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Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the story Uncle Tom's Cabin. The narrative described the life of an African American slave. Uncle Tom's Cabin was a bestseller, but both the North and the South believed Stowe's portrayal of slavery was inaccurate. The south particularly didn’t like it because it made them appear like the bad guy in the eyes of the public. Because slavery was a sensitive issue at the time, the story heightened animosity between the North and the South. -
Republican Party
The Republican Party had its origins in the 1850s, when antislavery leaders (including former Democratic, Whig, and Free-Soil party members) banded together to resist the Kansas-Nebraska Act's planned expansion of slavery into the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. The difference in perspectives on the concept of slavery was the main thing that contributed to the rising tensions between the North and the South. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act provided for popular sovereignty, abolished the Missouri Compromise, and established two additional territories. A violent revolt known as "Bleeding Kansas" was partly a result of the pro- and anti-slavery advocates who flocked to the territories to influence the vote. Its adoption heightened the heated debate over slavery in the US, which would later erupt into the Civil War. -
Bloody Kansas
The Battle of Bleeding Kansas demonstrated that armed conflict for slavery could not be avoided. It functioned as a forerunner to the American Civil War because of its seriousness, which made national headlines and suggested to the American people that the sectional conflicts were unlikely to be resolved without bloodshed. -
Brooks-Sumner Incident
The attack was retaliation for Sumner's speech a couple of days prior, in which he brutally criticized slaveholders, particularly South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, a Brooks relative. In addition to almost killing Sumner, the assault made a significant contribution to the nation's rift on the issue of slavery. -
Election 1856
Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan, and John C. Fremont contested the 1856 presidential election. The democratic candidate for president would not have been chosen again until this election. Due to the ongoing problem with slavery, it increased tension between the South and the North because the Democratic party opposed the abolition of slavery and a democratic candidate was elected to office. -
Dred Scott
An African American man named Fred Scott was residing in a free state when his owner passed away, and Scott, his wife, and daughter moved to another state as a result. Scott believed he was a free citizen since he had previously resided in a free state. Despite the controversy surrounding the Dred Scott case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Congress's Act and the Missouri Compromise were unconstitutional, which in turn heightened tensions between the North and the South. -
LeCompton Constitution
A legal instrument known as the LeCompton Constitution supports slavery. If approved, Kansas would be able to legally practice slavery. The free-state legislature and the pro-slavery constitutional convention both asserted that they had the right to organize a vote on the LeCompton Constitution. -
House Divided Speech
In his "house divided" address, Abraham Lincoln contended that the Dred Scott ruling from the year before had already legalized slavery in the north and in all the territories that the United States had conquered. He said that fast action was required if the United States wanted to remain a free country before it was too late. -
Lincoln Douglas Debates
The Lincoln-Douglas debates were a series of official political arguments between Abraham Lincoln, the challenger, and Stephen A. Douglas, the occupant, in a race for one of Illinois' two U.S. Senate seats. As a result of the Lincoln-Douglas debates and John Brown's raid, tensions between the North and the South grew since both regions' views on slavery were not satisfied. Because Brown killed proslavery individuals in cold blood during the raid, tension grew. -
Harper's Ferry
A group of armed abolitionists led by John Brown attacked the American military arsenal at Harpers Ferry. The raid was meant to be the beginning of a complex plan to construct a freed slave fortress on its own in the Maryland and Virginia highlands. Although the raid resulted in Brown's capture, conviction for treason, and execution by hanging, it heightened white Southerners' worries of slave uprisings and heightened tensions between Northern and Southern states prior to the American Civil War. -
John Brown
John Brown was a prominent member of the abolitionist movement. He was not peaceful like many anti-slavery activists, supporting violent actions against slaveholders and any government officials who supported them. Despite the raid's failure, it heightened tensions between different sections of society and the 1860 presidential election. Brown's invasion contributed to making future negotiations between the North and South practically impossible and served as a prime reason for the Civil War. -
Election 1860
Abraham Lincoln, John Breckenridge, John Bell, and Stephen Douglas contested the 1860 election. The election brought up a number of problems, including the secession of 1861, which increased tension between the union and the states, and the argument over whether or not to abolish slavery. -
Lincoln's 1'' Inaugural Address
There were 3,627 words in this speech. Overall, this expressed Lincoln's desire to prevent a civil war while also preserving the Union. Lincoln also promised to refrain from interfering with the slavery system in places where it already existed and to temporarily halt federal government operations in hotspots of resistance. However, he did take a strong stance against secession and the confiscation of state assets. -
Secession
When 11 slave states seceded from the Union in 1861, it was known as the succession. The southern states were afraid that the Republicans would end slavery, which is why this happened. To defend the rights of their states, the southern states were successful in the Union. This happened after Lincoln was elected president. Tension between the north and south over slavery led to secession, which ultimately led to the civil war.