5. THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE As of 1818, there were eleven free states and eleven slave states. Since each state had two senators in the Senate representing their cause, this balance of free and slave maintained peace and harmony among the states. That balance was in jeopardy when Missouri applied for statehood in 1819 as a slave state. Senator Henry Clay, known as The Great Compromiser, proposed a plan that both the North and South accepted BACKGROUND
6. THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE KEY POINTS of the PLAN 1. admitted Missouri as a slave state 2. admitted Maine as a free state 3. line was drawn at the 36 degree 30 minutes latitude; slavery was prohibited north of this land
9. THE COMPROMISE of 1850 BACKGROUND After the Missouri Compromise, six more states joined the Union--three as free states and three as slave states. However, the peace was disrupted when California applied for statehood as a free state. Again a compromise was needed. This time, Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina loudly addressed the Senate that the slave system could not be changed. Slavery must be allowed in the western territories and Northerners must admit that Southerners had a right to get their "property" back, in reference to runaway slaves. If the North could not agree to southern demands, Calhoun told the Senate, "let the states...agree to separate and part in peace. If you are unwilling that we should part in peace, tell us so, and we shall know what to do." He meant that the South would secede from the Union.
10. THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE BACKGROUND con’t In 1850, as the debate raged on, Calhoun died. Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois, along with Senator Clay guided through a piece of legislation that became known as the Compromise of 1850.
14. THE KANSAS NEBRASKA ACT THE STORY New territories in the West made renewed expansion of slavery a real likelihood. Many Northerners wanted slavery prohibited in the western lands. One group of moderates suggested that the Missouri Compromise line be extended to the Pacific with free states north of it and slave states to the south. Another group proposed that the question be left to popular sovereignty . The government would allow settlers to flock into the new territory with or without slaves as they pleased and, when the time came to organize the region into states, the people themselves should determine the question. Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois pushed through a piece of legislation to do just that; it was the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
15. THE KANSAS NEBRASKA ACT THE STORY This act nullified, or did away with, the Missouri Compromise of 1820. People from both the North and the South wanted control of Kansas. Abolitionists helped more than 1000 people move there from the East. Among these was the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe. He supplied guns to the abolitionists in Kansas by hiding the weapons inside Bibles. These were referred to as Beecher's Bibles. Proslavery settlers moved into Kansas, too. They wanted to make sure that the anti-slavery group did not take over the territory.
16. THE KANSAS NEBRASKA ACT THE RESULTS . In 1855, Kansas held elections to choose a legislature--either pro or anti-slave. Hundreds of border ruffians from Missouri rode into Kansas and voted illegally. Kansas was in chaos; newspapers called the territory Bleeding Kansas. Brutal murders, masterminded by John Brown occurred at Pottawatomie Creek . By late 1856, over 200 people had been killed. To many people, this brutal act was just more proof that slavery led to violence.
20. THE DRED SCOTT CASE (1857) BACKGROUND When the Army ordered his master to go back to Missouri, he took Scott with him back to that slave state, where his master died. In 1846, Scott was helped by Abolitionist (anti-slavery) lawyers to sue for his freedom in court, claiming he should be free since he had lived on free soil for a long time. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Roger B. Taney, was a former slave owner from Maryland Chief Justice Taney
21. THE DRED SCOTT CASE (1857) THE RESULTS In March of 1857, Scott lost the decision as seven out of nine Justices on the Supreme Court declared no slave or descendant of a slave could be a U.S. citizen, or ever had been a U.S. citizen. As a non-citizen, the court stated, Scott had no rights and could not sue in a Federal Court and must remain a slave.
22. THE DRED SCOTT CASE (1857) The Supreme Court also ruled that Congress could not stop slavery in the newly emerging territories and declared the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to be unconstitutional. The Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery north of the parallel 36°30´ in the Louisiana Purchase. The Court declared it violated the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution which prohibits Congress from depriving persons of their property without due process of law. THE RESULTS
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24. Unit IV 1857 1820 1850 1854 Overall, the Dred Scott decision had the effect of widening the political and social gap between North and South and took the nation closer to the brink of Civil War . 1860
