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War with Mexico
An armed conflict between the United States of America and the United Mexican States stemming from the United States’ annexation of Texas in 1845 and from a dispute over whether Texas ended at the Nueces River or the Rio Grande -
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Underground Railroad
a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States used by African-American slaves to escape into free states and Canada -
Compromise of 1850
Five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in 1850, which defused a four-year political confrontation between slave and free states on the status of territories acquired during the Mexican–American War. -
Fugitive Slave Law
Required that all escaped slaves, upon capture, be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate. -
KS-NE Act
created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska -
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Bleeding Kansas
A series of violent civil confrontations in the United States emerged from a political debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas -
Republican Party Established
anti-slavery Whigs had begun meeting in the upper midwestern states to discuss the formation of a new party -
Sumner-Brooks Incident
Charles Sumner gave a two day speech on the Senate floor. He denounced the South for crimes against Kansas and singled out Senator Andrew Brooks of South Carolina for extra abuse. Brooks beat Sumner over the head with his cane, severely crippling him. -
Panic of 1857
financial panic in the United States caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy -
Lecompton Constitution
the second of four proposed constitutions for the state of Kansas -
Dred Scott v Sandford
landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on U.S. labor law and constitutional law -
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Lincoln-Douglas Debates
a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois, and incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. -
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John Brown's Raid
a raid on Harper’s Ferry was an effort by abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia -
Election of 1860
Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge
