Module 15 - HIS 210 - U.S. History through the Civil War - Textbook - LibGuides at Hostos Community College Library

Module 15: Slavery and National Politics in the Long 1850s

Learning Outcomes

To understand how the economic interests of the North and South diverged so sharply.
Those economic differences manifested themselves in political hostility.
To understand the different ways in which slavery affected the nation’s economy and political formations.

Harper's Ferry insurrection - Interior of the Engine-House, just before the gate is broken down by the storming party - Col. Washington and his associates as captives, held by Brown as hostages

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Content

Introduction: Troubled Times: the Tumultuous 1850s
The heated sectional controversy between the North and the South reached new levels of intensity in the 1850s. Southerners and northerners grew ever more antagonistic as they debated the expansion of slavery in the West.
14.1 The Compromise of 1850
At the end of the Mexican-American War, the United States gained a large expanse of western territory known as the Mexican Cession. The disposition of this new territory was in question; would the new states be slave states or free-soil states?
14.2 The Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Republican Party
The brief period of tranquility between the North and South did not last long, however; it came to an end in 1854 with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This act led to the formation of a new political party, the Republican Party, that committed itself to ending the further expansion of slavery.
14.3 The Dred Scott Decision and Sectional Strife
The violence in Kansas demonstrated that applying popular sovereignty—the democratic principle of majority rule—to the territory offered no solution to the national battle over slavery. A decision by the Supreme Court in 1857, which concerned the enslaved Dred Scott, only deepened the crisis.
14.4 John Brown and the Election of 1860
Events in the late 1850s did nothing to quell the country’s sectional unrest, and compromise on the issue of slavery appeared impossible.

What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July
The text of Frederick Douglass’s 1852 speech

The Impending Crisis
The link above will take you to Internet Archive. To borrow the text, you will need to create a free account with Internet Archive.
The assigned reading is pp. 51-62.

Attribution

U.S. History
Authors: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd Pfannestiel, Sylvie Waskiewicz, Paul Vickery
Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/1-introduction
Sections located at: 14 Introduction https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/14-introduction; 14.1 https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/14-1-the-compromise-of-1850; 14.2 https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/14-2-the-kansas-nebraska-act-and-the-republican-party; 14.3 https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/14-3-the-dred-scott-decision-and-sectional-strife; 14.4 https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/14-4-john-brown-and-the-election-of-1860
License: Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

The text of Frederick Douglass's 1852 speech, "What, to the slave, is the Fourth of July?"
Author: Frederick Douglass
Source: Digital Public Library of America (via Minnesota Digital Library), http://dp.la/item/815b52395f207c348c8739c5dc3b982c

The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861
Author: David Morris Potter, Don Edward Fehrenbacher
Source: Internet Archive Terms of Use, https://archive.org/details/impendingcrisis00pott

HIS 210 - U.S. History through the Civil War - Textbook

Attribution & Licensing

HIS 210 U.S. History through the Civil War

Module 15: Slavery and National Politics in the Long 1850s

Learning Outcomes

Content

Attribution