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Compromise of 1850
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
Moby-Dick is a novel by American writer Herman Melville, published in 1851 during the period of the American Renaissance. -
Publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. the novel helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War -
Gadsden Purchase
a 29,670-square-mile region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that the United States purchased -
Kansas-Nebraska Act becomes law
The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed for new territories to decide if they were a free or slave state by popular sovereignty -
Bleeding Kansas
a series of violent political confrontations in the United States involving anti-slavery and pro-slavery parties -
John Brown kills 5 homesteaders in Kansas
an American abolitionist who believed armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States. -
Presidential election of 1856
A heated election campaign that led to the election of James Buchanan -
Dred Scott Supreme Court case
the Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court -
Oregon becomes a state
Oregon became the 33rd state to join the Union under a constitution that prohibited slavery -
John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry
An effort John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. -
Presidential Election of 1860
American presidential election held on Nov. 6, 1860, in which Republican Abraham Lincoln became president
