Primary Sources, October 30

Here are the latest primary sources from our group. Firstly, we have the slave codes of Washington D.C., circa 1860, here. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sthtml/stpres02.html The slave codes show the extent to which Washington was still very much a Southern city, and how much there were in restrictions on the movement of slaves in the area. The documents are provided courtesy of the Library of Congress, and provide a window into the effects of slavery on the legal system.


Our second primary source is a bit shorter than the first, but shows the length of one Southern politician's famous career. At this site, http://c.cf7.si.edu/display/primarysource/viewdetails.aspx?PrimarySourceId=1057, you get to read John C. Calhoun's last speech, in which he makes clear his, and the South's, desire to expand slavery all the way to the Pacific coast. The speech shows some of the problems the United States had with the massive acquisitions it made due to the Mexican War of 1846-1848. For many Americans, the question of what would happen to the newly gained territories, as well as other territories in the Midwest, would be the central issue of the 1850s.