Unit 14:: The Gathering Storm (1850–1860)
A Milestone Documents E-text
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https://doi.org/10.3735/9781961844520.book.part.066

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Abstract

Congress had set the stage for escalation of the sectional conflict over slavery with its Compromise of 1850. The agreement rewarded southern slave states for their acquiescence to the abolition of the slave trade in Washington, D.C.; the admission of California as a free state, with no restrictions on slavery in the New Mexico and Utah territories; and, most important, a new fugitive slave law that recruited federal authority for the expansion of slave owners’ reach into the North. In a series of confrontations, fugitives resisted capture with the assistance of abolitionist allies, bringing the drama of chattel slavery into the heart of northern cities.

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