DK - The American Civil War

SLAVERY DIVIDES THE COUNTRY

Writers on both sides of the

argument grew steadily more

impassioned in their defense

or condemnation of slavery.

LEGITIMIZING SLAVERY

Religious leaders across the South

marshaled arguments such as the

existence of slavery in the Bible

and St. Paul’s injunction to slaves to

obey their masters as justification.

Most presidents, Supreme Court

justices, and Congressional leaders

had been slaveholders. The

Constitution sanctioned slavery

and promised to protect private

property. A man’s property—his

slaves—should be protected wherever

he went in the United States.

THE CASE FOR ABOLITION

In the face of these biblical and historical

justifications of slavery, abolitionists in the

North also appealed to Christian doctrine and

preached ever more vociferously against

consisted of five bills designed to
balance the interests of North and
South. These bills admitted California
to the Union as a free state, thus
ending the balance in the Senate
between slave states and free states
that had lasted since the Missouri
Compromise of 1820—senators from
the free states would now outnumber
those from the slave ones. As a
concession to the South, the territories
of Utah and New Mexico were to
choose slavery or freedom according to
the principle of “popular sovereignty.”
The Fugitive Slave Act, which had been
federal law since 1793, was given new
teeth. It became an offense, punishable

by a large fine, for any citizen to resist

or refuse to assist in the recapture of

suspected runaways, even in states that

opposed slavery.

Compromise and growth

In the decade following the Compromise,

Southern economic development

surged. Railroad mileage quadrupled,

with much of the track laid by slaves.

By 1860, an independent South would

have been the fourth wealthiest nation

on Earth. The number of slaveholders

decreased; by 1860, the percentage of

whites with slaves had fallen to less

than a quarter. But slavery was not

dying or unprofitable.

AFTER

the inhumanity of the system

26–27 ❯❯. One surprisingly

powerful ally in their cause was

the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin,

by Harriet Beecher Stowe

26 ❯❯, published in 1852.

The book was serialized in

newspapers and tens of

thousands of copies sold

across the nation, reaching

a far larger sympathetic

audience than earlier

abolitionist appeals.

VIOLENCE ERUPTS

The Compromise of 1850 averted

conflict for the time being. But in

1854, the act that established the

territories of Kansas and

Nebraska 30–31 ❯❯ provoked

violent clashes between opponents and supporters

of slavery. One prominent abolitionist involved in the

fighting in Kansas was John Brown, who was

subsequently hanged after gaining lasting noteriety

for leading the Raid at Harpers Ferry 34–35 ❯❯.

FIGURINE OF UNCLE TOM

Debating the Compromise of 1850

Henry Clay urges the Senate to accept a package

of bills designed to appease Northerners and

Southerners. Eventually, the measures he proposed

were all passed, but as separate acts.

“Our slaves are black, of another

and an inferior race. The

status in which we have placed

them is an elevation ...”

SOUTH CAROLINA U.S. SENATOR JAMES HENRY HAMMOND, MARCH 4, 1858