The Crisis of the Republic, 1848–61

The Crisis of the Republic, 1848–61

The Compromise of 1850 and ‘Bleeding Kansas’

  • The Compromise of 1850 was a set of laws passed to defuse the political confrontation between slave and free states on the status of territories acquired in the Mexican-American war. It included stricter provisions for the capture of runaway slaves.
  • ‘Bleeding Kansas’ refers to the violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory between 1854 and 1861 as a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed settlers of Kansas to decide on the legality of slavery within the territory. Pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers raced to fill Kansas, resulting in violence and bloodshed.

Dred Scott v. Sandford and John Brown’s raid

  • In the 1857 case Dred Scott v. Sandford, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that African-Americans, whether enslaved or free, could not be American citizens and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court.
  • John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859 aimed to incite a slave rebellion. The failed attempt made Brown a martyr to the abolitionist movement, and further fuelled the sectional crisis.

Presidential Election of 1860 and the Secession Crisis

  • The split in the Democratic party over the issue of slavery led to the election of Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln as President in 1860. Lincoln’s opposition to the expansion of slavery spurred secessionist movements.
  • The Secession Crisis ensued, with seven southern slave states declaring their secession from the United States and forming the Confederate States of America before Lincoln took office.

Emergence of the Confederacy and the Fort Sumter Incident

  • The Confederacy was formed in early 1861 by seven southern slave states who declared their secession. It was later joined by four more states after the attack on Fort Sumter.
  • The Fort Sumter Incident on April 12, 1861, marked the beginning of the American Civil War. Confederate forces fired on the Union-controlled Fort Sumter in South Carolina, triggering four more slave states to join the Confederacy.

Slavery as the Root Cause

  • Slavery remained the contentious issue at the heart of these events. The conflict between the North’s growing industrial economy and the South’s agriculture-based economy, heavily reliant on slavery, was central to the escalating tensions.