THEME: The small but energetic radical abolitionist movement caused a fierce proslavery back-lash in the South and a slow but steady growth of moderate antislavery sentiment in the North

QUIZ1. William Lloyd Garrison was the famous

editor of the antislavery newspaper, The ________.

2. What is the name of the anti-slavery political party formed in 1848?

3. What state by-passed the usual territorial stage and applied directly for admission as a state in 1849?

4. What part of the Compromise of 1850 was most offensive to the North?

5. The Ostend Manifesto secretly urged the US to “wrest” control of _____ from Spain.

Abolitionism

• Roots in Second Great Awakening – see impact of Charles Grandison Finney

• BEFORE 1820 antislavery societies are more numerous in the South. Slave revolts end Southern toleration of abolition.

• 1835 Congress forbids use of mail to send abolitionist material through the mail.

• 1836 House of Reps passes the “gag rule,”

John Quincy Adams defeats this in court after 8 yrs.• South advances theory that slavery “civilizes”

Africans, compares slave’s quality of life to “wage slaves” in the North

Charles G. Finney

http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/images/CharlesGrandisonFinney.html

Shift from Gradualism to Abolitionism

• Urgency of the Reform Movement following 2nd Great Awakening

• Increasing number of manumissions• Failure of “Re-Colonization” efforts• Tensions Increase following Turner’s 1831

Rebellion• Free Blacks loose rights/sometimes freedom• Impact of Garrison Propaganda War• Gag Rule

SECTIONALISM!!! (AGAIN!)

• Wilmot Proviso

• California- what to do with it? Free? Slave?

• Popular Sovereignty – let the territories decide whether they will be free or slave state.

• Free-soilers

• Northern Abolitionists– Garrison and (or is it vs?) Douglass

David Walker• Free black from North

Carolina

• Urged slaves to rise up and revolt for their freedom.

• Found dead outside of his printing office“Southern slave masters hated Walker and put a price on his head. In 1829, 50 unsolicited copies of Walker's Appeal were delivered to a black minister in Savannah, Ga. The frightened minister, understandably concerned for his welfare, informed the police. The police, in turn, informed the governor of Georgia. As a result, the state legislature met in secret session and passed a bill making the circulation of materials that might incite slaves to riot a capital offense. The legislature also offered a reward for Walker's capture, $10,000 alive and $1,000 dead.”

http://www.africawithin.com/bios/david_walker.htm

Frederick Douglass

(1817-1895)

“I have been frequently asked how I felt when I found myself in a free state….It was a moment of the highest excitement I ever experienced…. This state of mind, however, very soon subsided; and I was again seized with a feeling of great insecurity and loneliness. I was yet liable to be taken back, and subjected to all the tortures of slavery. This in itself was enough to damp the ardor of my

enthusiasm.”

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 1845

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/images/4fred16m.jpg

William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879)

“ I am earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – and I will be heard.” (The Liberator, 1831)

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/images/lib.jpg http

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COMPARE AND CONTRAST

GARRISON F. DOUGLASS

DAVID WALKER

THEME: In the 1850’s American expansionism in the West and the

Caribbean was extremely controversial because it was tied to

the slavery question.

Poster: "Union"This 1848 campaign poster for Zachary Taylor from an 1848 woodcut by Thomas W. Strong reminded Americans of his military victories, unmilitary bearing (note the civilian dress and straw hat), and deliberately vague promises. As president, Taylor finally took a stand on the issue of slavery in the Mexican Cession, but his position angered the South. (Library of Congress)

Poster: "Union"

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Compromise of 1850

CONCESSIONS TO NORTH• California admitted as free

• New Mexico to receive disputed land with Texas

• Slave trade, but not slavery, abolished in D.C.

CONCESSIONS TO SOUTH

• New Mexico and Utah Terr.

to be determined by popular sovereignty

• Texas recd $10 million as compensation

• Stronger Fugitive Slave Act

Compromise of 1850:The Players

NAME:• Calhoun• Taylor• Seward• Clay• Douglas• Webster• Fillmore

ROLE:

= Opposed

= Opposed

= Opposed

= Architect, Supporter

= Advocate, Supporter

= Supporter

= Conciliator

Map: The Compromise of 1850

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

http://www.assumption.edu/users/lknoles/slavebroadside.jpg

Impact of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

1. Energized Northern Abolitionists

2. Persuaded moderate Northerners to become more supportive of abolition

3. Alienated the South, who felt that North was not keeping its part of the bargain in the Compromise of 1850

4. Increased sectionalism in the country, eroded support for federal govt. in both N and S.

Map: Escaping from Slavery

Escaping from SlaveryRunning away was one of the most prominent forms of slave resistance during the antebellum period. Success often depended on help from African Americans who had already gained their freedom and from sympathetic whites. Beginning in the 1820s an informal and secret network called the Underground Railroad provided escape routes for slaves who were daring enough to risk all for freedom. The routes shown here are based on documentary evidence, but the network's secrecy makes it impossible to know if they are drawn entirely accurately.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Underground Railroad• Abolitionists form a network of people

who helped escaped slaves to journey to Canada or northern states for freedom.

• The people who worked on this network, called the Underground Railroad, were called “conductors.”

• The most famous conductor was Harriet Tubman, who led over 300 slaves to freedom in 19 trips, despite a $40,000 bounty on her head.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• Published in 1852• Author: Harriet Beecher Stowe, daughter

of Rev. Beecher, abolitionist • Reaction to Fugitive Slave Law• Immensely popular in North, shapes

attitudes toward slavery• Influential in France and England• Immense politcal impact in US and abroad

Harriet Beecher Stowe

“While she wrote at least ten adult novels, Harriet Beecher Stowe is predominantly known for her first, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). Begun as a serial for the Washington anti-slavery weekly, the National Era, it focused public interest on the issue of slavery, and was deeply controversial. In writing the book, Stowe drew on her personal experience: she was familiar with slavery, the antislavery movement, and the underground railroad because Kentucky, across the Ohio River from Cincinnatti, Ohio, where Stowe had lived, was a slave state. Following publication of the book, she became a celebrity, speaking against slavery both in America and Europe. She wrote A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin (1853) extensively documenting the realities on which the book was based, to refute critics who tried to argue that it was inauthentic; and published a second anti-slavery novel, Dred in1856. In 1862, when she visited President Lincoln, legend claims that he greeted her as "the little lady who made this big war": the war between the states.”

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/stowe/StoweHB.html

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Theatre poster: Uncle Tom's CabinWith its vivid word pictures of slavery, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin translated well to the stage. Stowe herself was among the many who wrote dramatizations of the novel. Scenes of Eliza crossing the ice of the Ohio River with bloodhounds in pursuit and the evil Simon Legree whipping Uncle Tom outraged northern audiences and turned many against slavery. Southerners damned Mrs. Stowe as a "vile wretch in petticoats." ( Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.)

Theatre poster: Uncle Tom's Cabin

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Ostend Manifesto - 1854• After we shall have offered Spain a price for Cuba far beyond its present

value, and this shall have been refused, it will then be time to consider the question, does Cuba, in the possession of Spain, seriously endanger our internal peace and the existence of our cherished Union?

• Under such circumstances we ought neither to count the cost nor regard the odds which Spain might enlist against us. We forbear to enter into the question, whether the present condition of the island would justify such a measure? We should, however, be recreant to our duty, be unworthy of our gallant forefathers, and commit base treason against our posterity, should we permit Cuba to be Africanized and become a second St. Domingo, with all its attendant horrors to the white race, and suffer the flames to extend to our own neighboring shores, seriously to endanger or actually to consume the fair fabric of our Union.

• We fear that the course and current of events are rapidly tending towards such a catastrophe. We, however, hope for the best, though we ought certainly to be prepared for the worst.

Gadsden Purchase - 1853