The importance of Cuba connected directly with representation in the Senate – few slave states and a growing number of free states. Cuba has the potential of bringing some balance to Congress. White southerners not only have to deal with the growing power of free states in Congress, but an active abolitionist community. Upward mobility in the South was being threatened by this more aggressive tone in the North as well as the gradual move of slavery further south. The southern way of life is being challenged – more and more slaves are escaping north and in many cases Canada. The best friend of slaveholders in 1859 was the federal government and its enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The South is a friend of strong federal power; it is their friend given the role it plays in returning escaped slaves. FSA Commissioners are paid double if they prosecute a fugitive slave case. Federal government is not simply involved in protecting property rights of slaveholders, it is also involved in kidnapping free people of color and putting them in slavery.
Even non-abolitionists were beginning to believe in a slave-power conspiracy. The trial and eventual return of Anthony Burns fueled these concerns. Northerners were weary of the power of the federal government. Somewhere around 97% of white Northerners were not abolitionists. Who was an abolitionist? First, it was an extraordinarly brave thing to do given that both southerners and northeners might do you serious harm. Claiming oneself to be an abolitionist was a major risk to take. Abolitionists did not come in one form; rather they fell on a wide spectrum. Example: Detroit (pop. 40,000 along with a professional Afr. Am. community) They were very active in helping escaped slaves out of KY and even hosted F. Douglass. A meeting was held in 1859 in which they considered an offer to speak with John Brown. “Bleeding Kansas” caused a great stir and a great deal of controversy within the black community. [GG is in his usual rare form – hilarious] The black community sent him away because they thought he was much too dangerous. Important to remember that the Second Great Awakening exercised an important influence on part of the nation’s view of slavery.
Growth and the importance of the railroad: Railroad mileage has more than quadrupled in slaveholding states and tripled in the free states. Atlantic cable was placed in 1858, which revolutionized communication: space and time are shrinking. Two engineers are gripped by the idea of transcontinental RR: Theodore Juda and Grenville Dodge. The big problem is the politics of the RR: Where will it go? Whichever city gets will derive economic development. All of this had a profound impact on Native Americans.
To be continued…. [Send me question at kevlvn@aol.com and I will forward them to the moderator.