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2022 04 09 Slave Power Conspiracy — Transcript

by Ashley Moreshead · 5,191 words · 988 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:01hi this is dr moore shed and we've
0:02reached a really pivotal moment here in
0:04the history of the early united states
0:06where we're looking at the events of the
0:081850s what we call the crisis of the
0:101850s
0:11and trying to understand how these
0:14events lead to the outbreak of a civil
0:16war
0:17between the northern united states and
0:19the southern united states in 1861
0:23and so i want to talk a little bit about
0:24why
0:25the events of the 1850s ultimately
0:27inflame
0:29sectional tensions what we call
0:31regional tensions between the north and
0:33the south to the point that
0:36white northerners and white southerners
0:37in particular
0:39feel the need to go to war with each
0:41other
0:42now as we've seen
0:44the events of 1850s primarily revolve
0:46around questions of whether or not
0:49slavery should be allowed to exist in
0:52new states that are being carved out of
0:54western territory
0:56some of this territory is part of the
0:58louisiana purchase it's just now being
0:59kind of settled by white americans and
1:01being kind of organized
1:03to um be incorporated into the united
1:06states as new states
1:08um but then of course we have all of
1:09this new territory that the united
1:10states has taken from mexico
1:13in 1848
1:15and questions over whether or not
1:17slavery will be allowed to
1:19exist in those territories as they
1:22start to
1:23get organized and see increasing numbers
1:26of white settlers
1:28come and try to kind of
1:30turn those territories into new states
1:32and integrate those into the united
1:33states as well
1:35so
1:36the debates over the status of slavery
1:39in western territory lead to
1:42increasing tensions between the north
1:43and the south
1:45events of the 1850s are just going to
1:47continually heighten these tensions
1:49to the point where by 1860 you have
1:52white people in the north
1:54um
1:56as well as black black northerners but
1:58uh the real question that we're trying
1:59to understand here is why
2:02white northerners many of whom we're not
2:04really that
2:05um
2:06concerned about enslaved people
2:09would decide that
2:11they need to go to war with the south in
2:14order to preserve
2:15their way of life and their vision of
2:18what the united states is supposed to be
2:20and at the same time we're going to look
2:21at the question well next time we'll
2:23look at the question of why white
2:24southerners ultimately decide that they
2:26need to they need to go to war with the
2:28north in order to preserve their way of
2:29life and their vision of what the united
2:31states was supposed to be
2:34so we're trying to understand why people
2:36interpreted events of the 1850s in such
2:38a way that they decided war was
2:39necessary
2:40um by 1861.
2:44and to understand this we first have to
2:45understand why did uh white northerners
2:49in particular
2:51oppose the expansion of slavery into
2:53western territories in the first place
2:55since this is really the question that
2:57inflames tensions in the 1850s
3:00now remember most white northerners are
3:02not abolitionists
3:05um
3:07but there are some things when they look
3:09white northerners who have now gotten
3:11accustomed to
3:12living in um
3:14states where
3:15slavery has kind of gone away right and
3:18they have economies that revolve around
3:20lots of small farms lots of commerce
3:24a little bit of manufacturing
3:27they look at southern society especially
3:30since the rise of cotton as being a very
3:32different kind of society with a
3:33different social structure a different
3:34political structure and a very different
3:36economy
3:37and one that offers a very different
3:39kind of
3:41well really more limited they would say
3:43opportunities to white men
3:46so the first thing that white
3:47northerners don't like about the south
3:49when they look at southern society is
3:50the fact that you have this really small
3:54population of elite
3:56slaveholders
3:58remember that by the 1850s
4:00um
4:01enslaved labor has become really
4:03expensive and land is becoming
4:05increasingly expensive and you have a
4:07small number of people who own the
4:11majority of or control the majority of
4:13enslaved laborers and the majority of
4:15land and the majority of wealth
4:17and northerners look at the south and
4:19look at this elite group of um
4:23of slave holders and see them as sort of
4:26an unofficial aristocracy in the south
4:28because they control basically the
4:30governments of southern states
4:33they dominate the economies of southern
4:35states
4:36and and so white northerners see
4:39this elite holding class in the south as
4:44kind of imposing minority rule
4:46not just on the enslaved population but
4:47on the rest of the white population
4:50which is
4:51largely poor
4:53and can't afford to pay for enslaved
4:55labor and can't afford to pay for enough
4:57land to really grow the kind of cotton
5:00that they would need in order to be able
5:01to compete with elite
5:04elite planters
5:06so white northerners look at the south
5:08and this elite class that dominates the
5:10south as this kind of unofficial
5:11aristocracy and to them that's not
5:14um really compatible with what a
5:16republican society small or republican
5:19society should look like right
5:23they also come to see
5:25slavery as itself as a system as really
5:28being incompatible with free labor
5:31um white northerners start to
5:33kind of make the argument that
5:35a society without slavery really offers
5:38more opportunity for
5:40for white men and they were worried that
5:42if slavery is expanded into and extended
5:45into
5:47new states being created out west that
5:49that will just kind of drive other kinds
5:51that drive free labor out of the
5:52territories it will result in fewer jobs
5:55for
5:56kind of ordinary white men
5:58um
5:59they
6:00they don't want to see what
6:02a lot of white northerners don't want to
6:03see white men have to compete with
6:05enslaved labor for jobs
6:08just like they don't want white men
6:09ordinary white men to have to compete
6:10with this elite planter class for
6:13economic and political opportunity
6:15either
6:16and they saw their own states in the
6:18north as being societies where white men
6:21could really achieve social mobility
6:23through their own enterprise where they
6:25could achieve independence and
6:26self-sufficiency by becoming either
6:28small farmers or businessmen
6:31and so they really want to see
6:32western states new western states
6:35be created kind of in the image of the
6:37north where they see white men as having
6:40more economic opportunity more or
6:42opportunity to have political influence
6:45without this population of enslaved
6:47laborers doing
6:49you know a lot of the work
6:51or elite planters
6:53kind of monopolizing a lot of the
6:55resources and and exercising political
6:57control
6:59now
7:00so so for for most white northerners
7:02keeping slavery out of the territories
7:04is a way to make those new western
7:06states lands with more opportunity
7:08basically for for white men to achieve
7:11independence and kind of rise in society
7:13themselves
7:14um increasingly white northerners are
7:17also kind of coming to see slavery as
7:20inconsistent with christianity with
7:22christian principles
7:24um even though there have been and
7:26continue to be lots of people
7:28interpreting christianity in such a way
7:30as to argue that it's compatible with
7:31slavery especially in the south
7:33um a lot of white northerners by this
7:35point in the 1850s are
7:37interpreting the bible in such a way as
7:39to argue that
7:41slavery is really not consistent with
7:42christianity
7:45and
7:46they also see slavery as really being
7:48inconsistent or incompatible with the
7:50whole ideal of equality that the united
7:52states was founded upon the republican
7:54idea that all men were created equal
7:56right and that no class of people should
7:58be born
8:00into positions of power the way monarchs
8:02were
8:03um
8:04they likewise they don't think that
8:06people should be born into positions of
8:08slavery that's not really compatible
8:09with this idea that all men were created
8:11equal
8:13so white northerners also see societies
8:15without slavery as being more truly
8:17christian and more truly republican
8:20in the sense that the
8:22united states was founded on on
8:23republican
8:25ideals
8:27now it's important to note that
8:30um white northerners who oppose the
8:32expansion of slavery into western
8:33territories and you know
8:35and exalt their own societies without
8:37slavery as being kind of the ideal
8:39republican
8:41societies
8:43they're not necessarily
8:45anti-racist
8:47in fact racism by the 1850s you know has
8:49become incredibly prevalent a lot of
8:50racist stereotypes and
8:53ideas have become incredibly prevalent
8:54in american society by the 1850s and of
8:57course we've seen how free
8:59free black northerners
9:02dealt with a lot of discrimination with
9:03restrictions on their civil rights and
9:05their ability to
9:07succeed economically and kind of
9:08integrate with
9:10white dominated
9:12society in northern cities
9:14and so racism is very prevalent in the
9:16north
9:18being opposed to the expansion of
9:19slavery and a system of slavery doesn't
9:21necessarily make someone
9:23not racist
9:25and it's also important to note that
9:26most white northerners do not support
9:29the abolition of slavery in the south
9:31where already exist
9:34most white northerners recognize that
9:37slavery
9:38in the south
9:39is a really important part of the
9:41american economy it's not just an
9:43important part of the southern economy
9:46and for people who are
9:48who
9:49have enslaved labor that they use to
9:50grow cotton and make a big profit
9:52but it's an important part of the
9:53national economy
9:55remember by this point we have a
9:56national market economy where different
9:58regions of the country
9:59are integrated into an economy that um
10:03you know connects um different regions
10:05and so you have northern manufacturers
10:08you know importing cotton um raw cotton
10:10from the south to fuel their textile
10:11mills
10:12and you have northern merchants um
10:15involved in the exporting of cotton to
10:18places like great britain
10:19and even in still
10:23you know benefiting from
10:24recognizing that they benefit from the
10:26existence of enslaved labor in the south
10:30um
10:31so there's an ideology that's developing
10:33in the 1850s that we call a free
10:35laboratory labor ideology that is
10:38really focused on all the ways in which
10:40a society without slavery is beneficial
10:43to white men and offers more
10:45opportunities to white men and more
10:46equality to white men
10:48it's not necessarily the same thing as
10:51it's not at all the same thing as
10:54the abolitionist movement
10:55but eventually by 1860 we will see
10:58abolitionists kind of um
11:02partnering somewhat
11:04and gaining more support among white
11:07northerners
11:08and that so so we really understand why
11:10that happens why is it the by 1860
11:13we have this anti-slavery sentiment in
11:16the north
11:17that is kind of growing increasingly
11:19strong and is increasingly willing to
11:21listen to the arguments that
11:22abolitionists were making
11:26now keep in mind that when we
11:28look back at the 1830s 1840s
11:31abolitionists were viewed as extremists
11:33people like garrison william garrison
11:35and his ilk they were viewed as
11:36extremists they were targets of mob
11:38violence garrison himself
11:40almost lost his life um at the hands of
11:43a mob
11:43um and some abolitionists did um
11:46experience mob violence
11:48and you know this is because most white
11:50northerners like i said they recognized
11:51slavery as being foundational to the
11:53american economy and they saw
11:55abolitionists as extremists as
11:56troublemakers because they wanted to
11:58abolish slavery immediately and without
12:01any kind of consideration for what the
12:03impact that would have on society
12:06and on the american economy
12:09so what changes in the 1850s then is
12:11that all these white northerners who
12:13already don't like the idea of slavery
12:15or the system of slavery
12:17and want to keep slavery out of out of
12:19new states
12:20um
12:21they also are becoming a little bit more
12:22receptive to some of the arguments that
12:24abolitionists have been making for a
12:25long time
12:28primarily the idea that
12:31um
12:32that the southern kind of slave holding
12:34elite con constitutes a slave power
12:38that dominates southern society
12:41and
12:42and that this slave power is actually
12:44conspiring to
12:46take control of the federal government
12:48as well and not only extend slavery into
12:51new states
12:53and preserve it where it already exists
12:54in the south but actually reimpose
12:57slavery on northern states as well
13:01so the events of the 1850s are going to
13:03be interpreted by a lot of white
13:04northerners as evidence
13:07that what abolitionists have been saying
13:08now for a while about the slave power in
13:10the south and its desire to
13:13not only preserve but expand slavery and
13:15make it nationwide again that maybe
13:18that's actually true and that maybe the
13:20abolitionists
13:21were not as crazy um
13:23as they thought they were in the 1830s
13:25and 1840s
13:27so we want to look real quickly at
13:28why events of the 1850s
13:30are going to be interpreted in this way
13:32interpreted as evidence that a slave
13:34power conspiracy really does exist
13:36that the
13:37southern slave holding elites are
13:39conspiring to
13:41reimpose slavery the system of slavery
13:43on the north
13:45and
13:46why white northerners ultimately have to
13:48go to war
13:49to preserve their way of life and their
13:52vision for what the united states should
13:53be
13:55now there's another conspiracy theory
13:56circulating in the south
13:58that gains traction in 1850s and that's
14:00what we'll we'll look at um next time
14:04so the first event that really
14:06convinces a lot of white uh white
14:07northerners to believe
14:10um kind of abolitionist uh
14:12abolitionist theory about a slave power
14:14conspiracy was the passage of a really
14:17stringent fugitive slave law in 1850
14:21um remember this was part of that
14:22compromise of 1850 that was hammered out
14:25in congress in an effort to start
14:27resolving these questions that
14:29had emerged over whether or not slavery
14:31would be legal
14:32in territories that the united states
14:34had taken from mexico
14:37the new fugitive slave law was passed to
14:40try to keep white
14:41southerners happy
14:43but it was much more stringent than
14:45previous future slave laws that the
14:47united states congress had passed
14:49this one actually denies
14:52um
14:53people who are accused of being runaways
14:55so like
14:57any kind of
14:58any black person in the north
15:00could be accused of being a runaway
15:02slave
15:03and this law denies them the right to a
15:05trial by jury
15:06so this is very alarming to
15:09a black northerners as you can imagine
15:11and they will start forming associations
15:13try to protect each other
15:15they will also start holding conventions
15:17to demand the repeal of this fugitive
15:20slave law frederick douglass actually
15:23hosted a national black convention in
15:251853 to try to demand the repeal of this
15:27law
15:28because it was seen as such a threat to
15:29the freedom of black northerners but
15:32white northerners also are alarmed by
15:33this law
15:35mostly
15:36um
15:37not so much because they're concerned
15:38about the plight of
15:40african americans but because
15:43they resent the second component of this
15:44law which is that it required citizens
15:48to assist in its enforcement that means
15:50if you're a white northerner
15:52a federal marshal who's been tasked with
15:54capturing um
15:57a runaway slave in the north in in a
15:59place like philadelphia
16:00um you can be required to assist that
16:03federal marshal in recapturing that
16:04person and returning them to um to
16:07slavery in the south
16:09and so
16:10a lot of white northerners really resent
16:12the idea that the federal government is
16:14taking such an active role in trying to
16:17enforce and preserve slavery
16:19and
16:20they see this law in particular as an
16:23infringement on their civil rights
16:25because now the federal government can
16:26make them work as slave catchers
16:29so regardless of how they feel about
16:31the enslaved people themselves or the
16:33plight of
16:34african-americans they regard this law
16:37white northerners regard this law as an
16:38infringement of their civil rights and
16:40their civil liberties because the
16:42federal government is exerting such
16:45power in making them you know
16:47assist
16:48in the enforcement of of the law and in
16:51the enforcement of slavery
16:53so this is the first act that starts to
16:55really
16:56alarm a lot of white northerners um and
16:58make them think that the slave power of
17:00the south the elite slave holding
17:03slave power
17:05is
17:06maybe exerting too much power in the
17:09federal government
17:10and in congress in particular
17:13now the next event that will really
17:14inflame sectional tensions between north
17:16and south and um and really alarm white
17:20northerners um
17:22is the kansas nebraska bill of 1854 and
17:25the kind of aftermath of this bill being
17:27passed now this was a law
17:30that was introduced was proposed by
17:32senator stephen douglas of illinois he's
17:34a northern democrat
17:37he um
17:40wrote this bill that would declare
17:42that popular sovereignty would determine
17:45the status of slavery in the territories
17:48of kansas and nebraska
17:52now kansas and nebraska are both
17:54territories that were part of the
17:56louisiana purchase
17:58of
17:59and they're both part of this green
18:01territory um here in the northern
18:04part of the louisiana purchase
18:07so the missouri compromise of 1820 had
18:10drawn this line across the louisiana
18:12purchase this orange line
18:15and had
18:17dictated that any territory south of
18:19that line would have slavery be legal
18:22as it was being settled more by
18:25by white settlers from the east
18:27but territory north of this line was
18:29supposed to remain free of slavery
18:31slavery was not supposed to be legal in
18:33the territory north of that line except
18:35for the state of missouri which is this
18:36yellow state that was going to be the
18:38one
18:39that was that was the compromise right
18:40that missouri would have slavery lots of
18:43white southerners had already moved into
18:44missouri and begun plenty cotton
18:47but the rest of the territory north of
18:48this line would
18:50when when it when it was organized
18:54into states those states would not have
18:56slavery be legal in them
18:58so
18:58the kansas-nebraska act of 1854 is
19:02basically a contradiction of the
19:04missouri compromise
19:06and
19:08this outrages
19:09northerners
19:12um
19:13however at the time there was a
19:15democratic president franklin pierce who
19:17supported the bill
19:18um
19:19congress passed it narrowly because
19:22the democrats had a majority in congress
19:25and
19:26um at the time there were there were
19:28northern democrats and southern
19:29democrats and a handful of the northern
19:30democrats actually
19:32um supported the bill along with the
19:34southern democrats
19:36and so the bill passed in congress very
19:37narrowly
19:39um but then what happened in the
19:40aftermath was a race developed between
19:43northerners and southerners to see who
19:46could settle
19:47kansas
19:48um kansas was the territory that was the
19:51most favorable to the kind of
19:54agriculture that southerners practiced
19:56using enslaved labor nebraska was
19:58further north it was not likely to
20:00become a
20:01slave state anyway it wasn't going to be
20:02a cotton growing region anyway but
20:05kansas had the potential to be a cotton
20:06growing state like missouri
20:09and so
20:10when the first kansas elections were
20:11held in 1854 1955
20:14white southerners from missouri
20:16poured over the border
20:18and
20:19stuffed the ballot boxes um a later
20:22congressional investigation concluded
20:23that more than 60 of the votes
20:26cast in the first elections in kansas as
20:28they're trying to um elect state
20:30legislators and really create a state
20:32constitution and actually create a state
20:34government
20:3560 of the votes cast in those first
20:37elections were cast illegally by people
20:40who didn't actually live in kansas they
20:42were people who were coming over the
20:43border and voting illegally
20:46um so this is the this is white uh
20:49southerners trying to ensure that kansas
20:51will be uh will become a slave state
20:54so this is um a tremendous amount of
20:56voter fraud that um really tarnishes
20:58this whole concept of popular
21:00sovereignty from from the outset and it
21:02greatly aroused public opinion in the
21:04north
21:05but what it also did was it provided
21:06pro-slavery forces in
21:09kansas with a majority as the new kansas
21:12state legislature is being created
21:14and then what this kansas legislature
21:16did the slavery majority there
21:19promptly expelled
21:21all of the anti-slavery members who'd
21:23been elected
21:24and then enacted a strict legal code to
21:27try to intimidate anti-slavery settlers
21:29and basically ensure that
21:31only pro-slavery settlers would move
21:33into kansas from this point on
21:36so they created this what was called the
21:37kansas code that limited freedom of
21:40speech that limited people's access to
21:42impartial juries and fair elections and
21:45all these things
21:46really were done to try to intimidate um
21:49limit the rights of
21:51of
21:52anti-slavery settlers and and try to
21:54just
21:55persuade them
21:57to go elsewhere
21:59but what it did was it motivated the
22:01anti-slavery voters in kansas
22:04to organize just an entirely separate
22:06state government they did not see the
22:08anti-slavery settlers in kansas did not
22:10see this new state government as being
22:12legitimate because of the voter fraud
22:15so they organized a completely separate
22:16state government they drafted their own
22:18state constitution that prohibited
22:19slavery and they asked congress to admit
22:22kansas into the union into the united
22:23states as a free state
22:26so essentially what you have in kansas
22:27by 1855 are two competing state
22:30governments one that is anti-slavery and
22:32one that is pro-slavery and they're both
22:34demanding that congress admits
22:36kansas
22:38into the union as a state into the
22:40united states as a state with their
22:42government being recognized
22:45so you have a very polarized situation
22:47now with competing uh state governments
22:50and
22:50as a result violence actually in in this
22:52context violence broke out between the
22:54two factions um eventually the
22:56pro-slavery settlers attacked the
22:58anti-slavery government
23:01you also have anti-slavery settlers
23:02attacking pro-safely settlers
23:04abolitionist john brown and his family
23:07very famously engaged kind of went on a
23:09murdering spree and killed some
23:11pro-slavery settlers
23:13and um
23:14and so this became known as
23:17bleeding kansas and in the minds of
23:19northern white americans
23:22these events are linking the cause of
23:24pro-slavery
23:26with an attack on the civil liberties of
23:28white americans
23:33now
23:34in 1856
23:37senator charles sumner who was a
23:39anti-slavery senator from massachusetts
23:43um
23:44he
23:45denounced pro-slavery forces in kansas
23:47he made a speech in which he
23:48passionately passionately condemned
23:50slavery not just
23:52the expansion of slavery but slavery
23:53itself he was actually more of an
23:55abolitionist leaning northerner
23:58he deliberately insulted the state of
23:59south carolina in particular
24:02and so several days later um preston
24:04brooks who was a south carolina
24:06congressman walked into the senate and
24:09um attacked senator sumner um while he
24:12was sitting at his desk he literally
24:14beat him over the head with the heavy
24:16canes when we talk about the caning of
24:17sumner we're talking about charles
24:19sumner literally being hit over the head
24:21with a heavy
24:22like marble
24:23cane
24:24and um
24:27he was kind of stuck in his desk to
24:28where he couldn't really get up and um
24:30and run away and ultimately he
24:32ended up um unconscious as a result of
24:35this of this attack uh he almost died he
24:37survived but he almost died as this
24:39attack on the floor of the senate
24:43so northerners were appalled by the
24:45brutality of this attack that took place
24:47in the capital
24:48but then what really inflamed northern
24:49public opinion was the fact that white
24:51southerners
24:52really lionized preston brooks they
24:55really depicted him as a hero
24:57for defending the honor of south
24:59carolina and the
25:01enslavers of south carolina
25:04and so then white northerners claimed
25:06that sumner senator sumner the
25:07abolitionist was a martyr to the cause
25:09of free speech
25:10and most importantly
25:12in the aftermath of this event
25:14white northerners began joining the new
25:17republican party
25:19now this is a political party that was
25:21created in 1854
25:22and this is a political party that has
25:24the explicit platform
25:27preventing the expansion of slavery into
25:29western territories
25:32now republicans were not abolitionists
25:35but
25:35they did adopt this abolitionist
25:38abolitionist belief in a slave power
25:40conspiracy and they argued that the
25:43attack on sumner the violence in kansas
25:46these were all evident these were
25:47evidence that
25:50a slave power had set out to destroy the
25:52liberties of northern white americans
25:56so um
25:58you know this is a party that is that
26:01starts advancing that free labor
26:02ideology arguing that society without
26:04slavery slavery will offer more
26:06opportunities to white men
26:09this is also a party that is going to
26:11promote a very the um kind of active
26:14federal government
26:16they supported the idea that the federal
26:18government should be involved in
26:20kind of promoting opportunities for
26:22white men so eventually the republican
26:24party will support
26:25uh federal intervention intervention in
26:27the west to um not only
26:30take land from native americans but then
26:32make land available cheaply to ordinary
26:35white americans through things like the
26:37homestead act uh republicans support the
26:39subsidizing of railroads and the
26:41building of schools for white settlers
26:42so
26:43republicans the republican party is
26:45ultimately what really
26:47kind of articulates this free labor
26:48ideology and this idea that
26:51a society without slavery is a society
26:53that offers the most opportunity and the
26:55most equality to kind of ordinary white
26:58men
26:59so
27:01the republican party becomes
27:02increasingly popular after the caning of
27:05sumner
27:07the republican party like i said they're
27:09mostly not abolitionists their their
27:12platform is explicitly opposed to the
27:14expansion of slavery
27:16um but they are also giving more
27:18credence to this conspiracy theory
27:21that the there is a slave power
27:24um
27:24in the south that is trying to get
27:26control over the federal government
27:29and then finally the slave power
27:31conspiracy theory
27:32gains even more ground
27:34after
27:36um
27:37chief justice roger tony's opinion in
27:39the dred scott case of 1857
27:42and this of course is a
27:44situation where
27:46an enslaved man named red scott um
27:49who wasn't saved in missouri ended up
27:51being taken to live for several years
27:54with his enslaver in
27:56illinois and in wisconsin territory
27:59um where slavery did not exist
28:02and um and so when when scott was
28:05returned to missouri
28:07he eventually sued for his freedom on
28:09the grounds that his residence in a free
28:10state and in a free territory had made
28:13him free
28:14so ultimately his case went all the way
28:16to the supreme court
28:17where a majority of the justices ruled
28:20that scott should remain a slave
28:23now what's important about this case is
28:24not just the fact that scott
28:26was
28:28told that he remained enslaved despite
28:30the fact that he had spent time living
28:31in territories and in a state where
28:33slavery was not legal
28:35for most white northerners looking at
28:37this case what was important was all of
28:39the other things that chief justice
28:41rogertani said in his opinion on the
28:43scott case
28:46um roger tony of maryland wrote the
28:48majority opinion
28:50um i believe there was a statue of him
28:51in baltimore for a long time i believe
28:54it
28:54finally came down within the past couple
28:56of years um
28:58because what he wrote in the majority
29:00opinion for on behalf of the
29:02rest of the justices
29:04was what he hoped would be really um a
29:07judicial protection of slavery
29:09and
29:10according to tawny dred scott did not
29:13even have the right to sue his owner in
29:15the first place because as an
29:16african-american he could not be and
29:18would never be a citizen of the united
29:20states
29:23justice tawney insisted that at the time
29:25the constitution was adopted
29:27african-americans were regarded as quote
29:29beings of an inferior ass respect
29:31unquote
29:34so this court decision is not just
29:36declaring scott to remain to that he has
29:38to remain enslaved but declaring that he
29:40and everyone of african descent is
29:43excluded from citizenship in the united
29:46states
29:48in addition the court ruled that the
29:49missouri compromise
29:52which has split the louisiana purchase
29:54into you know free territory northern
29:56territory
29:59he ruled that the um the court ruled
30:00that ruled the missouri compromise had
30:02also been unconstitutional
30:05because it deprived citizens of their
30:08property without due process of law as
30:10granted by the fifth amendment basically
30:12saying
30:13congress
30:14has no power to ban slavery from any
30:17territory in the united states
30:19so when congress made that decision in
30:201820 to kind of split the louisiana
30:22territory into
30:24future free states and future slave
30:25states
30:26um the the supreme court is now saying
30:28that congress really overstepped its
30:30authority in doing that and that the
30:31people who want to live in those
30:33territories if they want to own slaves
30:35they should be able to do that
30:37that that's a property right that's been
30:39guaranteed to them by the constitution
30:41so the dred scott decision not only
30:44keeps dred scott and his family in
30:46slavery
30:47but it
30:48it it argues that african-americans
30:51could not be citizens of the country and
30:53it argues that congress cannot ban
30:54slavery in any state state or territory
30:58and too many northerners looking on
31:01this
31:02supreme court decision and the opinion
31:04written by chief justice tawney um prov
31:07are just kind of more evidence that the
31:09tentacles of the slave power conspiracy
31:12have reached not just congress but all
31:14the way into the supreme court
31:17and if all of the western territories
31:19were now open to slavery because the
31:21missouri compromise and other
31:22congressional compromises have been
31:24declared unconstitutional
31:26if all the western territories are now
31:28open to slavery how long would it be
31:30before a move was made to reintroduce
31:32slavery into free states that had passed
31:34their own
31:35laws
31:36banning slavery
31:39so for many white northerners
31:41and of course
31:43non-white northerners the supreme
31:45court's decision
31:47is really foreshadowing the spread of
31:49slavery not only throughout the west but
31:51really throughout the entire nation
31:54this fear now that's that the slave
31:56power has taken um on so much power and
31:59so much control in the federal
32:01government
32:02is express was expressed by abraham
32:03lincoln when he was running for senate
32:05in 1858 he ran against senator stephen
32:07douglas the author of the
32:09uh kansas nebraska bill
32:11he ran unsuccessfully in 1858 for senate
32:14um but he ran as a republican
32:18and he expressed this fear that a lot of
32:20northerners had especially um
32:23the northerners who were starting to
32:25kind of rally now
32:26behind the republican party
32:28he expressed this fear they had that
32:31slavery if it was not
32:33stopped
32:35would eventually spread to not just new
32:37states but back into northern states
32:40where it no longer existed he said
32:43either the opponents of slavery
32:44will stop the further spread of it and
32:46place it where the public mind shall
32:47rest in the belief that it is in course
32:49of ultimate extinction
32:52or slavery's advocates will push it
32:54forward until it shall become a like
32:55lawful in all the states old as well as
32:58new north as well as south
33:02so this is the fear
33:04that
33:04a lot of northerners have by the end of
33:07the 1850s that their way of life one in
33:10which the system of slavery
33:13really has no place
33:15that their way of life is under threat
33:17because of a slave power in the south
33:20that is conspiring to spread slavery not
33:22only into new states out west but into
33:25older states in the north as well
33:29now
33:30at the same time white southerners
33:32are
33:33starting to believe in
33:35a different conspiracy theory
33:38one in which northerners are conspiring
33:40to take away their ability to
33:43use enslaved labor
33:46and so
33:47that conspiracy theory is what we'll
33:50look at next time

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