Aim 1: How did Tensions Increase Between the North & South?

As the North was developing into the manufacturing, banking, & trade center of the US, the South’s economy depended upon agriculture and of course ____________!

the wealthy planter class, of the South, felt that they could make more money by investing in land and slaves. They became rich by growing agricultural products, such as cotton, which was the major US export. At the same times the north was building a better transportation system of roads, canals, and railroads.

Though Northern abolitionists wanted to eliminate slavery, most Northerners was racist and feared that freed blacks might come north to take their jobs. Though many, but not all, northern states had outlawed slavery, life was still very hard for northern blacks. Southerners saw slavery as necessary to their way of life, and believed that whites were superior to black slaves. However, only the very wealthy large plantation owners could afford to keep slaves. Most white southerners were farmers who barely made a living working their small farmers and few of these farmers owned slaves.

In March 1850 California applied for statehood as a free state. This admission would now mean that both the House and Senate would have a free-state majority who could then possibly pass laws to end slavery. However, Henry Clay worked out an agreement called the “Compromise of 1850” which gave each side some benefits.

COMPROMISE OF 1850

1. California was admitted as a free state.
2. A strict fugitive slave law was passed.
3. The new territories taken from Mexico, were divided into the Utah and New Mexico Territories. These areas, when applying for statehood, would make the own decision, decided by the voters of that area, (popular sovereignty) on whether their new state would be slave or free.

HOMEWORK: Read pgs. 462 to “Bleeding Kansas” on pg. 464. Read pgs 466 to top half of pg 468 and pgs. 469-470 on John Brown. Do pg 461 Main Ideas ques 3A and B pg 462 Terms and Names #1-4.