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DISCUSSION TOPIC
The events leading up to the issues of slavery in the 1850s began when the Constitution included the Three-Fifths Compromise, confirmed that the slave trade could continue until 1808, and included a clause requiring states to return runaway slaves. However, the events of the 1850s brought slavery to the forefront of national politics and social reform. Which event(s) in this period did the most to push the nation toward civil war (the Wilmot Proviso, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the debate over the Lecompton Constitution, the Fugitive Slave Act, the Dred Scott Decision)? Explain your answer with specific examples from your assigned reading and media.
RESOURCES
E-Text (ch12 &ch13)
McGerr, M., Townsend, C., Dunak, K. M., Summers, M., & Lewis, J. E. (2021). Of the People: A History of the United States, Volume I: To 1877 with Sources (5th ed.). Oxford University Press Academic US. https://ccis.vitalsource.com/books/9780197585986
https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-one-piece-of-legislation-divided-a-nation-ben-labaree-jr
https://www.pbs.org/video/american-experience-fugitive-slave-act/
https://www.pbs.org/video/the-mexican-american-war-dj8xiw/
DISCUSSION POST 1
While I do believe that there are many aspects that lead up to the civil war and pushed for it to happen. Per our reading and media from this week, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was said to be the most powerful push towards the civil war. It started with the Missouri Compromise where a railroad was built through certain states or areas. Landing right in between northern and southern states, which could potentially provide some benefits one transportation and moving goods. However:
“Stephen Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Act carved the Kansas Territory out of the larger Nebraska Territory. Because Missouri was already a slave state, the map indicates that slaveholders could move west and settle in Kansas. But because Kansas lay north of the 1820 Missouri Compromise line, many northerners wanted slavery restricted from the territory.” (McGerr 2021, p422)
The uproar caused by this was the states that allowed slavery and the ones didn’t allow it, the railroad ran through certain areas but Kansas that were considered the Northern where slavery wasn’t allowed. Instead of the congress deeming what would be what, they allowed the people of that state to vote and of course this would bring up a wild debate. The Kansas-Nebraska Act forced people upon many battles that they didn’t want nor were they prepared for but had to, to defend their land and territory. Protecting the areas to fight what they believed is right and wanted.
“How One Piece of Legislation Divided a Nation – Ben Labaree, Jr..” TED, TED-Ed, ed.ted.com/lessons/how-one-piece-of-legislation-divided-a-nation-ben-labaree-jr. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
Michael McGerr, et al., Of the People: A History of the United States, Volume I: To 1877 with Sources (Oxford University Press Academic US, 2021), 17.
DISCUSSION POST 2
Which event(s) in this period did the most to push the nation toward civil war (the Wilmot Proviso, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the debate over the Lecompton Constitution, the Fugitive Slave Act, the Dred Scott Decision)?
I believe all of the events pushed the nation toward civil war. Each event caused a bigger divide in the United States, but I think that the Kansas-Nebraska Act was the one that did the most to push the nation toward civil war. According to the video we watched, “Kansas -Nebraska Act (Ted Ed)”, Stephen Douglas would divided the land west of Missouri into two lands that would have popular sovereignty. By allowing the people who live in those area decide on whether they would allow slavery or not contradicted the Missouri Compromise. By that contradiction, the Northerners were outraged. It also caused the break down of the Whig party. “With northern Whigs against the bill and southern Whigs nearly united for it, the party had broken beyond repair. Along with thousands of northern Democrats and the Free-Soilers, antislavery Whigs gradually formed a new organization, the Republican Party, dedicated not just to restoring the Missouri Compromise restriction, but outlawing slavery everywhere that national law was sovereign, from the territories to the high seas” (McGerr, 422).
Labaree, Ben. “How One Piece of Legislation Divided a Nation – Ben Labaree, Jr..” TED, TED-Ed, ed.ted.com/lessons/how-one-piece-of-legislation-divided-a-nation-ben-labaree-jr. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
McGerr, Michael, et al. Of the People: A History of the United States, Volume I: To 1877 with Sources. Available from: Columbia College, (5th Edition). Oxford University Press Academic US, 2021.
