Essential Question

What were the primary tensions over slavery?

The Land of Cotton

North v. South

• North – dependent on industry

• South – dependent on agriculture

Cotton

• Rapidly spread throughout the South as the most important crop

• Spread the institution of slavery and demand for slave labor

Cotton Plantation

Slave Labor

• 1820 to 1850

• Increased from 1.5 million to 4 million

Issue of States’ Rights

• Tariff of 1828 on manufactured goods from England

• South Carolina called it: “Tariff of Abominations”

Nullification Crisis

• South Carolina threatened to secede (withdraw) from the Union

• John C. Calhoun – vice president

Nullification Crisis

• Argument – Union is a voluntary association of states

• States have the right to declare a federal law null and void

Quotes

• President Jackson: “Our federal Union – it must be preserved.”

• Vice-President Calhoun: “The Union – next to our liberty, most dear.”

Nullification Crisis

• SC adopted an ordinance of nullification declaring tariffs unconstitutional

Nullification Crisis

• Congress passed the Force Bill

• Authorized President Jackson to use force to enforce the acts of Congress

The Abolitionist Movement

Early Abolition Movement

• Abolition = an immediate end to slavery in the South

• Very divisive reform movement

William Lloyd Garrison

• Boston

• Antislavery newsletter – The Liberator

American Antislavery Society

• Called for emancipation = freeing of all slaves

• Slavery is immoral

Sarah and Angelina Grimke

• Sisters from South Carolina

• Moved north to work against slavery

Frederick Douglass

• Escaped from slavery in Maryland

• Well-known speaker against slavery

Sojourner Truth

• Gained freedom in 1827 in NY

• Antislavery speeches that drew large crowds

Southern Response

• Considered slavery vital to their way of life

• Depended on agriculture, cotton

Nat Turner Rebellion

• August 1831

• Nat Turner organized a slave revolt in which 160 people were killed

Slave Codes

• Strict state laws

• No property ownership

• No freedom of movement

• No reading and writing

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• 1852

• Harriet Beecher Stowe

• Writing of enslaved Tom and a violent overseer

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• Changed Northern ideas about slavery and African Americans

• Southerners tried to have the novel banned

The Underground Railroad

• Informal, organized system that helped slaves escape

• Conductors led slaves along the route to freedom

Harriet Tubman

• Runaway who returned to the South several times to assist slaves