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California, and Utah’s, application to become states set off a decade of bitter struggle. Adding more states ensured the debate over slavery could not be avoided. Every attempt, by Congress and the courts, to settle disputes over slavery only added increased the actions each side took in an effort to protect their position. Throughout the decade tensions rapidly increased, as the North and south struggled for power. Both sides, naively, considered The Compromise of 1850 an end of the slavery debate. The provision admitting California as a free state shifted the balance of power in the Senate to the Free states. The balance of power in the senate, divided equally since the Missouri Compromise, now consisted of a majority of Free States. Additionally, the agreement called for popular sovereignty to decide the slave issue in future states. Texas received debt relief in exchange for land. The compromise also abolished slavery in Washington D.C. The only real benefit for the south was the provision calling for a tougher Fugitive Slave Law. The tougher laws, regarding slavery, only added to the tension as many in the north refused to obey them. In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act to create new territories. Stephen Douglass wrote the act in an effort to attract the transcontinental railroad to his home city of Chicago. Douglass needed Kansas, and Nebraska, to become official territories to make it happen. Douglass believed the act would help Chicago economically, and aid his hopes of becoming president by ending The Missouri Compromise. Popular sovereignty replaced geographic restrictions as the decided factor on the issue of slavery. The opportunity to move slavery further north galvanized the south, and outraged the n... ... middle of paper ... ...e Massacre, hatched a plan designed to create an uprising of slaves against their masters. Brown led twenty men, and took over an arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown failed to spread the word of his plan to the slave population, and the siege turned into a standoff. Eventually, half of Browns men were killed, and Brown with the rest of his group were captured. Brown was quickly tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for treason. Despite the colossal failure of his plan, Brown helped his cause when by becoming a martyr in the abolitionist movement. The 1850’s saw divisions between the north and south play out across many parts of America. From California to the Capital building Americans debated, sued, wrote, beat, and killed in defense of their beliefs. These escalating tensions led to the Civil War, and the death of 600,000 people. Works Cited Textbook
It also gave the South another slave state in Missouri and the north a free state in Maine. Although each region gained a state in the Senate, the south benefited most from the acquisition because Missouri was in such a pivotal position in the country, right on the border. Later on with the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, Missouri had a big role in getting Kansas to vote south because many proslavery Missourians crossed the border into Kansas to vote slavery. The Missouri Compromise also helped slavery because the line that was formed to limit slavery had more land below the line than above it. Therefore, slavery was given more land to be slave and therefore more power in the Senate, when the territories became state.
John Brown was a man who lived in the mid eighteen-hundreds and who fought against the evil of slavery. He had a very strong belief that slavery was unjust, and this is true, but he thought that in order to abolish slavery, violence would be the best method. That’s where he went wrong. John Brown led two attacks on slave owners and those who supported slavery, the first at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas on May 24th, 1856, and the second at Harper Ferry, Virginia on October 16th, 1859. At Pottawatomie Creek, joined by seven others, Brown brutally hacked to death five men with sabers. These men supported slavery but weren’t even slave owners themselves. On October 16th, 1859, Brown led 21 men on another raid on Harpers Ferry attempting to take possession of the U.S. arsenal and use the weapons in a revolt against slave owners, gathering up an army of slaves as he made his way south. Brown’s attacks were not in self-defense, they were heinous acts of revenge upon slave owners, and therefore his attack had no justification.
In 1856 the same group attacked the Kansas territory where Brown and his family resided, which much like anyone would he saw as a threat and attacked in revenge killing 5 pro-slavery activists. Not much later the activists retaliated killing Browns son (Utter 1883). Brown and a group of men planned to go to Harpers Ferry, Virginia and seize the U.S arsenal. His plan was funded by various wealthy northern abolitionists and on October 16, 1859 his plan started to come into action. After the two-day battle back and forth between Browns men and the U.S Marines, seventeen people had died and Brown was arrested and put to trial, which led to the jury decision on November 2, 1859 for him to be hanged for murder and treason. Brown was from there on known as the first white man to die for an Africans freedom. He was called an abolitionist martyr for the sake of freedom. Browns deep roots of religion are one of the most obvious reasons for his actions. Slavery was an unjust system taking away basic God given rights of life, liberty, and happiness. Being a follower of Christ means that you devote yourself to teaching and living by Gods design, so when he was taught that this action was against the God he so loved how could he stand for it? When he was brought up under religion and firm discipline of course he would see it as unjust when he was exposed to the white
In 1819, Alabama was admitted to the United States as a slave state, which made the number of representatives in the United States Senate for free states and slave states equal. Then, in 1820, both Missouri and Maine wanted to be admitted to the United States and there was a debate as to if either of the states would be slave states. Maine was admitted as a free state, and Missouri was admitted as a state without restrictions on slavery. Instead of Missouri being a free state, it was decided that all the land in the Louisiana Purchase that was north of 36°30’N latitude, slavery would be prohibited. This provision was held until 1854, when the Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed it.
Stephen A. Douglas, an American Politician, wanting to appeal to his supporters, decided to create a northern transcontinental railroad route cutting through the territory of Illinois. However, there was one issue with this plan: the railroad with which it needed to cross through needed to be organized as a state. In attempt to gain the support of the South, Douglas combined the Kansas and Nebraska states where popular sovereignty would be practiced. This meant that instead of the state allowing or disallowing slavery, the people would decide whether slavery should be practiced. This act, known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act, directly violated the Compromise of 1820, which stated that new states created above latitude 36°30’ would have to be free.
(Doc B) The purpose of this report was to not only rile up abolitionists for the immediate emancipation of slaves but to also appeal to their audience that believed in God and morals. The abolition movement was gaining support fast, and no “gag rule” was enough to keep the issue out of politics. Meanwhile, by 1840, nearly 7 million Americans lived in the West. Most of these people had left their homes in the East in search of economic opportunity. The question of whether or not slavery would be allowed in the new western states dictated every conversation about the frontier. Henry Clay had created the Missouri Compromise, where the Louisiana Purchase was divided by 36°30' line. Anything above was a free state and anything below was a slave state; Missouri admitted as a slave state and Maine as a free state. The key to the compromise was the balance that was kept in the government. The balance that the Missouri Compromise had achieved was soon upset by interest in new territory, and the annexation of Texas and other Mexican territories did not become a political priority until James K Polk was
The Civil War was caused by many several pressures, principles, and prejudices, fueled by sectional differences, and was finally set into motion by a most unlikely set of political events. From economic differences to political differences all the way up to cultural differences, the North and the South opposed each other. These tensions were further increased after the western expansion of the United States. By the early 1850’s a civil war was known to be likely coming soon.
The Kansas-Nebraska act was passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It was introduced by Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. It enabled people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide if they wanted slavery or not in their borders. The act helped to reverse the Missouri Compromise of 1820 (My Notes). Which banned slavery north of 36°30’ N latitude, the line that limited slavery (http://www.history.com/topics/kansas-nebraska-act). Douglas called this “popular sovereignty.” “Before the law they would not have been free, giving the free states more votes in the Senate and angering the South,” (Discovering our Pasts;The History of the United States Early Years, P.431). In 1855, a pro-slavery government was elected in Kansas.
With several new territories available and a bid for admission into the union by California, the nation was once again divided. Southerners wished to protect slavery’s presence in new territories while northerners strongly opposed this. Henry Clay, the great compromiser of 1820, returned to the scene with a new compromise. The Compromise of 1850 was presented before Congress as an omnibus bill. California would be admitted as a free state, New Mexico and Utah determined their status by popular sovereignty, the Texas border would be moved back in exchanging for relief of its war debt, the slave trade would be prohibited in the District of Columbia, and a stricter fugitive slave law would be enforced. Divisions between the North and South were far too wide to pass this bill. Clay no longer had the ability to bring leaders from either side together onto the bill. Instead, Stephen Douglas proposed the Compromise of 1850 as five separate bills. The bills would be brought before Congress one by one. Douglas asked any representatives not supporting the bill to abstain from the vote. By doing so, the bills passed and relief temporarily fell on the nation again. While the compromise appeared stronger than previous relief, it only delayed an impending conflict. The attitudes of either side did not change. Northerners still saw slavery as abhorrent and did not want it spreading across the nation. Southerners felt strongly that they must defend their states’ rights to protect slavery at all costs. The compromises could only go as far as the nation’s territory
The two started to split in communication and paucity with the rise of runaway slaves in the Underground Railroads and the growing size of slaves. This created problems for the United States. As a result of this, the Presidents became weak, as well as, the Supreme Court. The nation was becoming a divided nation. The issue of slavery in the United States. Due to the Compromise of 1850, which altered the Fugitive Slave Act and eliminated the slave trade in Washington, D.C, took place of the Missouri Compromise. Kansas and Nebraska were yet to become a slave or anti-slave state. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was established by Stephen A. Douglas. This act erased the question of slavery and created a new political party, the Republican Party. The new party became popular with the North and proposed to abolish slavery in the territories of the United
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was one of the first events that demonstrated Lincoln’s disapproval yet tolerance for slavery. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, proposed by Stephen A. Douglas and signed by Franklin Pierce, divided the region into two territories. The territory north of the 40th parallel was the Kansas Territory and the south of the 40th parallel was the Nebraska Territory, the controv...
The Kansas- Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S congress it. It let people in Kansas and Nebraska to choose if they want slavery in their new found territories or not by popular sovereignty. It got rid of the Missouri Compromise which made many Northerns angry because they believed that the Missouri Compromise was a long standing Compromise, when the South agreed with the Kansas- Nebraska Act. As soon as the law passed slavery supporters and non supporters went to Kansas to try to have some effect with the election on slavery. Violence soon broke out in Kansas when slavery supporters were charged with fraud by the non slavery supporters. The violence that broke out was nicknamed “Bleeding Kansas”. Non slavery supporters held another election but slavery supporters refused to vote. The president at the time who was a supporter of slavery, to end the violence sent troops, in result another election was held and the proslavery citizens won but once again were charged with fraud. Kansas didn't become a state but later on a new Constitution was made and settlers in Kansas had more non slavery supporters so with another election in 1861, they won and became a part of the Union as a free state. The Kansas- Nebraska Act was the last string for delaying the Civil War because the South who started the Civil War didn't get anything out of it and it destroyed all the peace that was made by the Missouri
Abolitionist John Brown leads a small group on a raid against a federal armory in Harpers' Ferry. In 1857, John Brown returned to the East and began to seek money to carry out his vision of a mass uprising of slaves. John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry was not his first. He was involved in many multi pro-slavery attacks on Lawrence Kansas. John Brown hurting was tried by the state of Virginia for treason and murder and he was found guilty on November 2nd.
The 1850s was one of the most decisive decades in American History; because of its politics, social roles, and court cases, all of which led to the American Civil War.
The American Civil War was the bloodiest military conflict in American history leaving over 500 thousand dead and over 300 thousand wounded (Roark 543-543). One might ask, what caused such internal tension within the most powerful nation in the world? During the nineteenth century, America was an infant nation, but toppling the entire world with its social, political, and economic innovations. In addition, immigrants were migrating from their native land to live the American dream (Roark 405-407). Meanwhile, hundreds of thousand African slaves were being traded in the domestic slave trade throughout the American south. Separated from their family, living in inhumane conditions, and working countless hours for days straight, the issue of slavery was the core of the Civil War (Roark 493-494). The North’s growing dissent for slavery and the South’s dependence on slavery is the reason why the Civil War was an inevitable conflict. Throughout this essay we will discuss the issue of slavery, states’ rights, American expansion into western territories, economic differences and its effect on the inevitable Civil War.