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Week 7: Resistance and Activism in the Antebellum Period — Transcript

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0:02Hello and welcome back. Last week we
0:04investigated how individuals caught in
0:07the system of slavery resisted their
0:09enslavement in daily life. Whether that
0:11be running away, engaging in community
0:14and family life, or exercising their
0:16agency to engage in forms of activism
0:19once free. Today we are going to turn
0:21our attention more deliberately to the
0:24question of black activism in the
0:26antibbellum uh period. What we mean by
0:29the phrase antibbellum, it comes from
0:30Latin, is that time or period before or
0:35anti the war or the word bellum. Um,
0:38someone who really illustrates black
0:40activism in this antibbellum period is
0:43the man pictured here, Frederick
0:44Douglas. Frederick Douglas was born into
0:47slavery around 1818 in Talbot County,
0:51Maryland. He was separated from his
0:53mother as an infant uh and raised by his
0:56grandmother with little knowledge of his
0:57father who was likely a white man and
1:00possibly his enslaver.
1:02Douglas experienced the brutalities of
1:04slavery firsthand, including physical
1:06abuse and uh deprivation. Um his life
1:11changed, however, when he was sent to
1:13Baltimore to serve um a new family, the
1:16Al family. there, a a lady named Sophia
1:19Al began teaching him how to read, while
1:22her husband quickly stopped her, citing
1:24laws and beliefs against the education
1:26of enslaved people. This moment,
1:29however, revealed to Douglas the
1:31relationship between literacy and power
1:34and chose to defy these systems of laws
1:37and secretly taught himself how to read
1:40and to write, uh, recognizing knowledge
1:42as one of many pathways to freedom.
1:46In 1838, at the age of 20, Frederick
1:49Douglas escaped slavery by disguising
1:51himself as a sailor and traveling to the
1:54north. He settled in New Bedford,
1:56Massachusetts, where he adopted the
1:58surname Douglas and began his journey as
2:01a free man and as an activist.
2:04And Frederick Douglas really emerged as
2:06one of the most powerful voices of the
2:08abolitionist movement or that movement
2:10to uh abolish the system of slavery.
2:13In 1841, he attended an anti-slavery
2:17convention in Nantucket and delivered an
2:19impromptu speech that captivated
2:21audiences. His eloquence and his
2:24firsthand experience of slavery made him
2:26an effective speaker and advocate for
2:29the abolition movement.
2:31By 1845, he published his first
2:34autobiography
2:35titled Narrative of the Life of
2:37Frederick Douglas and American Slave.
2:40The book detailed his life under slavery
2:42and exposed the cruelty of the
2:44institution. It quickly became a
2:46bestseller and was widely influential in
2:49rallying support for abolition. And
2:51Douglas worked closely with fellow
2:53abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and
2:56his abolitionist newspaper titled The
2:58Liberator. Uh together they traveled
3:01extensively across the northern states
3:03and also abroad to uh Britain and to
3:06Ireland uh speaking against slavery and
3:10raising funds for an international
3:12abolitionist cause.
3:14Over time uh Douglas diverged from
3:17Garrison favoring a more pragmatic
3:19approach that um included political
3:21activism. He believed in the potential
3:24of the US Constitution as the
3:26foundational tool to ending slavery, a
3:30position that contrasted with William
3:32Lloyd Garrison's view of the
3:33Constitution as a foundationally
3:35pro-slavery document.
3:39In 1847, Douglas founded his own
3:42abolitionist newspaper, which he called
3:44the North Star, based out of Rochester,
3:47New York. The newspaper's motto was,
3:50"Right is of no sex. Truth is of no
3:53color. God is the father of us all and
3:55we are all brethren. This reflected
3:58Douglas's commitment to equality and
4:00justice beyond racial lines. And through
4:03the Northstar, Douglas advocated not
4:06only for abolition of slavery, but also
4:08for women's rights and other social
4:10reforms.
4:12Douglas became increasingly involved in
4:15political efforts to end slavery. And he
4:17aligned with the Liberty Party and later
4:20the Free Soil Party. both political
4:22parties which sought to uh prevent the
4:24expansion of slavery into new American
4:27territories in the west. His political
4:29advocacy laid the groundwork for also
4:32broader anti-slavery efforts that
4:34culminated in the rise of the Republican
4:37party uh and Abraham Lincoln's election
4:40in 1860.
4:43Free blacks like Frederick Douglas used
4:45activism as a tool to highlight the
4:48moral and political contradictions of
4:50slavery in the United States. Um, a
4:53nation supposedly founded on the
4:55principles of liberty and equality. His
4:58powerful writings helped to expose the
5:00inhumity of slavery and to galvanize
5:03support for emancipation or the free
5:05widespread legalized freedom for slaves,
5:09especially in the north where he found a
5:11captive audience.
5:13But even as activists like Douglas found
5:15a northern audience, lived experiences
5:17for free blacks in the north was still
5:19one subject to racial discrimination
5:22which funneled into everyday political,
5:24economic, and social life. Free blacks
5:27in the north looked inward to their own
5:29communities in order to become
5:31self-reliant in a nation which limited
5:33their participation and belonging.
5:37But even as the northern states worked
5:38to abolish slavery within their borders,
5:40racial hostility continued to intensify.
5:44Attitudes in the north had been shaped
5:46by the legacies of black enslavement.
5:47hundreds of years of this system of
5:50slavery and racism lingered and became
5:52institutionalized in forms of everyday
5:55discrimination and social and political
5:58uh repression meant to isolate
6:01um black life.
6:04Scientific developments uh also helped
6:07whites to justify their views of blacks
6:09as racially inferior such as what is
6:11pictured here a subject titled social
6:14Darwinism. Uh these were supported in
6:17part by new developments of
6:18pseudociences called phronology. Um
6:21phronology was one of these
6:23pseudociences developed in part by Dr.
6:26Samuel G. Morton of Philadelphia and the
6:29study claimed that a person's character,
6:32their intelligence, their abilities
6:34could all be determined by the shape and
6:36size of their skull. Uh books like
6:39Crania America published in 1839 and
6:43types of mankind from 1854 were widely
6:47read by scientists who debated racial
6:50origins and their effects on the
6:52character of different racial groups. In
6:55the antibbellum period, this belief was
6:58used to justify scientific racism by
7:01asserting that African-Americans had
7:03smaller skulls and inferior brain
7:05structures, allegedly proving their in
7:08their view natural inferiority and
7:11therefore fitness for enslavement.
7:14These ideas reinforced racial
7:16hierarchies and provided a uh a sense of
7:19scientific legitimacy to the
7:21exploitation and oppression of black
7:24people.
7:25In the north, the scientific idea of
7:27black inferiority suggested that the
7:28population itself was a widespread
7:31problem and helped to spur development
7:33of American colonization societies,
7:35which we've already talked quite a bit
7:37about, um, which hoped to relocate
7:40blacks to Liberia and other colonies
7:42back in Africa.
7:46New territories like Ohio, Indiana, and
7:49Illinois went further to undermine black
7:51freedom, including black laws, which
7:53prevented uh even free blacks from
7:56settling in the states altogether.
7:58Segregation, or that separation of
8:01people based on race, was also prevalent
8:04in the north as whites restricted blacks
8:06access to jobs, public institutions, and
8:09even neighborhoods of owning a house.
8:12boats and trains and buses. These all
8:15had separate sections cordoned off based
8:17on race.
8:19Legally, blacks were also discriminated
8:21at an institutional level. Injustice in
8:24the courts, for instance, uh gave blacks
8:26little chance to share their case
8:28against white offenders, leaving um
8:31life, property, and liberty widely
8:34unprotected.
8:36Then as now, blacks were also imprisoned
8:38at much higher rates than whites in part
8:41due to the belief that blacks were
8:43biologically inferior and therefore more
8:45prone to criminal acts.
8:48Black laws prevented free black men from
8:51serving on juries or becoming lawyers.
8:54And so um blacks accused of crimes faced
8:57white juries and white judges who were
9:00predisposed to assume guilt on their
9:02part.
9:06Come the 1830s, uh, we see the
9:08presidency of Andrew Jackson, um, over
9:11the United States. Andrew Jackson in
9:13this moment was pushing for westward
9:15expansion and the dispossession of
9:18Native Americans, for the expansion of
9:20southern borders, especially of the
9:22American Empire westward. To help grow
9:25his base of support, Jackson led the
9:27charge for universal white male
9:30suffrage, or the ability for all white
9:32men to vote in elections. Prior to this,
9:35men were limited in their ability to
9:37vote primarily by their social class.
9:40Um, those with money were most likely to
9:42be able to uh participate politically.
9:46This era of voting rights expansion was
9:49hailed by white society as the era of
9:52the common man. And yet, as voting
9:54rights expanded for white males, more
9:56and more limitations were placed on
9:58black political participation,
10:00solidifying ideas of white male
10:03supremacy in the political system.
10:06Exclusion of blacks from the political
10:08system trickled into economic exclusion
10:11as well. White mobs often attacked black
10:15neighborhoods with impunity, and these
10:17same mobs destroyed shops and houses and
10:20churches which belong to
10:21African-Americans.
10:23um such as riots which occurred in
10:24Cincinnati in 1841.
10:28Anti-black riots took place across the
10:30nation um including uh especially
10:33hotspots in Philadelphia and other
10:35cities that already had large free black
10:38populations.
10:40The empowerment of white men by Jackson
10:42in the 1830s, bolstered by this
10:45scientific racism, saw a rise in ethnic
10:49hostility.
10:52At the same time as blacks struggled for
10:53political and economic stability, huge
10:56numbers of European and Asian immigrants
10:59made their way to city centers, adding
11:02competition for jobs in the north.
11:05Economically, it was hard to get ahead
11:07with this deluge of labor and economic
11:10downturns nationally made matters only
11:13worse.
11:14Even though blacks had shorter life
11:16expectancies than other races, by 1860
11:19the number of free blacks in the north,
11:22especially in the cities, had grown
11:24through natural increase and slow
11:26migration of fugitives from slavery in
11:28the south. Um, free blacks congregated
11:32into the development of black
11:33neighborhoods which were nearby the
11:35white neighborhoods but distinctly
11:37separate on the basis of race.
11:40Many uh free blacks created small
11:42businesses and found some success. Uh
11:44one such businesswoman was Elizabeth
11:46Kekley who's pictured here. Um Elizabeth
11:49was born a slave but purchased her
11:51freedom in 1855. She moved to Washington
11:54DC and became the dress maker uh for
11:58Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of the
12:00future President Abraham Lincoln and
12:03would produce these elegant gowns for
12:05the capital's elite women. In her 1868
12:09autobiography titled Behind the Scenes,
12:12uh, Keckley displayed her initiative in
12:15creating her business and her life, she
12:18wrote that as a free woman, she had to
12:20vouch to the authorities that she was
12:21not a slave and that purchasing business
12:24licenses and paying rent were very
12:27difficult to maintain on her meager
12:29salary. So even while working in the
12:32White House, she stated that quote, "It
12:35is true the bills were small, but then
12:38they were formidable to me who had
12:40little or nothing to pay them with."
12:46Many other free blacks became educators
12:48who advocated for abolition and were
12:51advocates of what is called uplift or
12:54the idea among especially the elite in
12:57black life that self-help and leadership
13:00were necessary to uplift the race and
13:02future generations to overcome the
13:05limits that had been placed on black
13:06life by white authorities.
13:09What was meant by self-help was to focus
13:11on self-improvement and building up
13:14communities. In the absence of white
13:16support, blacks looked to one another
13:18for emotional, psychological, and
13:21spiritual resources. And racial unity
13:24affirmed this commitment to self-help in
13:28order to build up one's own destiny.
13:31Frederick Douglas for one noted that
13:33only racism kept the avenues of wealth
13:35and honor from being open to all who
13:37chose to enter them. Uh respectability
13:40and wealth were not just accessories to
13:42wealth and fame but required individual
13:45action. Um particularly virtuous
13:48assistance to the race or against
13:50slavery. Mutual aid societies, for
13:53instance, operated out of black churches
13:56like Mother Bethl uh amme church, which
14:00helped to knit those communities
14:01together. Sunday school in particular
14:04provided an outlet for free blacks to
14:06learn to read and to write um before the
14:09creation of segregated black public
14:12schools uh which was often produced with
14:15the financial support of Quaker and
14:17abolitionist patrons.
14:20In New York, for example, uh the New
14:22York African Free School had by the
14:241830s
14:25um built up a student body of over 1,400
14:29despite the limitations of resources
14:31that were afforded to the institution.
14:34Black women activists were often
14:36teachers uh such as Sarah Maps Douglas
14:39who had received an education as a child
14:41and was eager to pass that knowledge to
14:43the next generations and enact that idea
14:46of black uplift.
14:51self-improvement was not limited
14:53strictly to black people uh who were
14:55aware that equality for all would
14:57elevate the United States regardless of
14:59race and quote improve the condition of
15:01mankind. Uh this was an early expression
15:05for global human rights. Human rights
15:08are the inherent rights and freedoms
15:10that belong to all individuals. um
15:13emphasizing equality and dignity
15:15regardless of one's race, gender,
15:18economic status, or whatever. One
15:20proponent of these human rights was
15:22James Forton, who you see here on the
15:24screen. Uh James Forton was a prominent
15:27African-American abolitionist. He was an
15:29entrepreneur and a social reformer in
15:32this antibbellum period. He was born
15:35free in 1766 in Philadelphia where he
15:38became a successful salemaker and used
15:41his wealth to support abolitionist
15:43causes um including funding anti-slavery
15:46publications and organizations.
15:49James Forton was a vocal advocate for
15:51racial equality helping to found the
15:54American Moral Reform Society and
15:56inspiring others through his leadership
15:58and commitment to justice. Foron and the
16:02American Moral Reform Society argued
16:04that recognizing and protecting one's
16:07human rights was essential to improving
16:09the condition of mankind itself as it
16:12demanded the abolition of slavery, the
16:15end of racial discrimination and a
16:18conclusion to moral injustices broadly.
16:22They believed that uplifting society
16:24required that government and the
16:27community ensure education, economic
16:31opportunities, and social equality for
16:34marginalized communities um particularly
16:36African-Americans as a moral and civic
16:39imperative.
16:41So, black uplift and self-improvement
16:43was tied to moral reform and the
16:46abolition of slavery as free blacks
16:48recognized that they could not elevate
16:50their own communities unless the members
16:52of that community were free. This was
16:55the foundational belief of black
16:57activism as only the abolition of
16:59slavery could bring about these national
17:02changes.
17:04Um, one way that free blacks advocated
17:06for abolitionism then was to make use of
17:09the black church networks to propagate
17:12the convention movement. Uh, leaders met
17:16from across the nation to share stories
17:18and forge what is called a black
17:20national consciousness on how to improve
17:24local communities. These meetings met
17:26annually from 1830 to 1835 and set
17:30agendas for the creation of schools uh
17:33protection for those uh who lived in
17:36race riot hotspots like Philadelphia and
17:40proposing uh creating banks which would
17:43fund black businesses and farms.
17:46They also proposed moral reforms such as
17:49temperance or um pushing against
17:51alcoholism.
17:53um they outlined sexual morality and you
17:57know ways to limit spending to spend
18:00responsibly.
18:02By the 1840s these conventions had grown
18:05to be explicitly political and militant.
18:08Some leaders like Henry Highland Garnet,
18:11a minister from New York, openly
18:13advocated for a nationwide slave
18:15rebellion, while other leaders like
18:18Frederick Douglas hoped for a more
18:20moderate end to slavery by appealing to
18:23moral conscience and emotions of the
18:25nation by telling stories of enslaved um
18:29and injustices that were uh perpetrated
18:31against blacks. So even with these
18:34different approaches though these
18:35conventions solidified a unity of
18:38purpose. One convention proclaimed this
18:41sense of unity with quote we are as a
18:44people chained together. We are one
18:48people one in general complexion. One in
18:51a common degradation one in popular
18:53estimation. As one rises all must rise.
18:57And as one falls all must fall.
19:03Popularizing the efforts of black
19:05communities and these conventions was
19:06the black press such as uh Samuel
19:09Cornish and John Russworm's 1827 uh
19:13founded Freedom's Journal, the nation's
19:15first African-American newspaper. Other
19:18papers like the rights of all uh argued
19:22against colonization specifically by
19:241829.
19:26By the 1860s, more than 40 black
19:29newspapers were founded to discuss
19:31current events and the abolitionist
19:33cause. The most influential of these was
19:36published by Frederick Douglas in 1847,
19:39his uh newspaper, The North Star, which
19:41referenced the fact that the North Star
19:45guided runaway slaves northward and to
19:47the promise of freedom.
19:50He founded the newspaper to quote attack
19:52slavery in all its forms and aspects, to
19:55advocate for universal emancipation, to
19:58exalt the standard of public morality,
20:00to promote the moral and intellectual
20:03improvement of the colored people, and
20:05hasten the day of freedom to the three
20:08millions of our enslaved fellow
20:10countrymen.
20:11He also of course published his personal
20:13narrative in 1845 selling over three uh
20:1730,000 in its first five years which
20:19made the book a great success.
20:22His book joined other notable narratives
20:24of slavery and escape uh such as that
20:27written by William Wells Brown, Henry
20:29Box Brown or Henry Bib. These are all
20:32authors who published their own
20:34enslavement narratives. Equally
20:36noteworthy was Harriet Jacobs incidents
20:39in the life of a slave girl which was
20:41published in 1861. You can see a picture
20:43of Harriet Jacobs here on the screen. Uh
20:46this considered especially the sexual
20:48exploitation of slaved women by their
20:51white masters uh with an unblinking
20:54stare. So others uh like these works
20:58helped to expose the atrocities of
21:00slavery. Um and Jacobs's work joined
21:04other work like that of Sjourer Truth.
21:06Um these were compelling stories uh
21:09colored in religious motivations
21:12claiming that it was God's plan that the
21:14United States would have to eventually
21:16recognize the democratic ideals that it
21:19was founded on universally regardless of
21:22race.
21:23These publications among dozens of other
21:25slave narratives attempted to reach two
21:27important goals. first to reform black
21:32communities and second to use what was
21:34called moral persuasion as a strategy to
21:37convince white people in the nation that
21:40slavery was immoral that it was against
21:42the Christian religion and it was
21:44politically opposite to those founding
21:46principles of the United States and its
21:48promises of liberty.
21:52Abolitionists built on the gains of the
21:53British and French abolition of slavery
21:55in their own empires uh to support calls
21:59for the end of the slave trade in
22:01America. Many began to work within the
22:04political system itself, joining moral
22:06persuasion with a strategy called
22:08political action, which meant to end
22:11slavery immediately rather than use the
22:13earlier abolition strategies of
22:15colonization societies or gradual
22:18emancipation.
22:19Among white abolitionists, moral
22:22persuasion was led by William Lloyd
22:24Garrison, who was again the editor of
22:25the liberator and the most famous
22:27anti-slavery newspaper of the
22:29antibbellum period, while brothers
22:32Arthur and Lewis Tapen led the political
22:34action wing. Together, these three
22:36founded together the American
22:39Anti-Slavery Society in 1833,
22:42using their print and political
22:44influence to affirm the Constitution, to
22:47affirm the Constitution itself as an
22:49anti-slavery document and creating
22:52anti-slavery political parties to help
22:54popularize that cause.
22:57The Free Soil Party, created in 1848, in
23:00particular, saw some success in
23:02government. The Free Soil Party was
23:04dedicated to preventing the expansion of
23:07slavery and to newly acquired US
23:09territories.
23:11Although it never achieved widespread
23:13electoral success, the party influenced
23:17national politics widely by emphasizing
23:20the moral and economic dangers of
23:22slavery and helping to shape the
23:24anti-slavery platform of the emerging
23:27Republican party. The Free Soil Party's
23:30most notable success then was the
23:32election of some members to Congress
23:35where they advocated for free labor
23:37policies and heightened the sectional
23:40debates which would eventually lead us
23:42to the Civil War.
23:46Women involved in the abolitionist
23:47movement were uh likewise laying the
23:50foundation of the women's rights
23:51movement uh gaining influence in the
23:53public arena despite being shut out from
23:56leadership positions in abolitionist
23:58societies. One exception to this was the
24:01appointing of a woman to the executive
24:03committee on the American Anti-Slavery
24:05Society. But that also caused the
24:07organization to split into two. So the
24:10wealthy Tapen brothers, the political
24:12action wing, formed their own rival
24:14society, which prioritized male
24:16leadership, while William Lloyd Garrison
24:19continued more uh inclusive work
24:21regardless of gender in the American
24:23anti-slavery society moving forward.
24:27Um but in this time we would see the
24:29first women's rights convention at the
24:31Senica Falls Convention held in 1848 in
24:34New York. Um this was organized by
24:37Elizabeth Katy Stanton and Luc Shamat.
24:40The convention produced what was called
24:41the declaration of sentiments which was
24:44a groundbre a groundbreaking document uh
24:47which called for gender equality and for
24:49women's suffrage or their right to vote.
24:53Frederick Douglas also attended this
24:55convention as one of the few male
24:57supporters of the women's rights
24:58movement and played a critical role in
25:01advocating for women's rights, publicly
25:04backing Stanton's controversial calls
25:06for suffrage and linking the fight for
25:09women's rights to the broader struggle
25:11for uh racial justice and equality.
25:16Meanwhile, religious organizations also
25:19lent their support to abolition. The
25:21Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian
25:23churches in particular changed their own
25:26doctrines uh to assert that owning
25:28slaves was sinful. And several
25:30missionary societies also joined
25:32together to form the American Missionary
25:35Association or the AMA uh which meant to
25:38use Christian language to press the
25:40abolitionist movement into the national
25:42consciousness so that none could avoid
25:45taking a stand on this issue.
25:49Among those taking stands on this issue
25:51were those who were migrating westward.
25:54By 1860, hundreds of thousands of
25:56Americans had migrated to the west,
25:58including the forcible relocation of
26:01Native Americans and also black slaves.
26:04By the 1840s, Americans had bought into
26:08the idea that the United States was
26:10predestined
26:12uh ordained to expand outward across the
26:16continent. So take a look at this
26:18picture and what we see is, you know, we
26:21have this angel. She's moving westward.
26:23She's bringing with her light to the
26:25darkness where indigenous uh tribes
26:28people are seen running away. She's
26:30holding a school textbook in one hand
26:33and an electric line in the other. And
26:35with her comes white settlement, a stage
26:38coach bringing the mail. There are
26:40railroads, farmers, miners, and family.
26:45This uh is indicative of a concept
26:48called manifest destiny and this was uh
26:51proposed first by a man named John L. O
26:53Sullivan. Manifest destiny is the idea
26:56that the United States had a divinelyapp
26:58appointed mission so obvious as to be
27:02beyond dispute to occupy all of North
27:05America. Steamboats, canals, railroads,
27:08telegraphs, all of these opened new land
27:11settlement, lowered transportation
27:13costs, and made it far easier for people
27:16to sell their products.
27:18And what led people to the west was
27:21primarily land. Uh this in part because
27:24of the Homestead Act of 1862,
27:27um which promised male white citizens
27:30the ability to claim federal lands. If
27:33you were a man and you applied to settle
27:35in the west as an American, you were
27:37promised 160 acres of land which you
27:40would in turn improve or cultivate uh by
27:44changing the land from this perceived
27:46wilderness into houses, barns, cities,
27:49and agriculture.
27:52But this is important for us to to
27:54notice that as whites and especially
27:56also their black slaves were moving
27:58westward, they were moving into land
27:59that was promised but that was not
28:02vacant. Um, this land had competing land
28:05claims from the federal government which
28:07had promised these homesteaders, but it
28:09was also serving as the in as the
28:12habitation for native nations.
28:15In response, political, economic, and
28:17humanitarian concerns intensified
28:19American efforts to isolate Native
28:21Americans to reservations. And by the
28:24mid to late 1800s, the federal
28:26government had redoubled its efforts to
28:29uh form removal treaties of Native
28:31Americans to reservations. And if those
28:34did not work, they would use the newly
28:36empowered military to coersse
28:39dispossession or forced removal.
28:43So this process of dispossession just
28:44broadly is what historians refer to as
28:47settler colonialism which is the
28:50specific form of colonialism whereby an
28:53imperial power seizes territories
28:56eliminates the original people by force
28:59and resettles the land with a foreign
29:01invading population.
29:04Unlike other forms of colonialism in
29:06which uh colonizers rule from afar and
29:09sometimes leave, settler colonialism
29:11attempts to permanently permanently
29:14replace natives with a settler
29:16population.
29:19And after the Mexican-American War
29:21ended, the expansion of American
29:23territory westward, with the North and
29:26South were debating over whether
29:28California and New Mexico, both new
29:30territories, would be added as slave or
29:34free states. The 1848 Treaty of
29:37Guadalupe and Algo had sealed the US
29:39victory over Mexico. And in that treaty,
29:42Mexico seated what would become
29:44California, New Mexico, Utah, as well as
29:48Texas. Um, but this was hotly argu uh it
29:52was hotly argued in Congress. Um, in
29:56particular with Congressman David Wilmet
29:58suggesting the Wilmet proviso or that
30:01slavery would be illegal in both new
30:03states. So, this proviso did not pass
30:06the Senate, but sparked tensions between
30:08the North and the South.
30:13One solution to this problem of whether
30:15to admit new states as for uh free or as
30:20uh slave states was the compromise of
30:231850.
30:25California was admitted to the Union as
30:27a free state. While the question of
30:29slavery in New Mexico and Utah would be
30:32left to the people's vote, enshrining a
30:35political concept which we call popular
30:38sovereignty or empowering the people to
30:40make dramatic political decisions within
30:43their own territories.
30:45Additionally, the Fugitive Slave Act of
30:471850 was enacted which empowered
30:50southern slave owners to return fugitive
30:54slaves to the south whether they had
30:56made their way to a free state in the
30:58north or to the west.
31:00This law overturned personal liberty
31:03laws in the north, such as those in
31:05Pennsylvania, which had prevented the
31:06kidnapping of blacks without court
31:08documentation.
31:10The Fugitive Slave Act empowered on a
31:13federal level uh the slave owners,
31:16threatening runaway slaves to be
31:18returned, federally funding slave
31:20catchers and citizen bystanders who
31:23could be rewarded for aiding in the
31:25return of slaves and added to a growing
31:28illicit kidnapping uh market.
31:32Suddenly, even in the free north, black
31:35Americans were subject to arrest and to
31:37enslavement.
31:41While Harriet Tubman's underground
31:43railroad, which we've spoken about, uh,
31:45aided in the escape of blacks from the
31:47south, uh, pictured here, um, as
31:49removing, especially from the deep
31:50south, to the north, or to the Spanish
31:52territories, civil disobedience, such as
31:55running away, uh, left many subject to
31:58fines or arrests by those empowered by
32:00the new fugitive slave act. Uh civil
32:03disobedience can be defined as an
32:06individual's choice to disobey laws that
32:08one considers unjust, uh such as
32:11refusing to aid slave catchers. And
32:14vigilance committees were formed to help
32:17liberate black men who had been
32:19kidnapped by these fugitive slave acts,
32:21providing shelter, money, and legal
32:24assistance to those victimized by
32:26southern slave owners in the antibbellum
32:28period.
32:31Several books were also published in
32:33this period uh describing the sectional
32:35crisis as this is called that crisis
32:37between north and south free and slave
32:40uh territories. Um some books like
32:43Harriet Beecher Stow's Uncle Tom's Cabin
32:46which was published in 1852 profoundly
32:49impacted public opinion by exposing the
32:52moral and emotional horrors of slavery
32:54to northern audiences. The novel
32:56galvanized the anti-slavery sentiment uh
32:59drawing widespread support for abolition
33:02while provoking outrage in the south
33:05where it was condemned as propaganda.
33:08The book's popularity heightened these
33:10tensions influencing debates over
33:13slavery in territories like Kansas where
33:15violent clashes known as bleeding Kansas
33:18foreshadow the Civil War.
33:21The introduction of Kansas and Nebraska
33:24into the Union brought forward this
33:26question of popular sovereignty once
33:28again as Illinois Senator Steven A.
33:31Douglas proposed the Kansas Nebraska Act
33:33of 1854
33:35which would once again allow each state
33:37to choose its own relationship with
33:40slavery.
33:42So, bleeding Kansas was an event
33:44occurring from 1854 to 1859
33:47and was a violent conflict between
33:49pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers
33:52over whether Kansas would enter the
33:54Union as a free or slave state.
33:57Following the passage of that Kansas
33:59Nebraska Act,
34:01militant activists like John Brown, who
34:05was a fervent abolitionist, played a
34:07pivotal role leading retaliatory raids
34:10like the Potobatomi massacre in 1856.
34:14While the federal government struggled
34:16to maintain order and often appeared
34:18ineffective or biased in its response,
34:21this violence in Kansas escalated
34:23tensions in the North and South and
34:25demonstrated these deep divisions over
34:27slavery.
34:30This violence over the Kansas question
34:32also brought violence to the Senate
34:34floor where Congressman Preston Brooks
34:36attacked Massachusetts Senator Charles
34:39Sumner with his cane, hitting him until
34:41the cane shattered and broke. If you
34:44ever visit the uh um the Smithsonian uh
34:49museum, you can see the remnants of that
34:52cane on display.
34:54This act followed Summoner's fiery crime
34:57against Kansas speech in which the
35:00senator had condemned pro-slavery forces
35:03and insulted Senator Andrew Butler, who
35:05was one of Preston Brooks's relatives.
35:08Regardless, the assault left Summoner
35:10severely injured and symbolized this
35:13deepening sectional divide as
35:15Southerners celebrated Brooks as a hero
35:18while northerners saw the attack as an
35:20example of southern aggression and a
35:22growing threat of violence over slavery.
35:27In 1854, the Free Soil Party joined with
35:30opponents of the Kansas Nebraska Act to
35:33form the Republican Party. This was a
35:35northern party with a commitment to
35:37ending the expansion of slavery, but
35:39with little political pressure to
35:41actively end slavery altogether.
35:44Frederick Douglas and other black
35:45activists joined this party against the
35:48Democrats who served the southern
35:50interests of slavery at this time.
35:55In 1857, this question of slavery in
35:58these new territories in this age of
36:00westward expansion hit the Supreme
36:03Court. The DreadScott versus Sanford
36:06case of 1857, for instance, was a
36:08landmark Supreme Court decision in which
36:11an enslaved man, Dread Scott, who you
36:13see the painting here, he sued for his
36:16freedom on the grounds that he had lived
36:17in free territories with his enslaver.
36:21Uh the court led by Chief Justice Roger
36:24Teny ruled that DreadScott remained
36:28enslaved, declaring that
36:29African-Americans, whether free or
36:31enslaved, were not US citizens and
36:35therefore had no right to sue in federal
36:37court. Additionally, this Supreme Court
36:40decision invalidated the Missouri
36:43Compromise by asserting that Congress
36:46had no authority to prohibit slavery in
36:48the territories, effectively opening all
36:52United States territories to slavery.
36:55This ruling inflamed sectional tensions,
36:59strengthened the abolitionist movement
37:01in the North, and pushed the nation
37:03closer to civil war.
37:06The effects of the DreadScott case were
37:08immediate. Uh for northerners, their
37:11work to abolish slave labor was suddenly
37:14undone and northern free labor
37:16undermined. For black men and women,
37:19this decision was particularly
37:21devastating. Any movements for
37:23citizenship had been undone. Uh their
37:26legal status had been declared in the
37:28highest court to be biologically and
37:31therefore politically inferior.
37:34movements out of the United States or
37:36immigration movements helped many blacks
37:40relocate from the north to Canada or to
37:43Africa espousing the belief of black
37:45nationalism or the belief that
37:47African-Americans were a nation within a
37:49nation that required self-determination
37:52that ability to make political decisions
37:54for oneself and exercise the rights of
37:57citizenship even if that meant they had
37:59to remove themselves from the United
38:01states.
38:05So John Brown again appears important in
38:07this moment where known for his earlier
38:09militant actions in Kansas and Nebraska,
38:12he led an attack also in Harper's Ferry
38:14in West Virginia. John Brown was an
38:17abolitionist and a leading one who led a
38:20small group of armed white and black men
38:22to seize a federal armory in Harper's
38:25Ferry with the goal of starting a slave
38:28uprising.
38:30John Brown hoped to arm enslaved people
38:32and ignite this rebellion. But this raid
38:34quickly failed because the local militia
38:37and US Marines led by Robert E. Lee, who
38:40would later be the uh main general of
38:44the Confederacy surrounded the raiders.
38:47John Brown was captured, tried for
38:49treason, and he was executed. But his
38:51actions and martyrdom made him a symbol
38:55of the intense moral opposition to
38:57slavery. The raid further polarized the
39:00nation, inflaming southern fears and
39:02northern abolitionist violent and
39:04driving a wedge between North and South.
39:07Um, and as he was about to be executed,
39:10John Brown handed a note to his jail
39:12guard. And the note read, "I, John
39:16Brown, and am now quite certain that the
39:20crimes of this guilty land will never be
39:22purged away but with blood."
39:26I had, as I now think, vainely flattered
39:29myself that without very much bloodshed,
39:31it might be done.
39:33People like John Brown, uh, he was not
39:36alone in believing that perhaps the
39:38United States could not coexist with
39:42these sectional divisions over slavery.
39:45So within a year of John Brown's death,
39:48Abraham Lincoln had won the presidency
39:51of the United States with the support of
39:53the free West and North with only 39% of
39:57the popular vote. So as the nation
40:00barreled toward a war over slavery,
40:03Frederick Douglas predicted that where
40:05justice is denied, where poverty is
40:08enforced, where ignorance prevails, and
40:10where anyone class is made to feel that
40:12society is an organized conspiracy to
40:15oppress, to rob and degrade them.
40:17Neither persons nor property will be
40:20safe. The United States, founded on this
40:24promise of freedom and liberty, would be
40:27rocked by thunderous warfare, pitting
40:29the North and the South, slave and free,
40:32brother against brother. And this is
40:34where we will pick up uh we'll pick up
40:36on this thread next week as we examine
40:38the Civil War as it unfolded across the
40:42nation.

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