Chapter 10 ReviewShort Answers and Essay

Questions

Kansas-Nebraska ActStephen A. Douglas passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act through Congress in 1854 with the help of Pres. Franklin Pierce.

This act would divide the unorganized territory into two territories (KS & NB) which would each have popular sovereignty.

Pro-Slavery and Abolitionist groups rushed to Kansas to claim the territory for their cause, but illegal voters from Missouri disrupted the vote and allowed for Kansas to become a slave territory.

Kansas became known as “Bleeding Kansas” do to the outbreak of violence between the rival factions. The sack of the anti-slavery town of Lawrence led to John Brown retaliating with the Pottawatomie Massacre, which in turn ignited the state into a mini-civil war leading to the death of 200.

The Compromise of 18501) California is admitted as a free state.

2) Utah & New Mexico territories decide about slavery.

3) Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute resolved with $10 million payment to TX from the federal gov’t.

4) The sale of slaves is banned in D.C., but slavery would remain legal there.

5) Fugitive Slave Act required people in free states to help capture and return escaped slaves.

Henry Clay hoped to unite the struggling nation after the Wilmot-Proviso and land acquired through the war had agitated the interests between the North and South.The plan appealed to both the Northern and Southern interests, but struggled to pass due to the large number of concessions in the act.

This was later resolved through Stephen A. Douglas’s ingenuity, in which he split up the various parts and introduced them piece by piece to Congress.

The Fugitive Slave ActNortherners struggled with the new, strict fugitive slave act introduced in the Compromise of 1850 which revoked the right of a trial from escaped slaves as well as imposing fines and penalties for those who aided them. Northern abolitionists responded with the personal liberty laws which granted these slaves a right to a trial. Abolitionist lawyers would then drag out the trials for years, leading to slave owners not wanting to go through the hassle.

The biggest abolition movement used to combat the FSA was the Underground Railroad, in which a network of abolitionists would give runaway slaves shelter and lead them on to another safe house on their way north.

Divisions in PoliticsThe Republican Party grew out of the discontent found in other parties over the issue of slavery.

Discontented Northern Whigs, Anti-Slavery Democrats, and Free-Soiler’s made up the Republican Party. This was due to issues that came out of the Compromise of 1850 and the divisions between the North and South over slavery.

The division of the Whig party reduced their power in the election of 1856, since Know-Nothing’s and Free-Soiler’s took votes away from the Whig Party, along with the newly formed Republican Party. This also allowed for the Democrats to win a solid victory.

The same issues occurred in the election of 1860, but this time for the Democrats as the Northern and Southern wings split due the issue with the LeCompton Constitution and the Freeport Doctrine.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe published her pro-abolitionist novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin in which she depicted slavery as more than a political debate, but rather as a great moral struggle. Tom is an old slave who is helping Emmaline and Cassy escape from the hostile slave owner, Legree.

The slaves are seen as pious (religious), loyal, faithful and forgiving, while the slave owner is seen as cruel, violent, brutal, and immoral / evil.

Stowe argued that we were going against our morals as good Christians, and questioned how the institution of slavery could continue to exist in the eyes of man and the church.

The South banned the book, and Northern abolitionist rejoiced. People also were spurned into action by the books vivid message.

Reminders HW: Study for the Test on Thursday…

start now and you will be prepared better!

Prewrite the essay, and make sure to cite quotes from the story to strengthen your argument.

The final draft date for the research paper is May 21st.