Causes and Compromises

1. Key Events & Compromises of
the early 1800’s

2. Key Issue
 The admission of new states continually led to
conflicts over the whether the new states
would allow slavery “slave states” or prohibit
slavery “free states”

3. The Missouri Compromise 1820
• The idea of Henry Clay
• Drew an east-west line through the Louisiana
Purchase Territory
• Line was located at 36 30’ N
• Above the line “free states,” prohibited slavery
• Below the line “slave states” allowed slavery

5. The California Situation
• 1848 gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill in
California
• creates gold rush of 1849
• Rapid population increase in California
• In 1850 California wanted to come in as a free
state, threatened to upset the balance of
power

7. Compromise of 1850
• Established 3 key provisions
1. California entered the Union as a free state
2. The Fugitive Slave Act required that all escaped
slaves be returned to their owners
3. Popular Sovereignty: or a vote of the people living
in the territory would decide if the area of the
Mexican Concession was to be free or slave
• Northerners ignored the Fugitive Slave Act
• The idea of Popular Sovereignty was unclear

9. The Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854
• Repealed the Missouri Compromise
• Gave the people of Kansas and Nebraska the
right to chose
• This led to an event called “Bloody Kansas”

11. Bloody Kansas
• Pro- and anti- slavery supporters rushed to
Kansas to vote
• Fighting between pro- and anti- slavery
supporters erupted
• Fighting even made it to the Senate floor
• Led to the birth of the Republican Party
• Founded to oppose the spread of slavery

13. Other Events and Issues

14. States Rights
• Southerners argued;
• That individual states could nullify laws passed
by congress
• Began to insist that states had entered the
Union freely and could leave it freely if they
choose- secede
– NULLIFICATION CRISIS

15. Lincoln-Douglas debates
• Lincoln joined the Republican party
• Douglass was a Northern Democrat
• Competed against each other for a U.S. Senate
seat in Illinois in1858
• Conducted a series of debates
• Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery
• Douglass favored popular sovereignty

17. Lincoln Warned
 “A house divided
against itself cannot
stand”
• Meaning the nation
could not continue half-free
and half-slave, the
issue must be resolved

18. Dred Scott Decision
• Decision by the
Supreme Court
• Overturned efforts to
limit the spread of
slavery
• Outraged Northerners

19. Decision said
• Slaves were not citizens
• Slaves have not rights
• Congress could not regulate slavery
• Slaves were property

20. Election of 1860
• Lincoln won
• Southerners feared he would abolish slavery
• Before he took office South Carolina and 6
other Southern states seceded
• They formed the Confederate States of
America
• Elected Jefferson Davis President
• War was just around the corner

22. Lincoln
Davis