Summary of Class 11/27-11/28

Yesterday in class, we entered and started right away about talking about slavery. We took a look at a case that had to do with a slave that moved to a free state and was still considered a slave. He then took it upon himself to try to free him and his family by suing his owner. This case was called the Dred Scott V. Sandford case. Roger B. Taney (who I had for my voice thread) was a huge part of the final decision. He declared that slaves were not citizens, but property and with that being said, they were not allowed to sue anybody. Today in class, we started off by watching a video of a debate between Stephen Douglass (Democratic) and Abraham Lincoln (Republican). They were running against each other for the U.S. senator representing Illinois. Their debate was based on the idea of slavery. We then looked at documents from other debates and with our knowledge from the video and the documents, we were able to fill out a chart based on slavery. Abraham Lincoln believed that the expansion of slavery should stop and in fact slavery as a whole should end. He didn't think of black and whites being equal because he thought that whites should hold all power, but he did believe in "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" for everyone. They slaves were entitled to this because they were humans too. Stephen Douglass still believed based on the Kansas Nebraska Act that states should be sorted based on popular sovereignty. States were allowed to choose what they wanted, not what the whole country wanted.