History Notes 11/17/11
(View the elaborated notes here)
We have a lot of people out today, today must be skip day.
Final Exam:
Thursday Dec. 8th @ 12:30 pm, so, regular class time, regular room.
Bring scan-tron and unless your runover by truck, try your absolute best to get here. Make-up final exams are a massive headache.
If you come here and tell me you weren’t feeling good, then I’m going to come up, with a final exam, so hard you’ll never pass it even with your book and me sitting there next to you. No I’m just kidding but try and make it here.
Didn’t mean to put out grumpy vibe today, maybe it’s the cold weather. Alright… Very Good…
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By the time we hit 1850, we are on a big and fast collision course with the civil war. The compromise of 1850 was designed to put those issues to rest but we’re going to see is not only does it fail to solve anything, it’s going to create more problems than it solves.
By this point, Henry clay is getting to become an old man. Going to die not too long from now. Steven Douglas from illinois.
Comprimise of 1850, what do we do with California, Savery in DC, Take on issue of runaway slaves. There’s no doubt that the northerners get the better end of deal. 1st part of compromise admits California as free state – balence will never be restored. Compromise of 1850 and after math – pretend that Missouri compromise never happens.
Line at 36/30 never reallly existed. Hre we’re opening up can of worms we’ll have to deal with later. Places like Arizona and New MExico, are they going to have slavery anyway.
2nd part deals with what;s going on in washington, they hated the slave market. If you already had slaves there you could keep them but the slave market was banned – no new slaves.
The 3rd part is really important, fugitive slave laws, makes things worse. Before 1850, a slave crosses to north he was home-free. Now we going to change everyhting. New tough fugitive slave law. Make it much easier to return runaway slaves. Now, basically, hire the proffesional slave catchers (bounty hunters), give general description of person, turn them lose.
The bounty hunter would catch them and take them to court. Many people don’t like bounty hunters and consider them a disturbance of the peace. Introduce corruption, brought before the judge, the judge got paid by each case they’ve heard. If the judge ruled the slave wasn’t the runaway slave, then the judge got paid a dollar, if it was the runaway slave, they got $5.
How is the judge going to lean on each case, sorry your guilty. Slaves who lived their entire ives in the north would be accused, slaves who were free their entire lives would be accused. More people join with the abolitionist, more people call for an end.
In the long run new fugitive slave run isn’t good. amny northerners were worried about getting kidnapped. North started posting posters up for black people strongly cauting to be weary of who they’re talking to because it might be a southern bounty hunter.
One of the biggest events that makes the abolitioners famous in the north, was a novel. “Uncle Toms Cabin” wrote by Harriet Beecher Stowe, in-depth detail about howslaves lived.
Never been to the south and never seen slavery so she gets her information from slaves themselves. It’s a story that has a ton of sad moments. This book becomes a run-away best seller. The abolitionist get’s really big. In 1862 during civil way. Abraham Lincoln met author in person an said “so your the little one who caused all of this”
If you have some spare time you should read all of it. The issue we’re going to get into now, you might be asking yourself now, what does the railroad have to do with the civil war. Well, it opens up a min-civil war. Bleeding-Kansas. The story in Kansas is complicated – a ton of notes – we gotta do it. The background of it has to do with the railroad.
The grandest projects is the idea of a trans-continental railroad. Not completed up until the 1880′s. We’re in the planning stages. Get on the train in the east coast and stay on it until you reach California. Every part of the country wanted the railroad to run through their state or town.
Just like today when new interstate proposed, everyone fights about where to put it. If you get the trans-continental railroad coming you get money and prestiege, etc… Our friend stephen douglas was from Illinois. When we think of Chicago we think of a big city, in 1850 Chicago was a bump in the road. Stephen Douglas is desperate to get Trans-Continental railroad – specifically near chicago.
One of the drawbacks was that once you got west of illinois, what is today Kanssas, Nebrasko, Colorado. No one really lived out there. No settlers. When stephen douglas pushes it, they on’t want to because no one lived there. Douglas was a very influental senator and he wanted the railroad.
What he wants to do is fill up Kansas and Nebraska – let’s get people living there. He’s going to push for the cration of the new states Kansas and NEbraska. let’s skip population count and just make them a state.
Open up big cn of worms – SLavery in the territoris. For douglas to get his railroad, just liek in congress troday. Politicians are making deals with each other, you help me I’ll hel pyou. Douglas needs help getting hjis railroad. If yu support myu railroad here, what can I do for you.
Let’s make a nw slave state – that’s going to be the new thing. You join me and we’ll create a new slave sate. The heck wit hthe missouri compromise. This is the concoted plan:
Take new states of Kansas and NEbraska, according t missouri compromise should be free. We’ll open these 2 new states to the possibiltiy of slave states. They know they can’t just mak it a slave state, what we can do is open up to the possibility of a slave state.
We’ll let the people of Kanasas and Nebraska decide for themselves. Douglas and evryone else pretty much assumed that Kansas would become free. The north was not about to let a new slave state be created without going to war.
Bleeding Kansas start coming in – this is where popular soverighnty comes to play a role. Every resident in Kansas was allowed to come in vote for free or slave state.
What happens. Each side is going to try and pack as many voters into kansas as possible. Each side is desperate to win election. Pro-slavery southerns encourage people to move to kansas, abolitions try tp oencourage as many anti-slavery people t move inthere – we need yur vote.
Pickup and move to kansas. what we’re go9ing to see is that tboth sides are going to be so desperate – they’ll go to any means nesasary to win this election.
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Now the fun is going to begin —-
The abolitionist were so desperate to get people to move to the north that they start paying people to go to kansas. As long as you’ll promise to vote for abolitionist, they’ll pay for your move. If your a recent immigrant, Immigrans don’t really know about slavery so they say “sure, why not.” They know what a fight this is going to be.
They tell you to bring a bible and bring a gun. Teling them this election doesn;t go our way, step 2 – go to war. That’s the nprthern perspective. The suthern pro-slaver resorts to cheap. The day of the election, missori. Thousands of pro-savery southerners are going to cross over to kansas and vote in the election.
They had no way of knowing you weren’t from there. immidiately everyone knows this election is ffradulent. The population is 45,000 people but the votes are 65,000. The southern pro-slavery sides – they’re going to take pro-slavery and run with it. The abolitioners are going t osay not so fast.
Abolitioners are going to say we’re not going by your election, we’re goig to create ourt own governemnt. IT was more of an east/west civil war. Is the state going to be able to co-exist with to govenors. At this point the USA governemtn should have sent army in saying enugh of this concept.
To gvernemtns trying to co-exist which desn;t work – start shooting at each other. Nebraska definately anti-slavery. Kansas is going to dissolve into a real civil war, pro-salver and anti-slavery are at each others throat. 2 biggest incidents are the anti-slavery capital burned to ground by pro-slavery people
2nd incident – pro-slavery settlement. ***John Brown*** – rememrb name. He leads a raid on pro-slavery settlemtn and millks the whole village. He was a radical.
Kansas is a foreshadowing of what’s about to happen all over the country. Over the issue of Kansas. People argue to death that slaver ydidn’t cause the civil war. They;re going to tell you that – southerners were fighting for their way of life but what were they fighting about?
