Monday, March 11, 2013

The Compromise of 1850 and the Georgia Platform

Thirty years after the Missouri Compromise was passed, California wanted 'in' on the Union. This wouldn't be hard to do because California was so popular ever since they struck gold. The only problem was that the balance of "free" states and slave states was in jeopardy of being disrupted. Meanwhile, Texas had a debt to pay off to Mexico. The Compromise of 1850 included all of the following. In exchange for Texas, the U.S. federal government paid off their debt. The land was then divided into the territories of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada. The slave trade was abolished in Washington D.C., and California was admitted into the Union as a "free state". And the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. The Fugitive Slave Act required citizens, whether North or South, to assist in the recovery of fugitive slaves. This, of course, started an era of fear among the slaves in the north. Some southerners were still unhappy with this compromise, thus the Georgia Platform was executed by a Georgia Convention. The document assured that the Compromise of 1850 was the final resolution to sectional slavery issues. It also assured that no more attacks on Southern rights by the North were acceptable.

(Below is a picture of a poster to warn the fugitive slaves in the North)

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