Compromise of 1850 (351) � Sen Stephen A Douglas of IL proposed dividing the Compromise up into separate packages to be voted on. Congress passed 5 bills in Aug and Sep 1850. Fillmore called these the �final solution� to the north-south issue and signed the bills. Pretty much killed Fillmore�s and the Whig party�s chance of election.
- CA free
- paid TX $10M to release claims on land in NM
- opened states between CA and TX to vote on slavery - abolished slave trades in DC
- strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act (339). Now required all citizens to help catch runaway slaves. Anyone who helped slave could be fined $1000 or imprisoned. Southerners thought it would force north to recognize their rights, but it caused more embitterment and resistance. Some Afr-Ams who had lived in the north for years were taken back to the South.
15 slave and 15 free. With CA admitted, free states have majority and no prospects for balance. KS, MN and OR will be next and all want to be free states.
Fugitive Slave Act - The strengthened Fugitive Slave Law within the Compromise of 1850 greatly alarmed Northerners, black and white. Suddenly free blacks were subject to seizure and transport back to the South. Angry mobs clashed with the law in violent protests. In 1854, the capture of fugitive slave Anthony Burns in Boston, and his return to slavery in Virginia created a stunning public spectacle. Over 50,000 Bostonians lined the street, screaming and shouting in protest. Crowds overwhelmed marshals and freed other captured blacks. Outraged by this defiance of federal law, President Fillmore sent troops to Boston. In Syracuse, a mob broke into the jail to free another man. In PA, a group of escaped slaves shot and killed a slave owner and then escaped to Canada.
In the North, fears of a "Slave Power Conspiracy" only grew. Increasingly, Northerners saw the designs of the "Slave Power Conspiracy" as a threat to their very own freedom. What was to stop the slave South from not only taking over the territories and new states in the West, but ultimately from swallowing up the North?
African Americans in the North reacted strongly to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. The following words were spoken by the Reverend Jarmain Loguen of Syracuse, New York, who was an escaped slave himself and who helped others escape by hiding them in his home and church.
The time has come to change the tones of submission into tones of defiance. I don't respect this law - I don't fear it - I won't obey it! It outlaws me, and I outlaw it, and the men who attempt to enforce it on me. I place the government officials on the ground that they place me. I will not live a slave, and if force is employed to re-enslave me, I shall make preparations to meet the crisis as becomes a man.
Fugitive Slave Act angered Northerners. Any person arrested as runaway slave had no bail or jury trial. Posted signs like this one. Followed slave hunters and badgered them. Refusal infuriated slave holders.
Nevertheless, the Act led to some 300 alleged fugitives being officially returned to slavery in the South. Collective resistance grew with the Underground Railroad, its many way-stations secretly moved fugitive slaves along various paths to freedom in the North and Canada.
Underground Railroad (353) - Nat Turner was last large scale rebellion, but many ran away. Families very strong. More runaways were to find family than to flee punishment. Danger. Most knew nothing about world outside of plantation. No maps. Pursued by slave hunters and dogs. Whipped, chains or cut foot off. Underground RR probably freed 3000 slaves. Used safe houses in north. Those who helped could be imprisoned if caught helping. Most successful runaways came from the Upper South. Too hard to get from Deep South. Traveled at night, following stars, rivers, or ridge lines. Some of RR was set up by abolitionists, Quakers and other whites, but most was run by northern blacks. Conductors were all in the north and border states.
Harriet Tubman (354) (1821-1913) - Most famous conductor, a fugitive slave herself. Tubman born as a slave in 1821 in MD, escaped in 1849. Returned to South 19 times to lead 300 slaves out, including her parents. Sometimes encouraged slaves to leave at gunpoint. $40,000 reward for Tubman. Later served as a cook, nurse, spy, and guide for Union army in Civil War. After war, ran home for poor Afr-Ams, and lived until 1913. Buried with full military honors. Illiterate, but a natural leader.
Play Follow the Drinking Gourd. (Big Dipper, which points to the north star). Tale of Old Peg Leg Joe, white sailor, who worked at each plantation long enough to teach the song to slaves.
To Southerners loss of valuable property. Demanded Congress do something. Even if they got to North, could be hunted and returned.
Many in north and south opposed abolitionists. In south because it threatened south�s economy and way of life. In north because it was illegal and threatened war between north and south. North also feared free blacks wouldn�t fit into society � take away jobs. South argued that slaves were better off than factory workers in north, and slaves needed whites to take care of them.
Uncle Tom�s Cabin (355), Sep 1852. No political work since Common Sense had as much political impact. Harriet Beecher Stowe�s book sensitized people to abuses of slavery. First published as weekly serial. 3 characters � Eliza, a slave who wants to keep her child that is about to be sold; Eva, who sees good in everyone; and Tom, the good-hearted slave sold by kindly owner to Simon Legree, but who retains his dignity through all the degradation he suffers, in hopes of being reunited with his family. Dies from the beatings he receives. Uncle Tom's Cabin provided a melodramatic and sentimental view of the essential horror of slavery. Stowe's text showed how the absolute evilness of slavery dehumanized and corrupted good as well as bad people.
The effect of the runaway bestseller was electric. More than any other single cultural episode, the controversy surrounding the novel created converts for the Northern antislavery cause, on one hand, and converts for the Southern pro-slavery cause, on the other. Uncle Tom's Cabin sold over 300,000 copies in its first year of publication alone, and a million by mid-1853.
Its impact was everywhere; it penetrated American consciousness through all kinds of contemporary media: copycat fiction, dramatic readings and plays, and all manner of everyday popular cultural productions, like woodcuts and drawings. Little wonder, therefore, that when Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe during the Civil War, he observed: "So you're the little lady that made this big war.�
- James Buchanan declined VP nomination, saying, �I shall not, under any circumstances, consent to the employment of my name in connection with that office. Indeed should I be nominated for it by the convention, I would most assuredly decline. It is the very last office under the government I would desire to hold.�
- Whigs didn�t have Clay or Webster, so went with battle-hero, Gen Winfield Scott.
- Both accepted Compromise of 1850. Free Soil Party had no leader. There was no campaign discussion of slavery
- Pierce won easily. Son was killed in train wreck before inauguration, but Mr and Mrs Pierce ok. Was only President to say �I promise� instead of �I swear� in his inauguration. Religious reasons.
- Franklin Pierce (357) - Wife hated his political career. Refused to move to DC when he was elected to Senate. They had lost 2 children as babies. When a 3rd was born in 1841, Pierce resigned from the Senate and returned to NH. In 1846, he refused a cabinet position to stay in NH. When nominated in 1852, son was 11 and Pierce finally convinced his wife to let him run. After election, they took a train to DC and son was killed in wreck. Wife returned to NH. Only President to affirm rather than swear his loyalty to the Constitution. Hated abolitionists, and had no objections to the expansion of slavery. Supported Fugitive Slave Law. Later, opposed Abe Lincoln�s Emancipation Proclamation.
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