In 1856 a law was passed that Kansas and Nebraska were able to vote on whether or not or not to be a slave state. Kansas was the first to get all their votes in and it ultimately ended up being a slave state. John Brown and the anti-slavery advocates did not like the results of Kansas now being a slave state. In response to Kansas being a slave state they made a “Lawrence Kansas” which is ultimately a free-settlement in the territory of Kansas. Pro-slavery advocates did not like that they did this so they went to Lawrence Kansas and burnt the town to the ground. John Brown and his anti-slavery advocates despised that they did this to innocent people. So, he got revenge for the burning of the city by killing five pro-slavery supporters next…
During the elections of 1860, the United States was divided by decisions concerning slavery. The Missouri territory came to the United States as part of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. The House of Representatives put forward an amendment to the admission of Missouri that would prohibit the introduction of slaves into Missouri and freeing the children of slaves at the age of 25. The Senate passed the bill admitting Missouri without the amendment, but it was rejected by the House, pushing the controversy into 1820. The Great Compromiser, Henry Clay, proposed the following elements of a sectional compromise: That Missouri be admitted to the Union as a slave state (as the population of the territory apparently desired).That slavery was to be prohibited from the new American territories in the Louisiana Purchase north of 36/30’ north latitude (the southern boundary of Missouri). States to the south of the line (the new Arkansas Territory) would decide the slavery issue for themselves. Missouri became the 24th state on August 10, 1821. The Missouri Compromise was canceled in 1854 with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.…
Initially John Brown was viewed as an irrational for his actions in Pottawatomie, Kansas. It was in Pottawatomie where Brown and a few colleagues took violent measures of vengeance against five pro-slavery southerners in Response to the Bleeding Kansas crisis. The northern view of Brown changed however after his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia. The northern people did not immediately view him as a hero however. Many northerners viewed his raid as “utterly mistaken and, in its direct consequences, pernicious”. (Doc A) Southern people viewed Brown’s raid as a commotion and an appeal to rebellion. The previous Bleeding Kansas crisis also pushed the south more towards succession. “It was by delegates chosen by the several states… that the Constitution of the United States was framed in 1787 and submitted to the several states for ratification… that of a compact between independent states.” (Doc H) President Lincoln responded “Having never been States, either in substance, or in name, outside of the Union, whence this magical omnipotence of ‘States Rights’, asserting a claim of power to lawfully destroy the Union itself?” (Doc I). Both of these statements were made in 1861, and clearly represent the division that sent our nation to…
John Brown’s long chain of massacres all began as a direct result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 being passed which…
he Bleeding Kansas (1861) was a conflict between anti-slavery forces in the North and pro-slavery forces from the South, and its violence indicates that compromise unlikely. here were 5,000 pro-slavery men invaded Kansas, and 200 men died and the killing spree took place for ten years in a row. The question of the conflict is whether Kansas would allow or decline slavery, and if Kansas would become a slave or free state. After the Bleeding Kansas, Preston Brooks attacked Charles Sumner after he gave a speech attacking the forces for Kansas. Lincoln's election, who was a Republican, supported the banning of slavery in the United States. In 1852, the book Uncle Tom's Cabin was written before the Civil War took action but it relates to the Civil…
The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act opened another battleground to the controversy. By leaving the slavery question up to popular sovereignty, Congress initiated a race between abolitionist and proslavery forces to control Kansas. Abolitionists encouraged free-soil advocates from New England and New York state to move to Kansas. Ministers like Henry Ward Beecher supported this emigration and encouraged their parishioners to help fund free-soil advocates. Meanwhile, proslavery forces urged slaveowners to relocate with their slaves. Southerners from Missouri and farther southeast made the move. The resulting conflict and bloodshed between the two groups earned the area the nickname Bleeding Kansas.4…
The Kansas-Nebraska Act that was passed by Congress in 1854 increased the already building tension between the North and the South. It caused a civil war in Kansas and many people believed that it was one of the causes of the American Civil War. The disastrous effects that were caused by the Kansas-Nebraska Act serves as an example of what could happen if people in America today were to become as divided over an issue as they were over…
Most Northerners didn’t hate slavery enough to do anything about it. Sadly, it was an ugly part of American culture and people were content ignoring it so they could go about their lives. They didn’t agree with slavery but they feared that if the slaves were freed they would move north and take jobs away from white families. White people in the North were expanding westward into the territories where they could farm their own land and make money off crops. They did not want the territories to have the southern slave based labor system because it would only benefit a few wealthy people and it would greatly harm the country’s economy to expand slavery.…
On October 16, 1859, John Brown, a radical abolitionist of the North, led a small army of 18 men into the small town of Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He seized the arms and ammunition in the federal arsenal and planned to arm slaves to instigate slave rebellions in the South. He was captured by the militia and Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee’s troops, and was quickly sentenced to death. John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry received polarized comments. While he was hailed as a martyr by Chicago’s Republican press, Democratic newspaper in South Carolina and Illinois condemned him as a criminal. At the same time, the Northern press did not ask for the execration of Brown’s penalty in hopes of preserving the Union, but the South viewed this event as another strong reason for seceding. John Brown’s raid has a profound effect on deepening sectional and partisan divide between North and South.…
Election time came around to decide whether or not Kansas would be a free or slave state in 1854. During the election, hundreds of pro-slavery men from Missouri came and casted fraudulent ballots, which outvoted anti-slavery settlers. So Kansas adopted the same laws of Missouri including “Slave Code.” This angered the anti-slavery forces which then concluded into a civil war of Kansas. This war will be known as Bleeding Kansas.…
The Kansas-Nebraska Act set the stage for what began “Bleeding Kansas” and ultimately the Civil War. As settlers began moving west of the Mississippi River, they moved into the area which is present-day Nebraska. Since the area was not yet a structured state, the people could not live there. The area that was wanted was located in a part of the United States that had outlawed slavery due to the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This, in turn, caused representatives in Congress to have no interest in creating a Nebraska territory. Senator Stephen A. Douglas was the driving factor behind the Kansas-Nebraska Act. With the goal in mind that Nebraska would become a territory, the Kansas- Nebraska Act would allow each territory the ability to choose whether or not they supported slavery. With this being enacted, it was a direct violation of the Missouri Compromise. The bill that allowed territories to decide for or against slavery, also known as popular sovereignty, split the Whig party into two different groups; the northern Whigs and the southern Whigs with the northerners organizing the Republican Party.…
Slavery is one of the major differences between the South and the North. If the South and the North were to separate, it might lead to less arguments, and battles over what is correct. Slavery has always been an issue in this government that we have. Therefore, this issue will never go away, because one party will be upset. If slavery is abolished, then the South would be upset, and if slavery is not abolished, then the North would be upset.…
Before the Civil War, the territory of Kansas was unsettled as a slave state or a free state. This caused a conflict over who should settle this territory, right before the Civil War. This conflict was also called “Bleeding Kansas”. Later on, popular sovereignty, played a key role before the Civil War.…
"The most controversial of all nineteenth-century Americans," a martyr and hero, the man accountable for electrifying the nation in 1859, and most eminent as the entity who initiated the War Between the States, the glorified John Brown was an individual who stood in opposition to a seemingly unbeatable foe. Nevertheless, there was a vast majority who did not see Brown in such a favorable light during the time of his raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The attitudes regarding John Brown expressed in the documents illustrate to a significant degree the shifting relations between the North and South between 1859 and 1863, primarily through the apparent development of two extremes over time: those willing to attain freedom through aggressiveness versus advocates of slavery. However, these extremes didn't begin to arise until the mid 1860s. While the side in favor of slavery had been in existence for quite some time, its battling extreme arose as northerners came to accept and support the actions of John Brown.…
During this time in history change was occurring throughout the country. We were seeing this movement called the progressive movement sweep the nation. Kansas was reflecting on this too, as seen everywhere, Kansas felt the effects of monopolies as well, and Kansans along with all the other Americans believed that something had to be done.…