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Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850, which defused a four year political confrontation between slave and free states regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican American War. -
Publication of Moby Dick
On this day in 1851, Moby Dick, a novel by Herman Melville about the voyage of the whaling ship Pequod, is published by Harper and Brothers in New York. Moby Dick is now considered a great classic of American literature and contains one of the most famous opening lines in fiction "Call me Ishmael". Initially, though, the book about Captain Ahab and his quest for a giant white whale was a flop. -
Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin
The most influential american novel ever written appeared first in weekly instalments between June 1851 and April 1852 in the National Era, a Washington DC periodical with an anti-slavery slant. It was a sensational success and when published in book form in 1852, sold more than 300,000 copies in the first year. -
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas territory. In 1854 the Kansas Nebraksa Act overturned the Missouri Compromise's use of latitude as the boundary between slave and free territory and instead, using the principle of popular sovereignty, decreed that the residents would determine whether the area became a free state or a slave state. -
Kansas Nebraska Act becomes law
The Kansas Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allowed slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36 30 -
Presidential election of 1856
1856 Presidential Election. The United States presidential election of 1856 was an unusually heated election campaign that led to the election of James Buchanan, the ambassador to the United Kingdom Former President Millard Fillmore represented a third party, the relatively new American Party or "Know Nothing". -
Dred Scott supreme Court case
In March 1857, in one of the most controversial events preceding the American Civil War, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in the case pf Dred Scott v. Sanford. The case had been brought before the court by Dred Scott, a slave who had lived with his owner in a free state before returning to the slave state of Missouri. Scott argued that his time spent in these locations entitled him to emancipation. -
Jonh Brown kills 5 homesteaders in Kansas
John Brown was a radical abolitionist who believed in the violent overthrow of the slavery system. During the Bleeding Kansas conflicts, Brown and his sons led attack on pro slavery resident. Justifying his actions as the will of God, Brown soon became a hero in the eyes of Northern extremists and was quick to capitalize on his growing reputation. -
Oregon becomes a state
In 1846, the border between U.S. and British territory was formally established at the 49th parallel the part of the territory that was given to Britain would ultimately become part of Canada. Oregon was officially admitted to the union as a state on February 14th, 1859. -
Presidential Election of 1860
United States presidential election of 1860, American presidential election held on Nov. 6, 1860, in which Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. -
Gadsden Purchase
The Americans defeated the Mexican army in a succession of battles, took Mexico City and forced the Mexicans to surrender. The war was not to the taste of all Americans, by any means, and the Massachusetts legislature considered it a war of conquest and a crime. On the other hand, there were senators calling for the conquest and annexation of the whole of Mexico. -
John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry
On the night of October 16, 1859, Brown and his band overran the arsenal. Some of his men rounded up a handful of hostages, including a few slaves. Word of the raid spread, and by morning Brown and his men were surrounded. A company of U.S. marines arrived on October 17, led by Colonel Robert E. Lee and Lieutenant J.E. B . Stuart.
