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Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a series of bills that wanted to resolve the territorial and slavery problems arising from the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). There were 5 laws which balanced the interests of the slave states of the South of Missouri and the free states to the north. -
Publication of Uncles Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin, the novel, played a role in the Civil War greatly. It did so because Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the book right before the Civil War started. She was an abolitionist, which means she was against slavery, and she wrote the book so that the North would understand how badly the South were treating their slaves, but she did actually exaggerate in some parts of the book. -
Kansas- Nebraska Act
It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´. -
Bleedin Kansas
Bleeding Kansas refers to the time between 1855-58 when the Kansas territory was the site of much violence over whether the territory would be free or slave. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 set the scene by allowing the territory of Kansas to decide for itself whether it would be free or slave, a situation known as popular sovereignty. -
Brooks/ Sumner Affair (violence in congress)
The Brooks-Sumner affair, in which a Congressman brutally beat the crap out of a Senator with a cane on the floor of the Senate. Which Put much tenson between the political parities. -
Dred Scott Decision
The United States Supreme Court that ruled that people of African descent imported into the United States and held as slaves, or their descendants whether or not they were slaves were not protected by the Constitution and could never be citizens of the United States. It also held that the United States Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in federal territories. -
John Brown's Raid
The raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) by the abolitionist John Brown's "Provisional Army of the United States" was an attempt to capture the U.S. Armory located in the town. He hoped to arm slaves in support of an uprising against slave owners. It occurred about eighteen months before the start of the Civil War and, along with the subsequent trial, was highly publicized. -
Election of 1860
The year that Lincoln took office. Did many good changes to the world.
