Chapter 15 Anti- Slavery/ California

Americans Oppose Slavery

In the 1830’s Americans took a more organized action supporting abolitionoAbolition : A complete end to slavery

Though many wanted to see the African American set free many would argue about how much freedom they should have.o Some thought they should have the same as

the white Americanso Some were against full political and social

equality o Some wanted to send them back to Africa to

set up colonies.

Thought this would prevent conflicts between the races in the U.S.

American Colonization Society An organization dedicated to establishing

colonies of freed slaves in Africa Founded the colony of Liberia on the west

coast of Africa.

Spreading the Word

•William Lloyd Garrison

Published an abolitionist newspaper, the Liberator beginning in 1831.

Garrison helped start the American Anti-Slavery Society its member wanted immediate emancipation and racial equality for African Americans.o Both the Liberator and the American Anti-

Slavery Society members spread antislavery literature and petitioned Congress to end federal support of slavery.

Angelina and Sarah Grimke Two white southern women, who came

from a South Carolina Slave holding family but disagreed with their parents support of slaveryoWrote American Slavery As It Is in 1839 and

the book was one of the most important antislavery works of its time.

Frederick Douglass Douglass escaped from slavery when

he was 20 and went on to become one the most important leaders in the 1800s.oHe had secretly learned to read and write

as a boy (despite the law against it)

oHis public speaking skills were impressive and members of the Anti-Slavery Society would ask him to give regular lectures.

oHe also published a newspaper called the North Star and wrote several autobiographies.

The Underground Railroad

By the 1830s a loosely organized group had begun helping slaves escape from the south.o Free African

Americans, former slaves and a few white abolitionists worked together.

The Underground Railroad: was not an actual railroad but was a network of people who arranged transportation and hiding places for fugitives or escaped slaves. o Fugitives would travel

along “freedom trails” to northern state or Canada.

o There was never a central leadership

o The people who led the groups to freedom were called “conductors” ( one of the most famous conductors was Harriet Tubman)

o Places they stopped were called “stations”

o People who owned the places that they stopped at were called “ Station masters”

Not All People in the North Opposed Slavery

Newspapers and politicians warned that freed slaves would move north and take jobs from white workers.

Abolitionist leaders were threaten with violence ( a mob even killed one abolitionist leader Elijah Lovejoy)

Congress used the “gag rule”: is a rule that limits or forbids the raising, consideration or discussion. oNorth saw it as too touchy as a subject o South did not want to debate it

New Land Renews Slavery Disputes

After winning the Mexican American war in 1848, the United States added 500,000 square miles of land. o The addition of land brought

up the debate of slavery o The Missouri Compromise of

1820 divided the Louisiana Purchase, prohibiting slavery north of 36 degrees 30’ line latitude.

Polk wanted to extend this line to the west coast

Others wanted to extend Popular Sovereignty The idea that political

power belongs to the people. oThe people should

decide on banning or allowing slavery.

California Questiono The gold rush had

caused such a rapid population growth, that California applied to join the Union as a state instead of as a territory. But would it be a free

state or a slave state?

It looked as though it was leaning towards free, slavery was illegal when it was under the control of Mexico and most of the settlers were from free states.

• the South was upset that it looked like there would be in imbalance between the states if California entered as a free state

Compromise of 1850

“The Great Compromiser” Henry Clay had a plan again.

California would enter the Union as a free state

The rest of the Mexican Cession would be federal land, and popular sovereignty would decide on slavery

Texas would give up land on the east of the upper Rio Grande, so that the government would pay Texas debts from when it was an independent republic.

The slave trade…. But not slavery would in the capital

A more effective fugitive slave law would be passed.

• Not everyone was happy with this compromise, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina didn’t want California entering as a free state because it would destroy the balance, he would asked that the slave states be allowed to secede or formally withdraw from the union.

Fugitive Slave Act o Newly passed, made it a

crime to help runaway slaves and allowed officials to arrest those slaves in free areas. Slaveholders could use

testimony from white witnesses, but enslaved African Americans accused of being fugitives could not testify.

Commissioners who rejected a slaveholders claim earned $5 while those who returned a suspected fugitive to slaveholders earned $10

Northerners disliked the idea of a trial without a jury, also they disapproved of the commissioners higher fees for the returning slaves.

The most horrifying part was that some free African Americans had been captured and sent to the south.

Anti-Slavery Literature

oUncle Tom’s Cabin Written by Harriet

Beecher Stowe Spoke out powerfully

against slavery She was a daughter of a

preacher who had met fugitive slaves and learned about the cruelties of slavery

It was published in 1852, within a decade it sold more than 2 million copies.