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Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin was a monumental and vastly popular novel by author, and abolitionist activist, Harriet Beecher Stowe. It portrayed all the discrepencies, injustices, and mistreatment black people, especially slaves, face daily; the book garnered support in the North, gaining sympathy from the free states and abolotionists in them, but it angered the South by "misrepresenting" slavery and making them look bad. Tensions hightened immensely between the two, eventually leading to the Civil War. -
Brooks-Sumner Incident
The Brooks-Sumner Incident was an attack (or more aptly assault) from pro-slavery, Southern Democrat Representative, Preston Brooks on Abolitionist Republican Senator, Charles Sumner, after Sumner insulted slave-supporters, specifically Brooks' cousin, Andrew Butler, whom he insulted their stroke and speech-impediment. Brooks repetedly slammed him walking cane overhead onto Sumner, leaving him close to death and with permanent damage. -
Bloody Kansas
Bloody Kansas, or Bleeding Kansas, reffers to a series of gruesome, deadly battles between Northern states and Southern states over whether Kansas would be a free state or a slave state. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act/ Compromise was, as said, a compromise in which Kansas and Nebraska were to join the country, and both would be decided whether they would become a slave state or free state by popular sovereignty. It was created to appease both the anti-slavery Northerners and the pro-slavery Southerners who were currently partaking in bloody battles over Kansas by possibly giving them each a new state. -
Republican Party (Creation)
The Republican party was originally a group of anti-slavery Whigs whom had joined together after the Whig Party disintegrated, to fight against the Kansas-Nebraska Act -
Election of 1856
In the election of 1856, three nominees, Republican John C. Fremont, Democrat James Buchanan, and Whig Millard Fillmore. It was a blowout victory for James Buchanan and the Democrats, especially the Southern Democrats who promised sucession if a Republican were to become President. The election of 1856 was the first and only US election where the incumbent president was refused renomination by their political party. -
Dred Scott
Dred Scott was an African American who was the slave of a Dr. Emerson that sued Emeroson's widow, after her husband's death, because he had lived in a free territory and a free state. The Court ruled against Scott, saying he was property and didn't have the right to vote, wasn't free even though he lived in free territory, and had, for the first time since Marburry v. Madison, decided that an act by Congress was unconstitutional (The Missouri Compromise). -
Lincoln Douglas Debates
The Lincoln Douglas Debates were a series of debates over a seat as the Senator of Illinois between Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Stephen A. Douglass. What later became known as the Freeport Doctrine, Lincoln asked Douglas whether or not he thought any state can lawfully exclude slavery withouthaving it part of the state constution. To this Douglas replied yes, if they don't create any laws protecting it, which won him the Senator seat but lost him presidency vs Lincoln later on. -
House Divided Speech
Lincoln delivered a speech in, at the time capitol of Illinos, Springfield, about how after the Freeport Doctrine, Northern States could allow slavery again, and how if the US is to not collapse, and stand together, is by acting now. -
LeCompton Consitution
The LeCompton Constitution was a constitution proposed for Kansas that would allow slavery in the state and exclude Black people from their bill of rights. -
Harper's Ferry
Harper's Ferry was the location where John Brown attempted to free and arm slaves, and cause a revolution. Brown's attempts didn't succeed, and after this stunt, Brown was arrested and the North and South were at each other's throats more than any one else. -
John Brown
After his raid on Harper's Ferry, Brown was arrested and charged for treason, murder, and insurrection, which led to Brown being sentenced to death by hanging. -
Election of 1860
The main four candidates for president in the election of 1860 were, Abraham Lincoln, of the Republican Party, Stephen Douglass, of the Democratic Party, John Breckenridge, of the Southern Democratic Party, and John Bell, of the Constitutional Union. Lincoln won by a sizeable margin, which the Democrats were very upset over. -
Secession
After Lincoln won presidency, as they had promised to, certain Southern, Democratic, slave states (South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana) seceeded. Soon later, after Fort Sumter fell, another group of states (North carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas) seceded and joined the previous states in "The Confederacy." -
Lincoln's First Inaugural Address
Lincoln's First Inaugural Address was intended to secure the unity of the the US; he promised Southern/ slave states they could keep their slaves while gaining support for the preservation of the Union in the North.