The Elephant in the Room

The essential question for this lesson is “how do we know the debate over slavery was the elephant in the room for American politics in the early 19^th century”. The elephant in the room is an idiom that is talking about an obvious topic that is either being ignored or going unaddressed. It is clear that slavery was the elephant in the room during the early 19^th century because all of these events took place after 1850. Slavery was such an obvious issue that should have been dealt with earlier than it actually was. Throughout this lesson, we learned about the Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, the Gadsden Purchase, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Bleeding Kansas, the Caning of Charles Sumner, and about Dred Scott decision, Lincoln- Douglas Debates, and John Brown’s Raid.  We read articles and looked up information on all of these events and then record them into our Evernote. We then transferred what we learned onto the timeline we created within our smaller groups. After adding the events onto the timeline we had to place the ones that benefited anti-slavery on top of the timeline and the events that benefited pro-slavery on the bottom of the timeline. Here is my group’s Timeline:

One of the events we learned about was the Gadsden Purchase. After winning the Mexican War, the U.S. negotiated and paid $15 million for all of Nevada, California, Utah, and much of Arizona and New Mexico in the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.  Only 5 years later the U.S. then purchased a much smaller strip of land known as the Gadsden Purchase for $10 million. The U.S. planned to use this land to provide a route for the southern transcontinental railroad because it is flat and is easy to lay railroads on. This event was put below the line because it is pro slavery. The railroad could be used to transport other pro slavery people from the south to settle in these territories who will vote for the territories to be slave states. Another event we learned about was the Compromise of 1850. There were 5 parts to the compromise. In 1850, California requested to join the Union as a free state. Henry Clay anticipated the inevitable controversy of the loss of balance between slave and free states. So he proposed a 5-part compromise called the Compromise of 1850. The first part of the compromise was that Texas would give up some land but would be given 10 million dollars to use to pay off its debts to Mexico. This part of the compromise was placed below the line because it is pro-slavery. It created distinct boundaries for a very large slave state. The second part of the compromise was that New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah would be organized without mention of slavery. When they apply for statehood the population got to vote on the slave status. This was also placed under the line because it benefited pro slavery advocates. This benefited them because they could transport pro slavery people into the states to vote for the states to become slave states. The third part of the compromise was slave trade would be abolished in the District of Columbia although slavery would still be allowed. This was placed above the line because it benefited anti-slavery advocates. The fourth part of the compromise was that California would be admitted as a free state. This would obviously be placed above the line because it benefited anti-slavery advocates. The last part of the compromise was the Fugitive Slave Act which stated that all citizens were required to assist in the recovery of runaway slaves. If you knew of a fugitive slave living free you had to report them.  This was placed under the line because it helped pro slavery advocates capture runaway slaves. Also, we learned about the Kansas- Nebraska Act in 1854. Stephan Douglas, senator of Illinois, thought that a northern railroad route would be beneficial. This act benefited both pro slavery and anti-slavery. It would help anti-slavery people because the railroad started in Chicago and would boost its economy and would make it possible to transport Anti-slavery people into states were the population voted for the slave status. This act also helped the pro slavery people because it violated the Missouri Compromise and would make it possible for slavery to extend north of the line.