Kansas Nebraska Act 1854 Kansas Nebraska Act 1854

Kansas Nebraska Act (1854)

Kansas Nebraska Act (1854) • To pass his idea Douglas divides the Nebraska Territory into Nebraska and Kansas • He also repeals the Missouri Compromise of 1820 ban on keeping slavery below the 36 30’ line • Popular sovereignty will decide if states will be either slave or free

The Republican Party • All members are located from the north • They want to keep slavery from expanding into near the west • They fear slavery will replace free white labor because slaves are not paid

Bleeding Kansas, 1855 • Voters will decide if Kansas will be a free or slave state • Abolitionists and proslavery supporters rush to occupy Kansas • Proslavery supporters elect a proslavery legislature in Lecompton

Bleeding Kansas, 1855 • Abolitionists elect their own anti-slavery legislature in Topeka • Angered abolitionist John Brown and his sons will hack 5 proslavery men in front of their families at Pottawattomie Creek Kansas

Bleeding Kansas

Brooks Sumner Incident • Senator Charles Sumner demands that Kansas be a free state and personally insulted Stephen Douglas and South Carolinian Senator on the floor of the capital • Congressman Preston Brooks beats Sumner with his cane for the insult leveled at his uncle

Brooks Sumner Incident • After the beating Brooks receives hundreds of canes so he may bash northerners again • Preston Brooks becomes a southern national hero • Northerners are shocked and have evidence of southern brutality

Dred Scott Decision, March 1857 • Dred Scott was a slave who moved from a Missouri a slave state to free states Illinois and Wisconsin • In 1846 Scott sues for his freedom because he know lives in free states • 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that slaves are not citizens

Dred Scott Decision, March 1857 • The court also rules that the Missouri Compromise cannot infringe a slave owners rights to take his property where ever he chooses • The north is convinced that the south is attempting to spread slavery

Dred Scott Video Clip

Enter Abraham Lincoln • Illinois congressmen and successful lawyer • He opposes the expansion of slavery into new territories like Kansas and Nebraska • Lincoln takes the moral high ground against slavery and he attacks the slave system

The Lincoln and Douglas Debates • Both are against the expansion of slavery • Both argue that it will not survive in the west • Both do not want to use the government to end slavery • Lincoln comes out of the debates looking like an abolitionist

Lincoln Douglas Debates of 1858 In 1858, Stephen A. Douglas had to defend his Senate seat against the Republican challenger Abraham Lincoln was not as well known as the “Little Giant” and so he challenged Douglas to a series of debates (one was held in Freeport, IL). During the debates, Lincoln stated that slavery was “a moral, social, and political wrong. ” But despite this statement, Lincoln also knew his audience and followed with, “I do not wish to interfere with slavery where it already exists. ” He claimed that he was not an abolitionist, and for good reason because he would not gain any votes if he was (he would have been seen as a radical).

John Brown’s Raid October 1859 • John Brown hopes to lead a slave revolt at Harpers Ferry, Virginia • Slaves do not rush to join and he is captured and hung • Northerners look at him as a hero and southerners worry that more like Brown are coming to the south

John Brown’s Raid Video Clip

The Election of 1860 • Lincoln is elected as the 17 th president of the U. S. in 1860 • Southerners fearing Lincoln is going to end slavery secede from the United States • Lincoln has no plans to deal with the slave issue as the south believes

The Confederate States of America • Southern states before Lincoln takes office secede from the Union • On December 20, 1860 South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas leave the Union • They become the Confederate States of America

Secession Video Clip

Fort Sumter, April 1861 • After the southern states secede from the Union • South Carolina demands that Union property be surrendered to the south • Lincoln refuses to allow Fort Sumter to surrender • Confederate forces fire on fort and eventually force its surrender

Civil War Starts Video Clip