Slavery and Sectionalism: The Political Crisis of 1848-1861

Chapter 12

The Slavery Question in the Territories Chapter 12.1

The Early Years of Settling the “Wild” West

• In late 1848, gold was discovered in California setting off a vast migration of Americans, known as the California Gold Rush to the west throughout 1849. • California was settled rapidly – giving rise to boomtowns. As news of gold

spread immigrants flooded in from the East, as well as from Mexico, South America, Europe and Asia. The rapidity of settlement led to a lack of organization and formal government and the diversity of settlers often led to conflict (particularly toward Chinese, Hispanic, Native, and African American settlers)

• The arrival of so many settlers quickly made California eligible for statehood.

Conflict over the West

• As the gold rush was beginning – Congress debated the issue of slavery in the new western territories. President Taylor suggested the new territories decide the issue of slavery for themselves (popular sovereignty)

• When California drafted a constitution outlawing slavery and petitioned for admission into the Union, Southerners were angered and called a convention to devise a plan of resistance to “northern aggression”

• Congress fiercely debated a compromise bill that addressed the issues of each side proposed by Henry Clay that was ultimately defeated as tensions between northerners and southerners escalated.

The Compromise of 1850

• After the death of President Taylor (gastroenteritis), President Millard Fillmore worked with Senator Stephen Douglas to revive Clay’s effort at compromise.

• Douglas broke up Clay’s massive bill into separate pieces of legislation and guided each through the legislative process Individually. • California would enter the Union as a free state. • The New Mexico and Utah Territories would decide the issue of slavery via

popular sovereignty upon petitioning for statehood. • Texas would relinquish claims to disputed territory to New Mexico and the

federal government would assume Texas’s public debt. • The slave trade would be banned in Washington, D.C. • A new Fugitive Slave Act would be passed that would increase the federal

government’s responsibility to return runaway slaves.

The Rise of American Sectionalism • Some praised the Compromise of 1850 for saving the Union, but others

correctly predicted, the question of slavery would surface again.

• The Fugitive Slave act, in particular, was very controversial. Southerners wished to have greater enforcement of existing fugitive slave laws in order to combat the growing Underground Railroad.

• Southerners were angered by northerners refusal to return their escaped slaves and wanted the federal government to enforce the laws. • While most southerners supported states’ rights, on the issue of slavery they

supported a large increase in federal power, to track down, arrest and transport fugitive slaves over an increasingly wide territory.

• Many northerners vowed to resist the Fugitive Slave Act and formed groups to confront slave catchers. The Act and anti-slavery literature such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the stories of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs turned many northerners against slavery.

Questions:

• What was the fate of most fortune seekers who headed west to mine for gold?

• What was the Compromise of 1850 and how did the Congressional vote on the Compromise reveal growing sectionalism?

• Why did Southerners demand a Fugitive Slave Act?