Covers key events preceding the American Civil War, including the Compromise of 1850, the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, the establishment of the underground railroad, the publication of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and the drafting of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

1. A SURVEY OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
Unit 2: Westward Expansion and Civil War
Part 14: The Path to Civil War (I)

2. MILLARD FILLMORE
• The last Whig President.
• Held office for only three years
after Zachary Taylor served the
first year of a four-year term.
• Was open to compromise
solutions regarding the Mexican
Cession, allowing a mixture of
slave states and free states to
be created from the newly
acquired territory, whereas
Taylor refused to compromise.

3. THE COMPROMISE
OF 1850
• Ever since the start of the
Mexican-American War,
Congress had been divided on
the question of whether or not
to permit slavery in the territory
gained by the Mexican Cession.
• In 1850, Henry Clay drafted a
compromise package of five
separate bills regarding the
regulation of slavery in America.
• Clay’s compromise package
was opposed by his former ally,
John C. Calhoun, but won the
support of Democratic Senator
Stephen Douglas of Illinois.

4. THE COMPROMISE
OF 1850
• California was admitted into the
Union as a free state.
• Texas surrendered its claim to
New Mexico in exchange for the
government absorbing its debt.
• The people of the New Mexico
Territory and the Utah Territory
would be able to vote on
whether or not to permit slavery
when their territories were
eventually granted statehood.
• The slave trade was prohibited
in Washington, DC, although
slavery itself remained legal.

5. THE FUGITIVE
SLAVE ACT OF 1850
• The most important component
of the Compromise of 1850 was
the Fugitive Slave Act.
• Under this law, all slaves who
escaped their masters in the
southern states and crossed
the border into the northern
states were to be returned to
their state of origin. It also
ordered heavy penalties for
anyone who was caught
assisting a runaway slave.
• In effect, this law gave the
South more nationwide power
over slavery than the North.

6. ABOLITIONISM IN THE UNITED STATES
Henry Ward Beecher
was a minister in New
York City and an
outspoken abolitionist.
He relied on the
unconventional use of
slang language and
humor in his sermons,
in order to promote
the abolitionist cause.

7. THE FRONTIER OF FREEDOM MOVES NORTHWARD

8. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE’S UNCLE TOM’S CABIN

9. THE AMERICAN
RENAISSANCE
• Nathaniel Hawthorne published
The Scarlet Letter in 1850.
• Herman Melville published
Moby-Dick in 1851.
• Henry David Thoreau published
Walden in 1854.
• Walt Whitman published Leaves
of Grass in 1855.
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
published The Song of
Hiawatha in 1855.

10. FRANKLIN PIERCE
• Authorized the Gadsden
Purchase in 1853, acquiring
more Mexican territory in what
is now part of southern New
Mexico and Arizona.
• Defended slavery in the belief
that abolitionists threatened the
existence of the Union.
• Opened negotiations with
Spain regarding the possible
annexation of Cuba, with the
intention of admitting it into the
Union as a slave state.

11. THE OSTEND
MANIFESTO
• American foreign ministers in
Europe (including James
Buchanan in the UK) met in
Ostend, Belgium, outlining their
reasons for advancing the
American acquisition of Cuba.
• Their manifesto also threatened
the breakout of war with Spain
if it did not relinquish Cuba.
• Congress approved the
manifesto in 1854, but fierce
opposition from the northern
states meant that the plan it
outlined was not enacted.

12. THE KANSAS-
NEBRASKA ACT
• Designed by Senator Stephen
Douglas of Illinois in 1854.
• Created the states of Kansas
and Nebraska and opened new
lands for settlement.
• Repealed the Missouri
Compromise of 1820 by
allowing the people of Kansas
and Nebraska to vote on
whether or not slavery should
be allowed in their states. The
Compromise would have kept
slavery out of Kansas
altogether because the state
lies north of latitude 36o
30’.

13. THE KANSAS-
NEBRASKA ACT
• Recognized this vote as an act
of ‘popular sovereignty,’ ideally
to prevent further doubts over
the continuation of slavery in
new states from becoming
issues of national concern.
• Gave both abolitionists and
advocates of slavery an
incentive to move to Kansas
en masse so as to rig the vote
according to their preference.
• Opened the way for a small-
scale civil war in Kansas, a
prelude to the war that would
break out nationwide.

14. A SURVEY OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
Unit 2: Westward Expansion and Civil War
Part 14: The Path to Civil War (I)