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Revolutionaries in the United States declared, “All men are created equal,” in the 1770s. French visionaries issued the “Declaration of Rights and Man and Citizen” by 1789. But the most startling development came in 1803. -
This Article banned slavery North and West of the Ohio River. -
The Haitian Revolution started a major divide. "It helped splinter the Atlantic basin into clear zones of freedom and un-freedom, shattering the longstanding assumption that African-descended slaves could not also be rulers. Despite the clear limitations of the American Revolution in attacking slavery, the era marked a powerful break in slavery’s history." -
Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin which made production of cotton much quicker therefore expanded the farming and need for slaves. -
The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States, which further complicated which states were slave states and which ones were free states. "The Missouri Territory, by far the largest section of the Louisiana Territory, marked a turning point in the sectional crisis." -
Saint Louis was a busy city with many wealthy slave owners, however in 1817, eager to put questions of whether this territory would be slave or free to rest, Congress "proposed laws that would gradually abolish slavery in the new state." People were outraged. -
Through the work of Kentuckian Henry Clay, Missouri was entered into the union as a slave state with the exchange of Maine entering in as a free state. This created a definite line of free states and slave states with room to expand. -
"Missouri’s admission to the Union in 1821 exposed deep fault lines in American society. But the Compromise created a new sectional consensus that most white Americans, at least, hoped would ensure a lasting peace. Through sustained debates and arguments, white Americans agreed that the Constitution could do little about slavery where it already existed and that slavery." -
Enslaved southerners and religious leaders were among the people rebelling. -
The Democratic Party initially tried to unite everyone instead of speaking about slavery. -
Arkansas is added as a slave state. -
Michigan is added to the union as a free state. -
In 1837, Martin Van Buren was declared President. He was a lawyer that founded of the nation's Democratic Party. -
The Whig Party was formed because they blamed Democrats for defending slavery at the expense of the American people. However, the Whig party was not a complete antislavery party. -
Organization of a true antislavery party, the Liberty Party of New York. They did, however not get a lot of support and the Whigs and democrats still had the power. -
A member of the Democratic Party, an advocate of Andrew Jackson, was named the 11th President. He fought to bridge the gap by "promising new lands to whites north and south. Polk cited the annexation of Texas and the Oregon Territory as campaign cornerstones." -
"Texas President Sam Houston managed to secure a deal with Polk, and gained admission to the Union for Texas in 1845." -
Florida was admitted to the union in 1845 as a slave state -
"Congressman David Wilmot submitted his “Wilmot Proviso” late in 1846, banning the expansion of slavery into the territories won from Mexico. The Proviso gained widespread northern support and even passed the House with bipartisan support, but it failed in the Senate." -
Polk ordered troops to the Mexico/Texas border along the Rio Grande to make sure Mexico new that Texas was part of the Union. -
By this time in the war Polk has invaded Mexico City. -
A convention held in Buffalo, New York of the free soil leaders -
Wisconsin was admitted as a free state which "helped cool the tensions after the Texas and Florida admissions." -
This treaty marked the end of the Mexican War. The treaty gave the United States one third more territory or 500,000 square miles of land. -
This was a group of 5 bills passed by the United States that was supposed to defuse problems between the slave and free states in the territories that were won in the Mexican-American War.