AHIS 100

The Sectional Crisis

Dr. Kane

mkane2@albany.edu

Office Hrs: W 10:30-11:30 & F 11:30-12:30

Social Science 60S


maevekane.net/ahis100/lecture-slides

November 16

coming up

  • extra credit - Researching NY Conference Thurs and Fri Nov 19-20 http://nystatehistory.org/program2015.html
  • attend 1 hour long panel, submit 200 words about connection to course on Blackboard
  • Midterm II on Monday November 23 in class
  • Midterm II will cover readings and lectures October 2 - November 20

to recap

  • slavery as industry
  • multiple modes of resistance
  • economic growth and violence
  • the myth of slavery's decline
  • turning the tide of public opinion
  • legacies in the present

today

  • compromise as division
  • expansion of the vote for some
  • nullification - what powers does the federal govt have?
  • slave power vs federal power
  • abolition and political realignments
  • Bleeding Kansas

why was the Missouri Compromise of 1820 so divisive?

      A. it exposed deep tensions over the extent of the federal government's Constitutional powers
      B. it precluded any possibility of African Americans gaining the vote in Northern states
      C. it exposed divisions between abolitionist and pro-slavery states
      D. it exposed the extent to which American political identity was predicated on appropriated Indian land and slave labor

Jacksonian democracy 1828 - 1860

  • universal white male suffrage by 1830 - no property or tax requirements
  • strict construction of Constitution - strong states' rights
  • rise of the party machine system - 80%+ voter turn out

Nullification Crisis 1832-1833

  • South Carolina legal, social, economic and political heart of plantation slavery
  • Tariffs of 1828-1832 - protected Northern industries, expansion of federal powers - seen as attack on economic viability of slavery
  • contractual theory of union - do states or the federal union take precedence?
  • nullification - federal law is void within state boundaries without state consent

Slave Power Conspiracy

  • widespread Northern fear and distrust Southern political power
  • Free Soil Party - wildly racist, opposed to expansion of slavery and Southern monopoly over newly opened lands
  • enforcement of House gag rule
  • growing distrust of Northern Democrats

why did the Republican party form ahead of the election of 1856?

      A. Southerners turned away from the Democratic party in favor of the new, more conservative and pro-slavery Republican party
      B. Abraham Lincoln was a charismatic young senator and the new political party formed around him
      C. many Northerners and Southerners felt that a new, unifying political party was the only way to keep the union together
      D. anti-slavery white Northerners felt the Whigs or Democrats were not abolitionist enough

political realignments

  • Democrats - western expansion and white solidarity (appeal to Northern white immigrants)
  • Whigs - internal improvements and reform
  • Republicans - abolition and opposition to expansion of slave power

Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854

  • effectively repealed Missouri Compromise - slavery voted by popular sovereignty
  • (Missouri Compromise disallowed slavery above certain latitude)
  • South: slavery could be voted down in new southern territories
  • North: slavery could be made legal in new northern territories
  • flood of settlement into new territories

Caning of Charles Sumner

  • May 20 1856 speech against Kansas-Nebraska Act
  • Sumner argued for immediate admission of Kansas as a free state
  • abolitionist accusations of southern sexual impropriety
  • affront to southern code of honor
  • Sumner nearly killed, martyr figure in the North
  • Northern backlash against Southern violence
  • Brooks reelected and supported throughout South

why did settlement in Kansas turn so violent?

      A. popular sovereignty made numeric superiority more important than ever
      B. settlement was funded from sources throughout the country, bringing national attention to the stakes in Kansas
      C. many Americans believed votes in Kansas were tampered with, driving them to seek other means of change
      D. Kansas was the culmination of several decades of failed compromises and increasing divisions
      E. Northern Free Soilers saw the expansion of slave labor over western land as denying them participation in American identity

Bleeding Kansas

  • aka Border War 1854-1861
  • popular sovereignty - slave or free?
  • stakes unresolvable by political means
  • armed polling place protection or "protection"
  • federal recognition of pro-slavery legislature despite popular anti-slavery vote
  • first act of the Civil War?

Election of 1856

  • Republican Party formed in opposition to Kansas-Nebraska Act
  • John Fremont - soft anti-slavery stance
  • Jessie Fremont strong abolitionist speaker and writer
  • Fremont gained no votes in slave holding states
  • only two more states necessary for Republican win