There's an Elephant in the Room?!

Last week in class we discussed how we know the debate over slavery was the “elephant in the room” for American politics in the early 19th century. The phrase “elephant in the room” describes a specific topic that no one cares to address. To learn about this we learned about different people and events from this time period and then made a timeline through the 19th century. The essential question for this week was: How do we know the debate over slavery was the “elephant in the room” for American politics in the early 19th century? The first thing we did it class was go over the Missouri compromise in 1820. The Missouri compromise creates and even split of 11 slave states and 11 Free states. Also, all new territory north of the 36 degrees, 30 minutes latitude line will be free in the future. Then in 1850 California requests to join the union as a free state. Henry Clay anticipates the inevitable controversy of the loss of equality between slave and Free states, so he proposed of five-part compromise. The first part was that Texas would give up the land in dispute, but in return given ten million dollars and the money would be used to pay off its debt to Mexico. In part two the territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and Utah would be organized without mention of slavery, they are still not considered states because they are not very populated yet, once they get more populated it will be decided if they are slave and free states. Next in the third part the slave trade would be abolished in the District of Columbia but slavery will still be permitted meaning that people who already have slaves are allowed to keep them but no more slaves are allowed to be purchase in DC. The fourth part it says California would be admitted as a free state. And the final part, part five says to pacify slave-state politicians who would have objected to the imbalance of free and slave states they created another free state, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. It was supposed to help the recovery of fugitive slave. It denies a fugitive slave to a jury a trial. These are only two events from the timeline we made in class. These two events should how there was an “elephant in the room” because even though they are trying to decide which states should be slave and which ones are supposed to be free; the people aren’t discussing how they are going to try to end slavery.

This is the timeline we made in class to show all the even causing the “elephant in the room” for many politicians during the 19th century.

We also learned about the Gadsden Purchase, the Dred Scott Decision and the caning of Sumner. The Gadsden Purchase took place in 1853. The U.S. paid $15 million for all of Nevada, California and New Mexico, in the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Five years later the U.S. paid $10 million for a much smaller strip of land known as the Gadsden Purchase. The U.S. planned to use the Gadsden Purchase land to provide a route for the southern transcontinental railroad. Dred Scott was an enslaved man living in Missouri. He fired a suit against his power; he argued that he and his wife, Harriet, were free because they had once lived with their owner in states and territories where slavery was illegal. There were three effects of the Dred Scott Decision. The first effect was on slaves, because they were not citizens, they were denied the right to sue in court. The second effect was that enslaved people could not win freedom simply by living in a free territory or state. The final effect was that the Missouri Compromise was ruled unconstitutional and all territories were opened to slavery. Senator Charles Sumner was the Senator of Massachusetts and he gave a strong, motivating speech named “The Crime against Kansas”. Sumner was one of the most powerful antislavery voices in congress. In his speech he made many bolt insults towards Senator Andrew Butler. Rep. Preston Brooks was a member of the House of Representatives and was Butlers Nephew. Brooks was angered by Sumner's remarks and devised a plan to defend the honor of the south. Preston Brooks ended up beating Charles Sumner with his cane in the senate chamber after Sumner’s two-day speech proving that the slavery controversy can cause the average man to resort to violence. This is now commonly known as the “Caning of Sumner”.    

Sources used:

http://www.edline.net/files/_BYIYQ_/a95c65dcd7b8c02c3745a49013852ec4/Elephant_in_the_Room_Lesson.pdf

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2933t.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2951.html