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California admitted as a free state
Stronger Fugitive Slave Law enacted
Slave Trade banned in D.C -
Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel influenced public opinion in the North -
Repealed the Missouri Compromise
Allowed popular sovereignty in new territories, leading to conflict -
Violent conflict erupted over slavery in the Kansas territory -
Abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner was violently attacked in the Senate after giving a speech criticizing slavery. -
Supreme Court ruled that enslaved people were not citizens and that Congress had no authority to ban slavery in the territories. -
Series of debates between Lincoln and Douglas focusing on slavery's expansion.
Lincoln opposed its spread but Douglas supported popular sovereignty -
Lincoln declared "A house divided against itself cannot stand"
He warned that the U.S. could not survive permanently half slave and half free.
This speech defined his position against the expansion of slavery and set the tone for the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. -
Lincoln won without support from Southern states.
His election led directly to Southern secession and the start of the Civil War.