The Divisive Politics of Slavery

By Joey “Jtricky” O’Brien and Joe “J-Twist” Schrader.

Industry and Immigration in the North

• The North industrialized rapidly• Factories produced large amounts of products

from textiles and sewing machines to farm equipment

• Many railroads were created to transport goods

• Small towns matured into major cities very quickly

Agriculture and Slavery in the South

• The South remained a predominantly rural society consisting mostly of plantations and small

• The southern economy relied mostly on cotton• Unlike the North, the South used mostly rivers to

transport goods• Many immigrants went to the north because

African Americans, whether enslaved or free, met most of the need for artisans, mechanics, and laborers

Cont…

• Conflict over slavery rattled southern society• In Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Carolina,

African Americans were the majority

• California as well as the territories of Utah and New Mexico would be closed to slavery forever

• Was proposed but never became a law. • Southerners feared that if it became a law, then

new free states would shift the balance to the north

• House of Representatives approved the Proviso, but the Senate rejected it

Wilmot Proviso

David Wilmot

Video

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwSNxXWMLe0

Statehood for California

• California grew too quickly • Skipped territorial phase of becoming a state. • 1849- California applied to join union • Forbade slavery

The Senate Debates

• Clay’s compromise• Clay presented to the senate a series of

resolutions • Called the compromise of 1850• Clay hoped this would settle all questions and

controversy between the free and slaved states

The terms of compromise

Compromise of 1850 image

Territory

Cont…

• Other provisions of compromise had elements that appealed to both regions

• For example- popular sovereignty which is the right of residence of a territory to vote for or against slavery

Calhoun and Webster respond

Compromise of 1850

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N35kX7ATrh4&feature=related

The Compromise is Adopted

• Steven A. Douglas from Illinois picked up the pro-compromise reins.

• He unbundled the package of resolutions • He introduced them one at a time • Millard Fillmore supported the compromise of 1850• He was president Taylor’s successor• Fillmore became president• He embraced the compromise as the “final

settlement” of the question of slavery and sectional differences.

• “The North is going to stick the Wilmot amendment to every appropriation and then all the South will take place and perhaps Polk In starting one war may fine half a dozen on his hands. I tell you the prospect ahead is dark, cloudy, thick, and gloomy”- Alexander H. Stephens

• “And such a war as it would be, following the dissolution of the Union! Sir, we may search the pages of history, and none so ferocious, so bloody, so implacable, so ex-terminating… would rage with such violence… I implore gentlemen, I adjure them, whether from the South or the North… to pause at the edge of the precipice, before the fearful and dangerous leap be taken into the yawning abyss below”- Henry Clay

• “I hear with pain, and anguish, and distress, the word secession, especially when it falls from the lips of those who are eminently patriotic… Secession! Peaceable Secession!... There can be no such thing as a peaceable secession… is the great Constitution under which we live… to be thawed and melted away by secession… No, sir! I will not state what might produce… such a war as I will not describe.”-Daniel Webster

MLA

• "The Compromise of 1850 [ushistory.org].” Ushistory.org. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. http://www.ushistory.org/us/30d.asp.– "Republicanism&Democracy | Compromise of 1850 |

Event View." Xtimeline - Explore and Create Free Timelines. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. http://www.xtimeline.com/evt/view.aspx?id=31716

– "Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records and Online Memorials." Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr>.