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John Brown
John Brown was an abolitionist known for his aggressiveness and his non-pacifist ways. He joined the Abolition movement after the murder of Presbyterian minister and anti-slavery activist, Elijah P. Lovejoy. He is known for his role in the Pottawatomie Massacre where abolitionists killed five pro-slavery activists and his raid on Harper's Ferry in an attempt to lead slaves out of Wisconsin, where he was captured and convicted of treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia and hanged. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin was written by Harrie Beecher Stowe in 1852, as a result of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The book was highly popular everywhere and highlighted the evils of slavery, it pushed the slavery debate between the North and South more. The South claimed the book was inaccurate and it was highly denounced by them because it sparked abolitionist movements in the North. The book further divided the two sections and it is claimed to have "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War ." -
Kansas Nebraska Act
Proposed by Stephen Douglas, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, mandated “popular sovereignty”–allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state’s borders, repealing the Missouri Compromise and its line. It destroyed the Whig and Democratic Party, created the Republican Party, and southern states begun to secede from the Union. Dissentions between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers grew more, leading to the period of violence known as Bleeding Kansas. -
Bleeding Kansas
Since the Kansas-Nebraska Act stated that the future status of slavery in the territories was to be decided by popular vote, both antislavery Northerners and proslavery Southerners competed to win the region for their section. Nebraska was too far north to attract slaveowners, so Kansas became the arena of sectional conflict. This actually caused A small civil war in Kansas, the North sent armed emigrant associations into Kansas, while proslavery advocates came over the border from Missouri. -
The Republican Party
The Republican Party was formed after the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854. Because of the act, the Whig party split into two, the non-slavery advocates, the Republicans, and the Slave-supporters, the Whigs. Soon after the split, the Whig party came to an end but the Republicans stayed. The North supported the Republicans, opposite the south. furthermore after the civil war they "dominated" congress and did a "Radical Reconstruction" policy in the south, the 13th,14th, and 15th amendments. -
Brooks-Sumner Incident
This incident occurred in the Senate. Representative Preston Brooks, a pro-slavery Democrat from South Carolina, used a walking cane to attack Senator Charles Sumner, an abolitionist Republican from Massachusetts, because of the speech, Charles Sumner gave two days earlier, “Crime Against Kansas” where he denounced the “slave oligarchy” and demanded the U.S. admit Kansas as a free state. This event showed the dividing nation losing its ability to resolve its problems through political battles. -
The Election of 1856
This election was held during the civil war in Kansas. The Democrats nominated James Buchanan, a less controversial candidate than their last, President Pierce, and the Republicans nominated John C. Fremont with the quote "Free Speech, Free Soil, and Fremont." The election is considered one of the most bitter in American history and the first in which voting divided along rigid sectional lines. Buchanan won with 174 Electoral votes because the South threatened to Secede if he did not. -
The Dred Scott Case
In this case, Congress had three problems they had to resolve:
If black people were considered citizens, if Scott's residence in the free territory would make him a free man, and if it was constitutional for Congress to ban slavery in the territories because of the Missouri Compromise.
They came to the conclusion that black people were considered property, and they claimed the Missouri compromise unconstitutional. It both limited Popular Sovereignty and divided the North and South more. -
The Lecompton Constitution
This Constitution was written by Southern pro-slavery advocates of Kansas statehood. It contained clauses protecting slaveholding and a bill of rights excluding free blacks. It was rejected in a territorial election, but Congress offered a compromise, calling for resubmission of the constitution to the territory’s voters. Even with this extra chance, Kansas rejected it again the following August and was admitted to the Union as a free state. This divided the Nation, leading to the Civil War. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
These are a serious of debates that were held in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, the two men nominated for the senate. They had different views, on slavery and its expansion, negro citizenship, and union separation. The Freeport Doctrine, proposed by Douglas, stated that the people in a territory could decide whether it would be slave or free, based off of popular soverignty and lack of police. This disregarded the Dred-Scott decision, the North loved it, the South hated it. -
House Divided Speech
Abraham Lincoln gave this speech at the 1858 Illinois Republican State Convention because the division caused by slavery was so prevalent, a civil war outbreak was feared. In this speech, Lincoln countered the Dred Scott decision the previous year. He states, " I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.” It was important because he states that compromise was impossible. -
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Harper's Ferry
Harpers Ferry is located in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia near the convergence of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers. What happened there? In 1859, John Brown, a famous abolitionist, led an assault on the military arsenal located there. The purpose of the raid was to gain a stronghold and get weapons so that he could move a massive amount of slaves out of Missouri and Virginia. He was caught, convicted of treason, and hanged. This event struck fear into southerners and increased tension. -
The Election of 1860
There were four candidates running for office in 1860: John Bell, Constitutional Union, John Breckenridge, Democrat, Abraham Lincoln, Republican, and Stephen Douglas, Democrat. Abraham Lincoln won the election with 180 electoral votes. As a result of his win, South Carolina and 11 states seceded from the union before he was even inagurated, and weeks after he got sworn in the Confederate Army fired on Fort Sumner, starting the Civil War. -
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Secession
As a result of Abraham Lincoln get elected president in the 1860 election, South Carolina followed by seven other states-Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas seceded from the union (four followed later). South Carolina held a convention where they unanimously passed an ordinance of secession. The Senate formed the “Committee of Thirteen” and they tried to make a compromise “Crittenden’s Compromise,” but it was unsuccessful and did not pass in the Senate. -
Lincoln's First Inaugural Address
The purpose of this address was to ease the southerners and provide them with comfort that he would not mess with their slaves and prevent them from having them so there would not be a war. He wanted to prevent violence, succession by the southern states from the union, and to ignite unity in the nation. Seven states still seceded from the union and only a couple of weeks after he was inaugurated the Civil War broke out.