Harper's Ferry

As one could imagine, this ruling by Chief Justice Taney angered many and made many happy. One of those people who got angry was our old friend, John Brown..and he was just as crazy as before.

He had an idea to establish a nation of freed slaves in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.




Brown Approached many Abolitionists for support. They were kinda creeped out.




But Brown was able to find one, Theodore Parker, who would finance a raid on an U.S. Arsenal at Harper's Ferry. There were lots of guns there. With the guns, he would arm slaves and then they would revolt.

Frederick Douglas tried to tell Brown that this plan probably wouldn't work, but remember, Brown is crazy.

One night in October, Brown and 21 followers captured the arsenal. Then they spread word to slaves to revolt.




None of the slaves were willing to run away and join the revolt.

In the morning, the local towns people surrounded Harper's Ferry with guns and trapped Brown and his people inside. Some were killed, including his sons. The rest were captured.

Brown and six others were caught and sentenced to hang, Brown never let up on his cause.

In the North, people questioned his sanity, but he was still seen as a hero.



On the Day that John Brown died, church bells rang throughout the north.

The Dred Scott Case

Things got fired up again because of a situation involving a man named Dred Scott.

Schott was a slave in Missouri, but often went with his master to Illinois where slavery was illegal.



He sued for his freedom. He figured by living in Illinois where slavery was illegal, he had become free.

Chief Justice Roger Taney came to the decision of this matter. Remember the 5th Amendment? You don't? Shame on you.

Well as a refresher, the 5th Amendment among other things, won't let the government take away life, liberty, or property without due process. Taney argued that this amendment protected the slave owners property rights.

Taney also said since Scott was black, he couldn't sue, he was not a citizen. He also said that the Missouri Compromise violated these same property rights and it is unconstitutional. This made things a lot lot worse.

The Beating of a Senator and the Election of a President

The Kansas issued spilled over into Washington D.C. as well. Senator Charles Sumner gave a two day speech about Lawrence and the outrage he felt. In it, he attacked South Carolina's Andrew Butler who was not present at the time.



Two days later, Butler's nephew, Preston Brooks, attacked Sumner on the Senate floor. He beat him over 30 times with a gold tipped cane.



This left Sumner unable to return to the Senate for three years. It left Brooks a hero of the South, many Southerners sent him canes to show support for the beating.

Clearly, this pro slave, anti slave thing was extremely intense.

The Election of 1856 was approaching and guess what the main issue was?!?! If you guessed Kansas, you would be correct. It was Democrat James Buchanan v. Free Soiler John Fremont. Once again, fear was a good motivator, Buchanan said that if a Republican was elected the country would fall apart. People took this warning and Buchanan became the 15th president of the United States.

Buchanan supported Popular Sovereignty, but he wasn't a fan of all the violence.


People were hopeful that things in Kansas would finally settle doown, but really, why would they?

Kansas Nebraska Act

During this time, a senator from Illinois named Stephen Douglas was rising in prominence. He was just a little guy at 5'4, they called him "The Little Giant". Not to be confused with the football movie starring Devon Sawa.

A big issue that was dividing the North and the south...besides slavery, was a railroad. A railroad was to be built to connect California to the rest of the nation, but....where should the railroad begin?

The South thought New Orleans should be the location.


The North however, thought this was a terrible idea. They were afraid that the railroad would be used to transport slaves.

So Douglas thought that the city should be Chicago! He knew though that if he wanted it in Chicago something would have to be done to make the southerners happy. There was also that pesky little problem of the land to build the railroad on was not officially open yet.

This land was the Kansas and Nebraska Territories, Douglas introduced a bill that would open up these territories and the issue of slavery would be left to popular sovereignty, also known as, it would be up to the people.

But wait....



Remember the Missouri Compromise?! It banned slavery north of the southern boarder of Missouri. Both the Kansas and Nebraska Territories are north of the southern boarder of Missouri!!! OMG!


The South thought this was just a dandy idea, but they wanted more. They wanted the entire Missouri Compromise's limit on slavery repealed. The bill was passed in 1854. So, did the railroad go from Chicago to California?

No...in the shuffle of this bill the whole Railroad was forgotten until 1862.

The North was pretty unhappy about the Kansas Nebraska Act, in fact, they were irate.

So irate they threw chairs..


(I have no historical proof of this)

The Compromise of 1850

As we have discussed, slavery was kind of a big deal. The North saw it as an evil institution, while the South saw it as a necessary one. In 1850 there were 15 free states and 15 slave states, but adding California to the union would upset the balance.







So, what should be done? Should California be let in as a free state? What about the balance of power? They decided to settle the disputing with a bare knuckle boxing match...



No, no, no, actually, they chose to do another compromise.

The Compromise of 1850 consisted of the following terms:

California would enter the Union as a free state (Yay for free states!), the residents in the organized territory in New Mexico would decide if they would allow slavery or not, Utah would be set up the same way. This could be a big yay or a big boo to the free states.

The Fugitive Slave Act was passed. This put really harsh punishment on people who helped escaped slaves or refused to help capture them. And finally, the slave trade in Washington D.C. was banned, it sort of looked bad when the Capital of the country was used for selling off slaves...

So now that this compromise was settled, everything went smoothly until the end of time.

But really, it didn't...this was just the beginning...