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Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her purpose was to get the idea across about the antislavery sentiment that was occurring in the North while convincing the South that extremists were intent on destroying its “peculiar institution.” Both the North and South were having a slavery issue that was going to lead to an “irrepressible conflict.” The book increased tension because some agreed and some didn't with what she said throughout the book. -
Kansas - Nebraska Act
This Act lead to popular sovereignty which caused to violence, Kansas and Nebraska were now territories, and the Missouri Compromise, making slavery still an issue in the West. Pro-slavery and anti-slavery states, tried to sway the vote of Kansas and Nebraska, to try and get them to go one of the ways of that certain state to benefit them. Kansas became a free state and Nebraska allowed their residents to decide whether that would allow slavery. This eventually leads to the Civil War. -
Republican Party
Abraham Lincoln was the first president in 1860. They demanded that freed slaves would receive civil rights, including ensured suffrage. "They wanted to prevent the leaders of the confederacy from returning to power after the war and they wanted to become a powerful institution in the south." Southern states felt that he was against them because they were slave states. It was formed because a group of people was trying to stop the expansion of slavery. They were against going to war and salvery. -
Bloody Kansas
In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed. The settlers from Missouri did not hide the fact that they were organizing another invasion, which would wipe out Lawrence to win Kansas over to become a slavery state, no matter what they had to do. Everything was destroyed with heavy damage in Lawrence. Even newspaper offices were attacked by pro-slavery forces because then they wouldn't have to worry about the people getting any source of information based on anti-slavery. -
Brooks-Sumner Incident
Brooks was a pro-slavery Democratic Representative and Sumner was an abolitionist Republican Senator. Sumner verbally attacked the US Senators, which lead to Brooks beating him with a cane. This led to everybody as a whole becoming more divided. -
Election of 1856
James Buchanan, who was a democrat won the election against John C. Fremont, who was a Republican. Buchanan had 174 electoral votes and Fremont had 114 electoral votes. Voting was divided into sectional lines. The Republican Party head their first national convention in Philadephia. They denied the right of territorial legislatures and Congress to allow slavery in those territories. It is the first election that the Republican Party has a candidate to run. -
Dred Scott
He was an outraged abolitionist who thought the Supreme Court's ruling was a way to put an end to the debates about slavery in the territories, leading to a national state of anger over the states. The North and South were even more over slavery. In the Dred Scott v. Sanford case, he was not allowed to become a free man and he didn't have the power to sue the federal court. -
House Divided Speech
Lincoln encouraged that if the U.S. wanted to be a free state then to act now before it was too late because the Dred Scott decision the previous year allowed slavery to legal in the North and all the territories that the U.S. expanded into. Lincoln felt that the nation as a whole could not coexist because none of the states would agree on their views of slavery.He thinks that the U.S. should be the same as a whole, to end slavery. The Nation can no longer do this, so decide whether slave or not -
Lincoln Douglas Debates
There were seven debates based on the issue of slavery extension into the territories. Douglas continued to attack Lincoln by claiming that he would not only allow slaves to have citizenship but to marry white women. Douglas was able to gain enough support that he won the election and became the Illinois senator. If you don't pass laws to support slavery then slavery doesn't exist. -
LeCompton Constitution
In the states that had slavery, it would protect the rights of the slaveholders, and the states who did have slaves enshrined slavery. This also would allow the states to decide if they wanted to allow more slaves into their state, this added more tension between the North and South. This also played a role in the House and Senate compromise of allowing Kansas to become a free state. It was a pro-slave constitution. -
Harper's Ferry
The raid was led by John Brown. This affected the accommodation between the North and South even more than before. The South was already fearful of the slave rebellions and the abolitionists convinced them that they will stop at nothing to do away with slavery. The impact was the South began to organize militias and an army to fight back. -
John Brown
John Brown was a leading figure in the abolitionist (people who were against slavery and going to war) movement. He led the Harper's Ferry Raid, which led to Southern State legislatures passing more harsh and restricted slave laws. -
Election of 1860
Lincoln wanted to abolish slavery, which made it so the South was against him even more. When he became president they felt that they had to do something about their rights to allow slavery in their territory before Lincoln took them away and wouldn't allow slavery there anymore. Sectional Election -
Lincoln's 1st Inaugural Address
He was trying to reassure the Southern States would have the right to stay slave states since he didn't feel that he had the lawful right and to ensure slavery to help keep them happy. This would also reduce the amount of tension between the North and South because Linclon is against slavery like the North, so if the South knew that the president wasn't going to do anything then it would also reduce the risk of war. Lincoln was trying to avoid the Southern states from seceding from the Union. -
Secession
When Lincoln was elected, the South no longer wanted to be a part of the United States. South Carolina was the first state to leave, with six more following behind, and formed a new country called the Confederate States of America. Lincoln said that they didn't have the right to leave the United States and he sent troops to force them to rejoin the Union. This then leads to the Civil War.