LESSON TITLE 1850s

OBJECTIVES:

1. The students will be able to describe the election of
1852.

2. They will also study the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

3. They will indicate what went wrong with this legislation.

LESSON SUMMARY:

This lesson covers the election of 1852, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the outbreak of strife in Kansas.

ASSIGNMENTS:

1. recall worksheets.

2. analysis of the Kansas situation

NOTES

CREATED January 1994

REVISED

I. Election of 1852

A. Franklin Pierce - Democrats

1. minor Senator from New Hampshire

a. dark horse

b. Stephen A. Douglas, Lewis Cass, James
Buchanan unable to win nomination

2. favored compromise

3. Democrat party could rally around

B. Winfield Scott

1. commanding general of the army

a. war hero

2. using popularity tactic again

C. Both candidates supported Compromise of 1850

1. Pierce went farther

a. denounced abolitionists

2. Scott hurt by disintegration of Whig
party

a. finally split over slavery

b. Northern & Southern Whigs

D. Pierce won by a landslide

1. Democrats also controlled Congress

2. Cotton & Conscience Whigs

II. Pierce presidency critical

A. Best chance to avoid disunion

B. Tragedy intervened

1. son killed on way to Washington

2. Jane Pierce blamed him

a. marriage shattered

C. Proved indecisive in office

1. Cabinet was good

2. he didn't lead it

3. Southerners would be his advisers

a. Jefferson Davis

III. Ambitions of Stephen A. Douglas

A. Desired to be the president

1. unhappy about 1852

2. wanted to run in 1856

B. Needed Southern support to win office

1. shy about this his role in Compromise of
1850

2. needed to regain Southern support

a. owed them a political favor

C. Also wanted to take care of Illinois

1. homestate

2. Chicago had interest in transcontinental
railroad

a. competing with Memphis, St. Louis,
New Orleans

3. Douglas wanted railroad built

a. serious sectional competition

IV. Kansas-Nebraska Act

A. Written by Stephen Douglas

1. rebuild his political coalition

B. Pierce persuaded to support it

C. Divided the Great Plains into Kansas and
Nebraska

D. Slavery to be allowed in both

1. violates the Missouri Compromise

a. overturns it

2. Douglas believed Nebraska would be free

a. make North happy

3. Kansas would be slave

a. please the South

b. they would support him in 1856

E. Popular sovereignty would be used at statehood

1. people would vote on slavery

F. Hoped it would open plains to settlement

1. help Chicago win the railroad

V. Results of the Kansas Nebraska Act

A. Douglas misread slavery issue

1. political instincts wrong here

2. emotionally charged issue

3. bill killed his chances for 1856

B. Compromise of 1820 destroyed

1. allowed the spread of slavery

C. Slavery debate came to national setting

1. never leave

D. Crippled both political parties

1. Whigs had already split

2. Democrats also divided

VI. Bleeding Kansas

A. Worst outcome of Kansas-Nebraska Act

1. civil war began in Kansas

2. pro and anti-slavery forces

3. govt unable to stop fighting

B. Rival territorial govts founded

1. free soil, and slave

C. May 1856 Sack of Lawrence

1. town attacked by slavery forces

2. killing, burning, looting

D. Pottawatomie Creek Massacre

1. revenge for Lawrence

2. led by John Brown

3. ambushed and killed 5 men

E. Violence even reached U.S. Senate

1. Charles Sumner abolitionist

a. blamed Southerners violence in Kansas
b. "Rape of Kansas"

2. attacked later by Preston Brooks

a. Congressman from South Carolina

b. beat him senseless

c. gutta percha cane

3. Sumner gone from the Senate for 3 years

a. part of problem was mental

4. Brooks kicked out of the House

a. South Carolina reelected him

LESSON TITLE 1850s

OBJECTIVES:

1. The students will review other details about slavery.

2.

3.

LESSON SUMMARY:

This lesson will look at new things about the slavery debate, and review some topics and people already covered.

ASSIGNMENTS:

1. short writing assignments.

2. recall worksheets.

NOTES

CREATED January 1994

REVISED

I. Issue of Slavery

A. Race propaganda

1. Whites were superior race

2. Blacks inferior race

3. no factual basis

4. society has many prejudices

B. American Colonization Society 1817

1. wanted to free slaves

2. return them to Africa

a. few went this way

b. opposed by most black leaders

3. Liberia founded by freed slaves

4. method lost favor during the 1830s

C. Gag Rule

1. passed in 1836

2. tabled petitions that would abolish
slavery

a. took away right to petition

b. also stifling free speech

3. House used it to avoid slavery debate

a. very unpopular measure

D. John Quincy Adams

1. elected to the House in 1830

a. serve until 1848

b. only former president to do this

2. strongly opposed slavery

3. led the fight against the gag rule

a. successful in 1844

4. 1848 collapsed in the House

a. debating against Mexican War

b. death foreshadowed the future

II. Anti-Slavery Movement

A. Underground Railroad

1. not a real railroad

2. very loose organization of Abolitionists

3. helped runaway slaves reach freedom

a. North or Canada

4. most active in border states

a. little influence in deep South

5. Quakers very active in it

B. Harriet Tubman

1. most famous conductor on Underground
Railroad

2. powerful woman, former slave

a. escaped to freedom

3. helped over 300 slaves escape

a. included her family

4. never caught

C. Uncle Tom's Cabin 1852

1. antislavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe
a. daughter of an abolitionist minister
b. Lyman Beecher - Beecher's Bibles

2. most influential book of decade

a. shows the cruelty of slavery

b. evil Simon Legree - beats old Tom to
death

3. Very popular in the North

a. gave strength to abolitionists

4. Banned in the South

D. Ostend Manifesto 1854

1. U.S. interested in Cuba

a. willing to purchase for $120 million

b. or take by war

2. Unpopular in the North

3. Seems like attempt to add more slave
states

III. Slave Revolts

A. What the South feared most

1. well armed to prevent these

2. hundreds of them occurred

3. all failed

B. Toussaint L'Ouverture

1. former slave

2. Haitian leader, helped abolish slavery

there

3. leader of that country for a brief time

a. imprisoned by Napoleon

4. influenced American slaves

a. example of winning

C. Gabriel Prosser 1800

1. organized slaves around Richmond, VA

2. plans to attack the capital

3. their plot was discovered

a. stopped by militia

b. James Monroe governor

4. 35 were executed

D. Denmark Vesey 1822

1. former slave, purchased his freedom

2. educated himself, church leader

3. organized a revolt around Charleston, SC

4. informers gave plot away

a. over 100 executions took place

E. Nat Turner's Rebellion 1831

1. most successful uprising

a. Southhampton County

2. believed he was following God's will

a. includes violent killing of whites

3. had about 70 followers

a. killed 60 whites

4. insurrection was stopped

a. Turner captured, tried, executed

b. lots of innocent slaves were killed

5. ended Southern abolitionist movement

LESSON TITLE 1850s

OBJECTIVES:

1. The students will review the Presidency of James
James Buchanan and the problems the country faced.

2. The students will examine the ramifications of the
Dred Scott Case.

3.

LESSON SUMMARY:

The presidency of James Buchanan was a critical one. The last real chances to reach a peaceful settlement to the differences between North and South came and went without much action.

ASSIGNMENTS:

1. compromise activities

2. supreme court research

NOTES

CREATED January 1994

REVISED

I. Election of 1856

A. Democrats

1. Franklin Pierce rejected

a. desparately wanted nomination

b. life fell into ruins

c. alcoholism and poverty

2. Stephen A. Douglas

a. rejected too

b. blamed for Bleeding Kansas

3. James Buchanan

a. elderly politician

b. safe nomination

c. least controversial

B. Republicans

1. first election

a. party formed from northern Whigs

2. nominated John C. Fremont "The Pathfinder"

a. war hero

3. opposed slavery's expansion

4. believed Congress controlled territories

5. favored transcontinental railroad

6. wanted Kansas as a free state

C. Buchanan defeated Fremont

1. Fremont won 11 of 16 free states

2. Buchanan won all slaves states

a. Republicans unpopular there

II. Buchanan's Presidency

A. Not up to great troubles plagued the country

1. health poor, 66 years old

B. Little support from party, no desire to lead

C. Cabinet dominated by South

D. Caretaker president

1. avoid crisis

2. hold things together for 4 years

E. Damaged own presidency with inaugural address

III. Dred Scott Decision March 1857

A. Issued days after Buchanan took office

B. Landmark Supreme Court ruling

1. 2nd time court used judicial review

C. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney

1. elderly judge, appointed by Jackson in
1830s

2. wanted to end the slave controversy

a. also wanted to protect slavery

3. ruling failed to do what it intended

a. very hotly debated

D. Dred Scott, main participant in the case

1. Missouri slave

2. owner an army officer

a. been stationed at Fort Snelling

b. slavery illegal in Northwest

territories

3. formed the basis of his suite

IV. Dred Scott Opinion

A. Taney declared Black's not citizens

1. could not sue, had no right to sue

2. Taney remained a slave

B. Also declared Missouri Compromise
unconstitutional

1. violated 5th amendment

2. prevented free exercise of property rights

3. voids popular sovereignty also

C. Grants Southerners full property rights

1. could take slaves anywhere

2. own slaves in a free state

V. Results of the Dred Scott Case

A. Further weakened Democratic party

1. only national party

B. Widened split between North and South

1. greater tendency towards violence

2. radicals replacing moderates

C. Ruined Buchanan's credibility

1. backed the Court's ruling

D. Damaged the Court's reputation

LESSON TITLE 1850s