, stood near his way. . . .He stopped. . . and with thetenderness of one whose love is asbroad as the brotherhood of man,kissed the child. . . . ”

––from The Anglo-AfricanMagazine

Why Was the Republican Party Founded?Even before Brown’s raid, other events haddriven the North and South further apart.After the Kansas-Nebraska Act, theDemocratic Party began to divide along sec-tional lines, with Northern Democrats leavingthe party. Differing views over the slaveryissue destroyed the Whig Party.

In 1854 antislavery Whigs and Democratsjoined forces with Free-Soilers to form theRepublican Party. The Republicans chal-lenged the proslavery Whigs and Democrats,choosing candidates to run in the state andcongressional elections of 1854. Their mainmessage was that the government should banslavery from new territories.

The Republican Party quickly showed itsstrength in the North. In the election, theRepublicans won control of the House ofRepresentatives and of several state govern-ments. In the South, the Republicans had almostno support.

Almost three-fourths of the Democratic can-didates from free states lost in 1854. The partywas increasingly becoming a Southern party.

The Election of 1856 Democrats and Re-publicans met again in the presidential electionof 1856. The Whig Party, disintegrating over theslavery issue, did not offer a candidate of its own.

The Republicans chose John C. Frémont ofCalifornia as their candidate for president.Frémont had gained fame as an explorer in theWest. The party platform called for free territo-ries, and its campaign slogan became “Free soil,free speech, and Frémont.”

The Democratic Party nominated JamesBuchanan of Pennsylvania, an experienceddiplomat and former member of Congress. Theparty endorsed the idea of popular sovereignty.

The American Party, or Know-Nothings,had grown quickly between 1853 and 1856 byattacking immigrants. The Know-Nothingsnominated former president Millard Fillmore.

The presidential vote divided along sectionallines. Buchanan won the election, winning all ofthe Southern states except Maryland, andreceived 174 electoral votes compared to 114 forFrémont and 8 for Fillmore. Frémont did notreceive a single electoral vote south of theMason-Dixon line, but he carried 11 of the 16 freestates.

The Dred Scott Decision Until 1857 someslaves who had lived in free states or territorieswere successful when they sued for their free-dom. Biddy Mason had done this in California.The case of another slave, Dred Scott, however,went all the way to the Supreme Court. OnMarch 6, 1857, the Court announced a decisionabout slavery and the territories that shook thenation.


Dred Scott was an enslaved AfricanAmerican who was bought by an army doctorin Missouri, a slave state. In the 1830s, the doc-tor moved his household to Illinois, a free state,and then to the Wisconsin Territory, where slav-ery was banned by the Northwest Ordinance of1787. Later the family returned to Missouri,where the doctor died.

In 1846 with the help of antislavery lawyers,Scott sued for his freedom. He claimed heshould be free because he had once lived on freesoil. Eleven years later, in the midst of growinganger over the slavery issue, the case reachedthe Supreme Court.

The Court’s Decision The case attractedenormous attention. Although the immediateissue was Dred Scott’s status, the Court alsohad the opportunity to rule on the question ofslavery in territories. Many Americans hopedthat the Court would resolve the issue for good.

The Court’s decision electrified the nation.Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (TAW • nee) said

that Dred Scott was still a slave. As a slave,Scott was not a citizen and had no right tobring a lawsuit. Taney could have stoppedthere, but he decided to address the broaderissues.

Taney wrote that Scott’s residence on freesoil did not make him free. An enslaved personwas property, and the Fifth Amendment pro-hibits Congress from taking away propertywithout “due process of law.”

Finally, Taney wrote that Congress had nopower to prohibit slavery in any territory. TheMissouri Compromise—which had bannedslavery north of 36°30’N latitude—was uncon-stitutional. For that matter, so was popular sov-ereignty. Not even the voters in a territory couldprohibit slavery because that would amount totaking away a person’s property. In effect, thedecision meant that the Constitution protectedslavery. ; (See page 846 of the Appendix for a summary of the

Dred Scott decision.)

Reaction to the Decision Rather than set-tling the issue, the Supreme Court’s decisiondivided the country even more. ManySoutherners were elated. The Court had re-affirmed what many in the South had alwaysmaintained: Nothing could legally prevent thespread of slavery. Northern Democrats werepleased that the Republicans’ main issue—restricting the spread of slavery—had beenruled unconstitutional.

Republicans and other antislavery groupswere outraged, calling the Dred Scott decision“the greatest crime” ever committed in thenation’s courts.

Explain How did the DredScott decision regulate the spread of slavery?


Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (above right) deliveredthe Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dred Scott case.The decision made Scott a topic for the nation’spress. What impression of Scott’s family doyou get from the engravings shown here?

(l)Library of Congress, (r)The Supreme Court of the United States Office of the Curator, #1991.402.2

551

BRIDGET MASON1818–1891

Born a slave in 1818, Bridget Mason had worked on

plantations in Georgia and Mississippi. In 1851 slave-

holder Robert Smith moved his family and their 12

slaves to California. Among the slaves were Bridget

—or Biddy as she was usually called—and her three

children. Smith’s plan to start a ranch and mine for

gold did not work. In the autumn of 1855, Smith

made plans to move to Texas.

Before Smith could leave, charges were filed

against him for planning to move enslaved people

from California, a free state, to Texas, a slave state. In

court, Smith’s attorney argued that Biddy and the other

slaves had agreed to come to California and were willing

to go to Texas.

Before Judge Benjamin Hayes issued his verdict, he

wanted to hear how Biddy felt about moving to Texas.

Biddy told the judge, “Mr. Smith told me I would be just

as free in Texas as here.” But she admitted she “always

feared this trip to Texas since I first heard of it.” In his

decision, Hayes said that Biddy and the others were

“entitled to their freedom and cannot be held in slavery

or involuntary servitude . . . [they] are free forever.”

In 1856 when Biddy was declared free, she and her family decided to settle in

Los Angeles. Biddy first worked as a servant, then was hired by Dr. John Strother

Griffin to help care for his patients. Saving her money, she purchased her first

home in 1866. Biddy soon bought and sold more property, making money during

the mid-1870s when property in Los Angeles was in demand.

Biddy devoted her life to helping others.

She helped form the First African Methodist

Episcopal Church in 1872, visited jail inmates,

and provided food and shelter for the poor.

When floods struck the Los Angeles area in the

1880s, Biddy paid to feed the flood victims.

“If you hold your handclosed, nothing good cancome in. The open hand isblessed, for it gives in abun-dance, even as it receives.”

—Bridget Mason

Read the quote above. Can you think of anyonetoday who lives by that motto? Explain.

US8.9.6 Describe the lives of freeblacks and the laws that limited theirfreedom and economic opportunities.

The Miriam Matthews Collection

US8.10.4 Discuss Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and his significant writings and speeches and their relationship to theDeclaration of Independence, such as his “House Divided” speech (1858), Gettysburg Address (1863), Emancipation Proclamation(1863), and inaugural addresses (1861 and 1865).

Lincoln and DouglasThe Lincoln-Douglas debates helped

Lincoln emerge as a leader.

Reading Connection If you really wanted some-thing, what risks would you be willing to take? Readto learn how Lincoln, who was nearly unknown,challenged Douglas to a series of debates andemerged as a leader.

In the congressional election of 1858, theSenate race in Illinois was the center of nationalattention. The current senator, Democrat StephenA. Douglas, ran against Republican challengerAbraham Lincoln. People considered Douglas alikely candidate for president in 1860. Lincolnwas nearly an unknown.

Short and powerful, Douglas was called “theLittle Giant.” He disliked slavery but thoughtthat the controversy over it would interfere withthe nation’s growth. He believed the issue couldbe resolved through popular sovereignty.

Born in the poor backcountry of Kentucky,Abraham Lincoln moved to Indiana as a child,and later to Illinois. Like Douglas, Lincoln wasintelligent, ambitious, and a successful lawyer.Lincoln started his campaign with a memorablespeech, in which he declared:

“A house divided against itselfcannot stand. I believe thisgovernment cannot endurepermanently half slave and half free.I do not expect the Union to bedissolved—I do not expect the houseto fall—but I do expect it will ceaseto be divided. It will become all onething or all the other.”

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates Not as wellknown as Douglas, Lincoln challenged the sen-ator to a series of debates. Douglas reluctantlyagreed. The two met seven times in August,September, and October of 1858 in townsthroughout Illinois. Thousands came to thesedebates. The main topic, of course, was slavery.

During the debate at Freeport, Lincolnquestioned Douglas about his views on popular sovereignty. Could the people of a territorylegally exclude slavery before achieving state-hood? Douglas replied that the people couldexclude slavery by refusing to pass lawsprotecting slaveholders’ rights. Douglas’sresponse, which satisfied antislavery followersbut lost him support in the South, becameknown as the Freeport Doctrine.


“I believe thisgovernment

cannot endurepermanently

half slave andhalf free.”

—Abraham Lincoln

“This republiccan exist foreverdivided into freeand slave states,as our fathers

made it.”—Stephen Douglas

Courtesy Illinois State Historical Library

Douglas claimed that Lincoln wantedAfrican Americans to be fully equal to whites.Lincoln denied this. Still, Lincoln said, “in theright to eat the bread . . . which his own handearns, [an African American] is my equal andthe equal of [Senator] Douglas, and the equal ofevery living man.” The real issue, Lincoln said,is “between the men who think slavery a wrongand those who do not think it wrong. TheRepublican Party thinks it wrong.”

Following the debates, Douglas won a nar-row victory in the election. Lincoln lost the elec-tion, but the debates had earned him a nationalreputation.

The Raid on Harpers Ferry After the 1858elections, Southerners began to feel threatenedby growing Republican power. In late 1859, anact of violence greatly increased their fears. OnOctober 16, the abolitionist John Brown led 18men, both whites and African Americans, on araid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His target wasan arsenal (AHR • suhn •uhl), a storage place for

weapons and ammunition. Brown—who hadkilled five proslavery Kansans in 1856—hopedto start a rebellion against slaveholders by arm-ing enslaved African Americans. His raid wasfinanced by a group of abolitionists.

Brown and his men were quickly defeatedby local citizens and federal troops. Brown wasconvicted of treason and murder and was sen-tenced to hang. His execution caused an uproarin the North. Some antislavery Northerners,including Republican leaders, denouncedBrown’s use of violence. Others viewed Brownas a hero. Writer Ralph Waldo Emerson calledBrown a martyr (MAHR • tuhr)—a person whodies for a cause he believes in.

John Brown’s death became a rallying pointfor abolitionists. When Southerners learned ofBrown’s connection to abolitionists, their fears ofa great Northern conspiracy against them seemedto be confirmed. The nation was nearing disaster.

Identify What was JohnBrown’s target when he led a raid on HarpersFerry?

Reading SummaryReview the • The Republican Party became a

major political force, while theSupreme Court ruled in the DredScott case that the spread ofslavery could not be restricted.

• Debates between AbrahamLincoln and Stephen Douglashelped put Lincoln in thenational spotlight.

1. Discuss the stages in thedevelopment of theRepublican Party.

2. Who financed John Brown’sraid on Harpers Ferry?

Critical Thinking3. Organizing Information Re-

create the table shown here,and describe the positionstaken by Lincoln and Douglasin their debates.

4. How didthe Dred Scott decisionreverse an earlier ruling madeby Congress?

5. Making Inferences Why didLincoln emerge as a leaderafter the Lincoln-Douglasdebates?

6. Descriptive Writing Write ashort biographical essay oneither John Brown, Dred Scott,or Stephen Douglas. Includekey events from the person’slife that relate to events leading up to the Civil War.

CA 8WA2.1.a

CA CS1.

CA HI2.

CA HI1.

What Did You Learn?


Lincoln-Douglas DebatesLincoln’s position Douglas’s position


the nation’s division on slavery? Visitca.hss.glencoe.com and click on Study Central.




Secession and War

Looking Back, Looking AheadAs you know, the Dred Scott decision andJohn Brown’s raid further divided thenation. Read to learn how the election of1860 affected the possible disaster thatfaced the country.

Focusing on the • A split occurred in the Democratic

Party, which allowed Lincoln to win theelection of 1860. (page 555)

• South Carolina led other Southernstates in seceding from the Union.(page 556)

• The Civil War began when Confederateforces attacked Fort Sumter in SouthCarolina. (page 558)

Locating PlacesSouth CarolinaFort Sumter

Meeting PeopleJohn CrittendenJefferson Davis

Content Vocabularyborder statessecession (sih•SEH• shuhn)states’ rights

Academic Vocabulary eventual (ih•VEHNT• shuh•wuhl)justifytheory

Reading StrategyClassifying Information As you readthe section, re-create the time line belowand list the major events at each time.

Feb. 1861Southern states form theConfederate States of America

SecedingStates, 1861

HistorySocial ScienceStandardsUS8.10 Students ana-lyze the multiple causes,key events, and complexconsequences of the Civil War.

1860 1861 1862

Nov. 1860 Apr. 1861Feb. 1861

Dec. 1860 Mar. 1861

April 1861Confederateforces attack Fort Sumter;Civil War begins

Nov. 1860AbrahamLincolnis electedpresident

Dec. 1860SouthCarolinasecedes

US8.10.4 Discuss Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and his significant writings and speeches and their relationship to theDeclaration of Independence, such as his “House Divided” speech (1858), Gettysburg Address (1863), Emancipation Proclamation(1863), and inaugural addresses (1861 and 1865).

The Election of 1860A split occurred in the Democratic

Party, which allowed Lincoln to win the electionof 1860.

Reading Connection Think of an issue that youfeel strongly about. Do you think your views wouldaffect your choice for president? Read to learn howthe slavery issue affected the election of 1860.

After John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry,calls for secession grew. South Carolina’sCharleston Mercury declared “The day of com-promise is passed . . . [T]here is no peace for theSouth in the Union.” The Nashville Union andAmerican said, “The South will hold the wholeparty of Republicans responsible for the blood-shed at Harpers Ferry.”

Republicans argued that secession was onlya scare tactic, aimed at frightening voters fromcasting their ballot for Abraham Lincoln. Tomany Southerners, however, Lincoln’s electionwould be a signal that their position in theUnion was hopeless.

Many Parties Would the Union break up?That was the burning question in the monthsbefore the presidential election of 1860. Theissue of slavery eventually caused a break inthe Democratic Party. Northern Democratsnominated Stephen Douglas for the presidency and supported popular sovereignty. SouthernDemocrats—vowing to uphold slavery—nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentuckyand supported the Dred Scott decision.Southern Democrats denounced John Brown’sraid as “among the gravest of crimes.”Northern and Southern moderates formed theConstitutional Union Party and nominatedJohn Bell of Tennessee. This party took no posi-tion on slavery. However, voters in the Northand South would no longer tolerate neutralityon this important issue.

Lincoln Nominated The Republicans nomi-nated Abraham Lincoln. Their platform,designed to attract voters from many quarters,was that slavery should be left undisturbedwhere it existed, but that it should be excludedfrom the territories. Many Southerners feared,however, that a Republican victory wouldencourage slave revolts.

Lincoln Elected Lincoln won a clear majorityof the electoral votes—180 out of 303. Hereceived 40 percent of the popular vote.Douglas was second with 30 percent of the vote.

The vote was along purely sectional lines.Lincoln’s name did not even appear on the bal-lot in most Southern states, but he won everyNorthern state. Breckinridge swept the South,and Bell took most border states. These stateswere located between the North and the South.They were divided over whether to stay in theUnion or join the Confederacy. Douglas wononly the state of Missouri and three of NewJersey’s seven electoral votes.

Examine What caused thesplit in the Democratic Party in 1860?


Patriots used these mottos on this secessionist ribbon during the American Revolution. What didthey mean during the Revolution? Why do youthink secessionists used these mottos?

Chicago Historical Society

US8.10.3 Identify the constitutional issues posed by the doctrine of nullification and secession and the earliest origins of thatdoctrine. US8.10.4 Discuss Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and his significant writings and speeches and their relationship tothe Declaration of Independence, such as his “House Divided” speech (1858), Gettysburg Address (1863), EmancipationProclamation (1863), and inaugural addresses (1861 and 1865).

The South SecedesSouth Carolina led other Southern

states in seceding from the Union.

Reading Connection Have you ever been so angrythat you needed to leave a room? Read to find outabout the South’s decision to leave the Union.

In the election of 1860, the more populousNorth had outvoted the South. The victory forLincoln was a short-lived one, however, for thenation Lincoln was to lead would soon disintegrate.

Lincoln and the Republicans had promisednot to disturb slavery where it already existed.Many people in the South, however, did nottrust the party, fearing that the Republicanadministration would not protect Southernrights. On December 20, 1860, the South’s long-standing threat to leave the Union became areality when South Carolina held a special con-vention and voted to secede.

Attempt at Compromise Even after SouthCarolina’s action, many people still wished topreserve the Union. The question was how. Asother Southern states debated secession(sih • SEH • shuhn)—withdrawal from theUnion—leaders in Washington, D.C., workedfrantically to fashion a last-minute compromise.On December 18, 1860, Senator John Crittendenof Kentucky proposed a series of amendments tothe Constitution. Central to Crittenden’s planwas a provision to protect slavery south of36°30’N latitude—the line set by the MissouriCompromise—in all territories “now held orhereafter acquired.”

Republicans considered this unacceptable.They had just won an election on the principlethat slavery would not be extended in any terri-tories. “Now we are told. . . ,” Lincoln wrote,

“the government shall be brokenup, unless we surrender to those wehave beaten.”

––letter to James T. Hale, January 11, 1861

Leaders in the South also rejected the plan.“We spit upon every plan to compromise,”exclaimed one Southern leader. “No humanpower can save the Union,” wrote another.

The Confederacy By February 1861, Texas,Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, andGeorgia had joined South Carolina and alsoseceded. Delegates from these states and SouthCarolina met in Montgomery, Alabama, onFebruary 4 to form a new nation and govern-ment. Calling themselves the ConfederateStates of America, or the Confederacy, theychose Jefferson Davis, a senator fromMississippi, as their president.

Southerners justified secession with thetheory of states’ rights. The states, they argued,had voluntarily chosen to enter the Union. Theydefined the Constitution as a contract amongthe independent states. Now because thenational government had violated that con-tract—by refusing to enforce the Fugitive SlaveAct and by denying the Southern states equalrights in the territories—the states felt justifiedin leaving the Union.

Reactions to Secession Many Southernerswelcomed secession. Senator Albert Brown ofMississippi said in a speech to a Southern audi-ence “disunion is a fearful thing, but emancipa-tion is worse.” In Charleston, South Carolina,people rang church bells, fired cannons, andcelebrated in the streets. A newspaper inAtlanta, Georgia, said the South “will neversubmit” and would defend its liberties no mat-ter what the cost.

Other Southerners, however, were alarmed.A South Carolinian wrote, “My heart has beenrent [torn] by . . . the destruction of my country—the dismemberment of that great and gloriousUnion.”


Student Web Activity Visit ca.hss.glencoe.comand click on Chapter 12—Student Web Activitiesfor an activity on the period leading up to theCivil War.


Virginian Robert E. Lee expressed concernabout the future. “I see only that a fearfulcalamity is upon us,” he wrote.

In the North, some abolitionists preferred toallow the Southern states to leave. If the Unioncould be kept together only by compromising onslavery, they declared, then let the Union bedestroyed. Most Northerners, however, believedthat the Union must be preserved. For Lincolnthe issue was “whether in a free government theminority have the right to break up the govern-ment whenever they choose.”

Presidential Responses Lincoln had wonthe election, but he was not yet president. JamesBuchanan’s term ran until March 4, 1861. InDecember 1860, Buchanan sent a message toCongress saying that the Southern states had noright to secede. Then he added that he had nopower to stop them from doing so.

As Lincoln prepared for his inauguration onMarch 4, 1861, people in both the North and theSouth wondered what he would say and do.They wondered, too, what would happen inVirginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Kentucky,

Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas. These slavestates had chosen to remain in the Union, butthe decision was not final. If the United Statesused force against the Confederate States ofAmerica, the remaining slave states also mightsecede. In his Inaugural Address, the new pres-ident mixed toughness and words of peace. Hesaid that secession would not be permitted,vowing to hold federal property in the Southand to enforce the laws of the United States. Atthe same time, Lincoln pleaded with the peopleof the South for reconciliation:

“We are not enemies, but friends.We must not be enemies. Thoughpassion may have strained, it mustnot break our bonds of affection.”

––from Inaugural Addressesof the Presidents

Explain How did the seced-ing states justify their right to leave the Union?


In his first Inaugural Address, Lincoln spoke tothe South when he said, “In your hands, my dis-satisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, isthe momentous issue of civil war.” How didSoutherners feel about secession?

Bettmann/CORBIS

US8.10.6 Describe critical developments and events in the war, including the major battles, geographical advantages andobstacles, technological advances, and General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.

Fort SumterThe Civil War began when Confed-

erate forces attacked Fort Sumter in SouthCarolina.

Reading Connection Have you ever been startledby a loud noise? Read to learn how Fort Sumter wasattacked on April 12, 1861, and what it was like frominside the fort.

The South soon tested President Lincoln’svow to hold federal property. Confederateforces had already seized some United Statesforts within their states. Although Lincoln didnot want to start a war by trying to take the

forts back, allowing the Confederates to keepthem would amount to admitting their right tosecede.

On the day after his inauguration, Lincolnreceived a dispatch from Major RobertAnderson, the commander of Fort Sumter, aUnited States fort on an island guardingCharleston Harbor. The message warned thatthe fort was low on supplies and that theConfederates demanded its surrender.

The War Begins Lincoln responded by send-ing a message to Governor Francis Pickens ofSouth Carolina. He informed Pickens that hewas sending an unarmed expedition with sup-plies to Fort Sumter.


N

S

EW

500 kilometers0Lambert Equal-Area projection

500 miles0

AtlanticOcean

PacificOcean

On February 4, 1861,delegates met in Alabamato form a new nation.

South Carolina was thefirst state to secedefrom the Union.

West Virginia secededfrom Virginia in 1861and was admitted tothe Union in 1863.

40°N

30°N

10°N

20°N

90°W 70°W80°W

60°W

120°W 110°W 100°W

PA.ILL. IND.

MINN.

CALIF.

OREGON

WIS.

IOWA

MO.KY.

ARK.

KANSAS

COLORADOTERR.

UTAHTERR.

NEVADATERR.

WASHINGTONTERR.

DAKOTATERR.

NEBRASKA TERR.

NEW MEXICOTERR.

LA.TEXAS

INDIANTERR. TENN. N.C.

S.C.

GA.

FLA.

ALA.MISS.

MICH. N.Y.

VT.N.H.

ME.

MASS.

R.I.

N.J.

DEL.MD.

VA.

OHIOW.VA.

CONN.

Seceding States, 1860–1861

Boundary between Unionand Confederacy

Union free stateUnion slave state

Union Territories

Slave state seceding beforeFort Sumter, April 1861Slave state seceding afterFort Sumter, April 1861

After the attack on Fort Sumter, four more Southernstates joined the seven that had already secededfrom the Union.1.Region Which slave states remained in the

Union after the Fort Sumter attack?2.Analyze Which states did not secede until

after the Fort Sumter attack?

Lincoln promised that Union forces wouldnot “throw in men, arms, or ammunition”unless they were fired upon. The president thusleft the decision to start shooting up to theConfederates.

Confederate president Jefferson Davis andhis advisers made a fateful choice. Theyordered their forces to attack Fort Sumter beforethe Union supplies could arrive. Confederateguns opened fire on the fort early on April 12,1861. Union captain Abner Doubleday wit-nessed the attack from inside the fort:

“Showers of balls . . . and shells. . . poured into the fort in oneincessant stream, causing greatflakes of masonry to fall in alldirections.”

––as quoted in Voices of theCivil War

High seas had prevented Union relief shipsfrom reaching the fort. The Union garrison heldout for 33 hours before surrendering on April14. Thousands of shots were exchanged duringthe siege, but no lives were lost on either side.The Confederates hoisted their flag over thefort, and all the guns in the harbor sounded atriumphant salute.

Once Fort Sumter was attacked, both theNorth and South took action. President Lincolnissued a call for 75,000 troops to fight to savethe Union, and volunteers quickly signed up.Meanwhile, volunteers signed up to fight forthe South, and Virginia, North Carolina,Tennessee, and Arkansas voted to join theConfederacy. The Civil War had begun.

Explain What action didLincoln take after the attack on Fort Sumter?

Reading SummaryReview the • In a contest in which votes were

split between four candidates,Abraham Lincoln came out thewinner of the 1860 presidentialelection.

• Following Lincoln’s election, anumber of Southern statesseceded from the Union andformed the Confederate Statesof America.

• The Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in the harbor ofCharleston, South Carolina,marked the beginning of theCivil War.

1. What was Senator JohnCrittenden’s last-minuteproposal to save the Union?

2. Who served as the presidentof the Confederate States ofAmerica?

Critical Thinking3. Sequencing Events Re-create

the diagram below. Fill in theevents leading up to the sur-render of Fort Sumter and thestart of the Civil War.

4. Whatrole did sectionalism play inLincoln’s victory in the 1860election?

5. Drawing Conclusions Basedon what you read, how wouldyou describe PresidentLincoln’s priorities as he tookoffice in March 1861?

6. Expository Writing Write aparagraph describing what youconsider to be key reasons forthe Civil War. CA 8WA2.3

CA CS1.

CA CS2.

What Did You Learn?


Fort SumterSurrenders

the election of 1860, secession, and war?Visit ca.hss.glencoe.com and click on StudyCentral.



Union or Confederacy?President Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, were inauguratedjust several weeks apart. These excerpts from their Inaugural Addresses will help youunderstand differing points of view about secession from the United States in 1861.

US8.10.5 Study the viewsand lives of leaders (e.g.,Ulysses S. Grant, JeffersonDavis, Robert E. Lee) andsoldiers on both sides of thewar, including those of blacksoldiers and regiments.

560

Abraham Lincoln—Union

I hold, that . . . the Union of these States is perpetual [forever].

Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all

national governments.

One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought

to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought

not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute. . . .

Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot

remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an

impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be

divorced, and go out of the presence, and beyond the

reach of each other; but the different parts of our country

cannot do this. . . .

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow country-

men, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of

civil war.

—from Abraham Lincoln’s

First Inaugural Address,

March 4, 1861

Abraham Lincoln

CORBIS

561

Jefferson Davis—Confederacy

Our present condition [as a new confederacy] . . . illustrates the

American idea that governments rest upon the consent of the governed,

and that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish governments when-

ever they become destructive of the ends for which they were established.

. . . In this they [the people of the Confederacy] merely asserted a right

which the Declaration of Independence of 1776 had defined to be inalien-

able. . . . [I]t is by abuse of language that their act has been denominated

[called] a revolution. They formed a new alliance, but within each State its

government has remained, the rights of person and property

have not been disturbed. . . .

As a necessity, not a choice, we have resorted to the rem-

edy of separation; and henceforth our energies must be

directed to the conduct of our own affairs, and the [contin-

uation] of the Confederacy which we have formed. If a just

perception of mutual interest shall permit us peaceably to

pursue our separate political career, my most earnest

desire will have been fulfilled. But if this be denied to us

. . . [we will be forced] to appeal to arms. . . .

—from Jefferson Davis’s

Inaugural Address,

February 18, 1861

Jefferson Davis

Document-Based Questions

1. According to Lincoln, what wasthe major disagreement betweenthe North and South?

2. What did Lincoln compare theUnited States to?

3. Did Lincoln and Davis say any-thing in their addresses that wassimilar? Explain. CA HR3.

CA HR3.

CORBIS

The LiberatorThrough his newspaper, The Liberator, abo-litionist William Lloyd Garrison demandedthe immediate emancipation of all slaves.Founded in 1831 in Boston, The Liberatorcontinued publishing antislavery messagesunder Garrison’s leadership for 35 years. Inone edition, he wrote:

[I support] the “self-evident truth” . . .that all men are created equal, andendowed by their Creator with certaininalienable rights. . . .

I am aware that many object to theseverity of my language; but is there not

cause for severity? I will be as harsh astruth and as uncompromising as justice.On this subject I do not wish to think orspeak, or write with moderation. No! No!Tell a man whose house is on fire to givea moderate alarm; tell him to moderatelyrescue his wife from the hands of a rav-isher; tell the mother to gradually extri-cate her babe from the fire into which ithas fallen—but urge me not to use mod-eration in a cause like the present. I am inearnest; I will not equivocate; I will notexcuse; I will not retreat a single inch—AND I WILL BE HEARD. . . .

Challenging SlaveryIn the days leading up to the Civil War, people through-

out the United States debated about economics, states’rights, and the institution of slavery. Antislavery societyand religious group members were vocal, as were politi-cians, businesspeople, and plantation owners. In somecases, the voices of both free and enslaved AfricanAmericans could be heard.

Read the passages on pages 562 and 563 and answerthe questions that follow.

severity (suh • VEHR • uh • tee): beingstrict, stern, or harsh

moderation (MAH • duh • RAY • shuhn):limiting or controlling something so asnot to be extreme or excessive

ravisher: one who carries somebodyor something off by violent force

extricate (EHK • struh • KAYT): to releasesomebody or something with difficultyfrom being constrained

equivocate (ih • KWIH • vuh • KAYT): tospeak vaguely, especially in order tomislead

dissolution (DIH • suh • LOO • shun): theact or process of dissolving

atone (uh • TOHN): to make amends

Reader’s Dictionary


Banner celebrating Garrison’s abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator

US8.9 Students analyze the early andsteady attempts to abolish slavery and torealize the ideals of the Declaration ofIndependence.

Massachusetts Historical Society/Picture Research Consultants


On the Eve of WarMrs. Eugene McLean kept a diary of her experi-ences as an Army officer’s wife during the CivilWar. This passage describes her thoughts after thefall of Fort Sumter. Her husband joined theConfederate Army.

Strange, strange, strange, how we haveaccustomed ourselves to the thought, andaccept the dissolution of the Union as a natu-ral consequence! Whom have we to blame forbringing us to this state . . . ? Wherever thefault lies, I do not envy them their feelings inthis hour, and fear both sections will atone inmourning and ashes for the crime.

Swing Low, Sweet ChariotSpirituals—songs of salvation—provided theenslaved African Americans who wrote and sangthem with not only a measure of comfort in bleaktimes but with a means for communicatingsecretly among themselves. Here is an example ofa popular song that was sung by enslaved AfricanAmericans at work:

Swing low, sweet chariot, Coming for to carry me home,Swing low, sweet chariot,Coming for to carry me home.I looked over Jordan, and what did I see,

Coming for to carry me home;A band of angels coming after me,Coming for to carry me home.If you get there before I do,Coming for to carry me home;Tell all my friends I’m coming too,Coming for to carry me home.Swing low, sweet chariot,Coming for to carry me home,Swing low, sweet chariot, Coming for to carry me home.

—Selected Famous Negro Spirituals

The Liberator1. Who do you think Garrison is referring to

when he states that he is aware that manyobject to the severity of his language?

2. What analogies does Garrison use to makehis point about the need for severity overmoderation?

On the Eve of War3. How does the author feel about secession?4. Does she blame either the Union or the

Confederacy for the war? Explain.

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot5. What does the phrase “swing low, sweet

chariot” mean? What is meant by the lines“If you get there before I do . . . Tell all myfriends I’m coming too”?

6. Why do you think enslaved AfricanAmericans sang this song?

Read to Write7. Review each of the readings. Do you think

these were written to inform, to entertain, totell a story, or to persuade the reader? Writea one-page paper and give reasons for youranswer. CA 8WA2.4

The spiritual is a unique and importantpart of African American history.

Bettmann/CORBIS

OREG.

CALIF.

TEXAS

MINN.

IOWA

MO.

ARK.

LA.

WIS.

ILL.

MISS.ALA. GA.

S.C.

N.C.

FLA.

TENN.

KY.

IND.

MICH.

OHIO

VA.

PA.

N.Y.

MAINEN.H.

VT.

MASS.

R.I.CONN.

N.J.DEL.MD.

NONVOTING

TERRITORIES

CandidateElectoralVote

PopularVote

PoliticalParty

180

Southern Democrat

39 Constitutional Union

72

Republican1,865,593

848,356

592,906

Breckinridge

Lincoln

Bell

12 Northern Democrat1,382,713Douglas

Review Content Vocabulary1. Use the following terms to write a brief

paragraph describing events in the UnitedStates just prior to 1860.secedefugitivecivil warabolitionist

Review the Section 1 • Abolitionists

2. How was William Lloyd Garrison effectivein the antislavery movement?

3. What was the purpose of the AmericanColonization Society?

Section 2 • Slavery and the West

4. What was the purpose of the MissouriCompromise?

5. List the five parts of the Compromise of1850.

Section 3 • A Nation Dividing

6. What was Stephen Douglas’s solution tothe slavery issue in the Kansas andNebraska territories?

7. How did abolitionists and AfricanAmericans resist the Fugitive Slave Act?

Section 4 • Challenges to Slavery

8. How did Abraham Lincoln become anational figure in politics?

9. What was the Dred Scott decision? Whatdid it mean for those opposed to slavery?

Section 5 • Secession and War

10. Why were there four parties and candi-dates in the presidential election of 1860?

11. How did Lincoln plan to preventsecession?

Critical Thinking12. Evaluate Why was the balance of free and

slave states in the Senate such an impor-tant issue?

13. Analyze What contributions did FrederickDouglass make to the abolitionist move-ment? Was he successful? Describe yourconclusions in a paragraph.

Geography SkillsStudy the map below and answer the follow-ing questions.

14. Location Which states supported Douglas?15. Region In what region(s) was the

Republican Party strongest?16. Region In what region did Breckinridge

find support?

CA CS3.

CA HI2.

CA HR3.


Standards US8.9 & US8.10

Election of 1860

Read to Write17. Conflict and War

Make a list of 10 important events that youread about in this chapter. Select the twoevents that you think did the most to createconflict between the North and South. Writea one-page essay in which you explain howthese events led to war.

18. Using Your Use the informationyou listed in your foldable to create a briefstudy guide for the chapter. For each sec-tion, your study guide should include atleast five questions that focus on the mainideas.

Using Academic Vocabulary19. Write two words that are related to each of

the following academic vocabulary words.publication controversy inevitable

Building Citizenship 20. Making Compromises With a partner,

think of a controversial issue that is asource of disagreement today. Take oppo-site sides on the issue; then work togetherto come up with a list of three compro-mises that would make the solution to thisproblem acceptable to both sides.

Linking Past and Present 21. Political Parties Search the Internet for a

list of political parties in existence today.Research to find the date that the partywas founded and its current goals. Createa table that briefly summarizes this infor-mation. Then compare your table to thepolitical parties discussed in Chapter 12.

Reviewing Skills

22. Making InferencesReread Jefferson Davis’s Inaugural Addresson page 561. How do you think Davis feelsabout his new role? How does he feel aboutthe prospect of war? Write a paragraphexplaining your conclusions.

23. Sequencing InformationDraw two time lines highlighting keyfigures, dates, and milestones in the abolitionist movement and the politicalbattle over slavery. CA CS2.

CA 8RC2.0

CA 8WS1.4

CA CS1.

CA 8RC2.0

CA 8WS1.1


Use the map below to answer thefollowing question.

Which of the following statementsis true?

A The Compromise of 1850allowed the Oregon Territoryto be open to slaveholding.

B The Compromise of 1850 did notmake any land on the PacificOcean open to slaveholding.

C The Compromise of 1850 madeevery state touching the south-ern border of the United Statesopen to slaveholding.

D The Compromise of 1850 gavethe Minnesota Territory theauthority to choose whether itwould allow slaveholding.

24

N

S

EW

CALIF.(1850)

UNORGANIZEDTERR.

MINNESOTATERR.OREGON

TERR.

UTAH TERR.

NEW MEXICOTERR.

Free states

Slave states

Territory closed to slaveholding

Territory open to slaveholding

Indian Territory

The Compromise of 1850

Self-Check Quiz Visit ca.hss.glencoe.com

to prepare for the Chapter 12 test.
