Lecture 13:
Bleeding Kansas
This lecture continues treatment of the controversy over slavery
through the 1850s, when the point of contention was the extension of slavery
into the western territories. Kansas
happened to be the flashpoint for a sectional division that flamed into the
Civil War.
Outline of Lecture
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Introduction
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The Compromise of 1850 was supposed to have taken care
of slavery in the western territories, but it did not. North and South were distinct sections
engaged in rivalry for control of western expansion, the key to the
future. Would Kansas
Territory become the
land of corn and wheat, or the land of cotton and tobacco—and slavery?
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From Ballots
to Bullets in Kansas
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The struggle over slavery centered on the Kansas
Territory, opened to slavery under
popular sovereignty with the Kansas-Nebraska
Act of 1854. It was supposed to be
a peaceful contest settled with ballots.
It soon degenerated, however, into violence and terrorism,
culminating in the massacre on Pottawatomie Creek. The territory became know to the nation
as “Bleeding Kansas.”
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Orators and
Martyrs
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In the late 1850s the pro-slavery side seemed to be
prevailing—the election of Buchanan, the Dred Scott decision, and the
proposal to admit Kansas
as a slave state. Stephen A.
Douglas stopped that. The
Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 kept the issue of slavery in the West
before the public. John Brown’s
raid on Harper’s Ferry made him a martyr and moved the country toward war.
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Assignments
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Tocqueville
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Chapter 5: “Decentralization in America—Its
Effects.” This is a meaty chapter
for its own sake, full of good counsel about governance and leadership in a
democratic society. Its subject is
decentralization of government—the vesting of power in local authorities. This was the opposite of the situation
in France,
where unitary, centralized government prevailed. We're reading this chapter in conjunction with a lecture that
tells the story of decentralized democracy run riot under the name of
"popular sovereignty."
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In what things does centralized administration excel? In what things does decentralized
administration excel?
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What is the effect of decentralization on the American
attitude? (This is what Tocqueville
calls "the political effect of decentralization.")
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How is it that in such a disorganized country as the United
States, the laws are well enforced? And given what Tocqueville says on this
subject, how would you go about lowering the high crime rate in America
today?
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Are you management material? If so, comment on what this chapter teaches you about
organization and leadership in America.
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WWW
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Here's a brief account of John Brown and the Pottawatomie
Creek Massacre. Now consider this event as a matter of terrorism. Are there
grounds for terrorism in the name of a moral cause?
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HIST 103 Home Page
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