Protest, Resistance, and Violence

Chapter 10.2

Protest, Resistance, and Violence

• Proslavery and antislavery factions disagree over treatment of fugitive slaves and the spread of slavery to the territories.

The Fugitive Slave Act (FSA)• part of Compromise of 1850, has very harsh terms• alleged fugitives denied jury trial, right to testify

on their own behalf• People convicted of helping fugitive fined, imprisoned

Fugitive Slave Act (FSA)

Resisting the Law• Northerners send fugitives to Canada• Some states pass personal liberty laws that grant jury

trials to fugitives• Vermont and Wisconsin nullify FSA; Fillmore threatens

military responseHarriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad

– secret network of people helping slaves to escape

• Tubman escapes from slavery, becomes “conductor” on 19 trips– fugitives on foot at night, no food, avoiding armed patrols– some stayed in North, others to Canada

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• Abolitionist, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin stirs protest

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin shows slavery as a moral problem, not just political

Tension in Kansas and Nebraska

Kansas-Nebraska Act • 1854: Kansas-Nebraska Act repeals the Missouri

Compromise of 1820– Unorganized territory divided into Kansas and

Nebraska Territories– Slave/free status determined by popular

sovereignty in both territories

Race for Kansas

The Race for Kansas• Northern, Southern settlers rush into Kansas

Territory• In 1855, Kansas holds election for territorial

legislature• Men from Missouri flock to Kansas, vote illegally

for pro-slavery politicians• Pro-slavery gov’t formed in Lecompton;

abolitionists set up own gov’t in Topeka

Bleeding Kansas

“The Sack of Lawrence”• Proslavery grand jury brands antislavery city of

Lawrence as traitors– posse of 800 burns, loots town

“The Pottawatomie Massacre”• Abolitionist John Brown believes God wants him

to fight slavery– Brown, followers violently kill 5 men in Pottawatomie

Massacre

Territory called Bleeding Kansas for violence over popular sovereignty