A Description of Bleeding Kansas

    A main idea in the first chapter is about the history of slavery and freedom in the U.S. Firstly slavery had existed during the American Revolution. Despite the fact that the founding fathers wanted freedom as a right to all men, then African Americans should also rightfully be allowed freedom. Foner quotes Lemuel Haynes, “ If liberty were truly ‘an innate principle” for all mankind’ Haynes wrote, ‘ even an African [had] as equally good a right to his liberty in common with Englishmen.’(Foner 9). Slavery was a problem in the United States history from the beginning.

How Bleeding Kansas influenced the economy of the territory is,this constant conflict only deteriorated the economy.The plundering of towns that cost thousands to repaired made the economy sick. Also Missourians crossed the border of the Kansas territory and took over polling towns. They made it to were anti slavery people couldn’t vote for government,even with their efforts a pro slavery government was elected anyway.("From the Kansas-Nebraska").

Standing in stark contrast and opposition to Calhoun, slavery and the entire social structure of the ante-bellum South was Frederick Douglass. A renowned statesman, Douglass was also an orator, a writer, and a social reformer – some even call him the father of the Civil Rights movement. After escaping slavery in Maryland, he became a leader in the abolitionist movement in the New England states. A firm believer in equal rights for all peoples – including women, Native Americans, immigrants and blacks - Douglas spent his life of freedom as an example of how wrong the slaveholder's pro-slavery arguments were. Perhaps it is for this passion for freedom of all peoples that Douglass was asked to give a speech for the 4th of July in 1852. At an

Abraham Lincoln constructed a blueprint to reunite a broken America. Lincoln did not plan on punishing the South; he wanted to end the Civil Wars quick as possible. When Reconstruction began in 1865, a divided America had just finished fighting the Civil War. The objective of Reconstruction, or the Ten-Percent Plan, was mainly to stabilize the South economically. There was the intertwining problem that Lincoln faced reuniting a former slave population and a former rebellious population. The memory of massive death still was very present in the South, causing massive resentment. Lincoln wanted to achieve re-union as quickly as possible and ending slavery. His

The first approach towards reconstruction was President Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan—an unsuccessful strategy for the matter that left congress uncertain of its lenient circumstances. The presidential plan was to allow the seceded states to return to the union without punishment, with only one exception. The single rule to Lincoln’s plan was that ten percent of a seceded state’s population had to swear an oath of allegiance to the United States in order to return without discipline. Abraham Lincoln was not on the same page as congress, who believed that his plan was too weak. Congress felt that the south needed to be punished for their actions.

After the war presidents were under Northern pressure to let the South suffer for their actions. With this taken into account, Lincoln formed the 10% reconstruction plan in 1863. The plan stated that states could be accepted back into the Union once 10% of the voters in the 1860 election

When examining defining moments in history, one must first analyze what led to the central event. In this case, one sees that the years following the American Revolution were very important to the historical timeline. During the 19th century, two regions with very different beliefs strongly contradicted each other. This plagued the nation, ultimately leading to the decimating battle of The Civil War. It is evident that the rapid expansion of slavery during this time unfolded and ignited a series of controversies that were evident in the political, economic, and social problems that slavery’s expansion created.

The prospect of slavery’s extension into the American West most certainly shaped sectional politics by inflaming grievances and tensions, and sparking heated and occasionally violent protests, yet compromise sometimes was reached – occasionally among strange political bedfellows – in the interest of holding off the specter of civil war. This paper will focus on the issues surrounding the possible extension of slavery into the following areas: the Missouri Territory and the Louisiana Purchase in general, Texas (annexation), the Oregon Territory, California (annexation), Nebraska (unorganized), and the Kansas Territory.

The Political Disputes of 1820-1860 compromised and then broke down.In the 1800’s slavery was the main conflict between the states. The compromise began to break down when slavery began in the North and the South. The Anti-Slavery Convention report that an American citizen who owns a human being into involuntary and is forced to be his property is a Man Stealer, which means immoral people. (Doc.B) Senator Henry Clay said that it is impossible that South Carolina ever desired a moment to become a separate and independent state.(Doc.A). Senator Daniel Webster’s Judgment is that the South is right and the North is wrong.(Doc.C). Georgia thinks all northern, and especially the New England, states are devoid of society fitted for well-bred Southern gentlemen.(Doc.E) Abraham Lincoln ambitious Northern politicians. (Doc.F) Henry Clay, National

The world has faced the dangers of war almost since the beginnings of time, and America in the mid-1800’s was no different. Despite the Union having won its freedom from England during the Revolutionary War less than a century before, problems were brewing internally within the young and rapidly expanding country. As slavery boomed in the southern states, the North grew less and less content with this state of affairs. It is said that “to southern whites, the Republican victory in 1860 presented an immediate danger to the slave-owning republic that had existed since 1776” (Henretta, 2012, p. 418). Southerners were not ready to lose one of their most valuable commodities, slaves, which they feared would happen under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln, although he promised “to safeguard slavery where it existed but vowed to prevent its expansion” (Henretta, 2012, p. 420). Unheeding of Lincoln’s vows, and hoping to preserve the individual state’s rights, “radical southerners chose the dangerous enterprise of secession” (Henretta, 2012, p. 418).

From the beginning of the Civil War all the way up to the end of Reconstruction, the United States endured a similar type of revolution than it had dealt with in the previous years. In this time, many social and constitutional advancements brought about great change and discord in the country. However, some of these constitutional developments ended up causing conflict such as the civil rights bills and Emancipation Proclamation, in addition to the social developments such as the Black Codes, Ku Klux Klan, and the Freedman’s Bureau. All together, these important events helped put the country into a revolution.

The context of this book is well-organized in completing it goals, first chapter called, “Pandora’s Box” written by the author, gives disputes over slavery in the late 1810’s and fights over the admission of Missouri as a slave state. Leading to three other chapters titled, “The Wilmot Proviso,” “The Compromise of 1850,” and “The Kansas-Nebraska Act.” Holt provides a strong historical narrative linking all its chapters together and presenting several contrasting arguments making his theories available to a larger audience. One being, The Wilmot Proviso of 1846 (Holt, p. 19), which made the pro slavery (no free soil), originated with Northern Democrats. Embarrassing James Polk (President) after he broke his promise to annex all the Oregon

In the early years of the 19th century, slavery was more than ever turning into a sectional concern, such that the nation had essentially become divided along regional lines. Based on economic or moral reasoning, people of the Northern states were increasingly in support of opposition to slavery, all the while Southerners became united to defend the institution of slavery. Brought on by profound changes including regional differences in the pattern of slavery in the upper and lower South, as well as the movement of abolitionism in the North, slavery in America had transformed from an issue of politics into a moral campaign during the period of 1815-1860, ultimately polarizing the North and the South to the point in which threats of a Southern disunion would mark the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 (Goldfield et. al, The American Journey, p. 281).

In American history, the time period before the Civil War (i.e. 1800 to 1861) marked an era of tremendous changes. What was happening is the country was rapidly expanding westward and industrializing. This created problems about how to solve a host of issues ranging from: slavery to states' rights. To fully understand what is happening requires focusing on: key events / issues that led to the rise of the Republican Party and the consequences / transformations of Lincoln's presidency. Together, these different elements will show how a series of incidents redefined America and what it stood for. This thesis statement will underscore the way these shifts occurred and the long term impact they are having on society.

Principles of American Politics Dr. Foss 17 October 2014 Lincoln and Liberty In January of 1861, when Lincoln penned his musings on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, he likely did so with no small amount of uneasiness. Though he had recently gained the presidency by a landslide, the country continued to be bitterly divided over the future of slavery in the United States. Barely one month later, the outrage over Lincoln’s elevation to the highest office in the land would motivate the first seven of the southern states to secede from the Union, an action which would ultimately lead to the Civil War. Lincoln’s valiant efforts during the conflict to save the nation immortalized his place as one of our finest national heroes (McPherson 170-202). Unfortunately, when the conflict is viewed through the lens of our modern society, we often overlook what was at stake, and why our country was polarized with a zeal never before seen in our short history. Lincoln’s brief notes reveal that he was well aware of what was at stake: our country’s identity. Lincoln correctly saw that our country’s core principles and convictions are defined in the Declaration of Independence, and that the Constitution is a vital but subordinate engine by which those fundamental beliefs are to become a reality.