1. Eric Ehizokhale

2.  Prior to 1848, slave and free states were equal and had
equal representation in the Senate.

3.  The California Gold Rush sent tens of thousands of
unruly people to the newly acquired territory.
 Needing a solution to rampant crime, the people drafted
a quick Constitution for admittance into the Union -- a
Constitution that banned slavery.

4. This outraged Southerners – now the South was
outnumbered in the House and Senate, and California set
a precedent for the other Mexican Cession territories to
be free states as well.
Their outrage added to their outrage of Northerners
helping slaves escape. They wanted more slave territories
and a stricter slave law.
This led to the Compromise of 1850.

5. Compromise of 1850
• Remainder of
South
North
• California
admitted as a Mexican
free state. Cession land
open to popular
• Slave trade, but
sovereignty.
not slavery,
abolished in DC. • Stricter
fugitive slave
laws.

6.  Northerners were enraged. The new fugitive slave laws
were essentially bribes for Northerners to convict and
return slaves. Northern moderates turned into fierce
Abolitionists.
 Southerners still wanted more land for slavery, so they
looked to Central America. Their plan to get Cuba, the
Ostend Manifesto, was leaked, and Northerners
became even more angry.

7. Gadsden Purchase
The West was cut off
from the rest of the
Union. James Gadsden
negotiated to purchase
this area from Mexico
for $10 million so the
South could build a
railroad from Houston
to Los Angeles.
This frustrated the
North. They wanted a
railroad to the west, so
they hurriedly
organized Nebraska.

8. Kansas-Nebraska
 Senator Stephen Douglas proposed the Kansas-
Nebraska act to solve the North-South conflicts. The
act said that the Kansas and Nebraska territories
would be open to slavery by popular sovereignty.
 The Act angered Northerners who thought the
Nebraska Territory would have slavery banned due to
the Missouri Compromise. This finally pushed into
bloodshed in Kansas and Nebraska.

9. The ideas of Manifest Destiny and popular sovereignty
led into fierce debates on whether the new territories
would be open to slavery. This deepened sectionalism
between North and South and led to bloodshed.