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The bills provided for slavery to be decided by popular sovereignty in the admission of new states, prohibited the slave trade in the District of Columbia, settled a Texas boundary dispute, and established a stricter fugitive slave act.
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made the hunting down of escaped slaves, even in free states, fully legal
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Harriet Beecher Stowe shared ideas about the injustices of slavery, pushing back against dominant cultural beliefs about the physical and emotional capacities of black people
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repealed the Missouri Compromise, created two new territories, and allowed for popular sovereignty.
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marked the beginning of the bloodletting of the “Bleeding Kansas” period, as both sides of the slavery issue embarked on a campaign of terror, intimidation, and armed conflict that lasted throughout the summer.
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upheld slavery in United States territories, denied the legality of black citizenship in America, and declared the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional.
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helped make any further accommodation between North and South nearly impossible and thus became an important impetus of the Civil War.
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Abraham Lincoln (Republican) won the presidential election of 1860 in a four-way contest. Although Lincoln received less than 40% of the popular vote, he easily won the Electoral College vote over Stephen Douglas (Democrat), John Breckenridge (Southern Democrat), and John Bell (Constitutional Union).
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In February 1861, representatives from the six seceded states met in Montgomery, Alabama, to formally establish a unified government, which they named the Confederate States of America. On February 9, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was elected the Confederacy's first president.