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This Compromise was a legislative attempt to settle several disputes related to slavery and the expansion of the United States. The key figures were the "Great Compromisers" Senator Henry Clay and Senator Stephen A. Douglas. The Compromise was necessary to prevent the secession of Southern states and avert a crisis following the Mexican-American War. It was debated and passed by the Congress in Washington D.C. It temporarily stopped the crisis, fulfilling the goal of avoiding immediate conflict. -
The Act was a new federal law that strengthened the capture and return of runaway enslaved people. The law was passed to appease Southern states and prevent their secession from the Union. The law was strongly supported by Southern politicians; it was passed in Washington, D.C., but its legal jurisdiction extended across the entire country, including the free states of the North. The Act made the Abolitionist movement stronger and led to the strengthening of the Underground Railroad.
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The book tells the story of an enslaved man and his family, the themes are separation, cruelty, and the denied basic human rights. Stowe wrote this book to expose the evils of slavery. It was published in Boston, Massachusetts. This book impacted the US by intensifying the moral debate and deepening the sectional divide. -
Speech given by Frederick Douglass, who had previously escaped slavery. He was asked to give a celebratory address to commemorate Independence Day. The address was delivered in Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York. The speech helped motivate moral outrage in the North, pushing many to abandon their complacency and become active abolitionists. -
This Act was a law promoted by Senator Stephen A. Douglas, that organized two new territories, Kansas and Nebraska, and allowed their residents to decide whether to permit slavery through Popular Sovereignty (a vote). The Act directly led to the formation of the Republican Party in the North, who opposed to the expansion of slavery into any new territory. It was made to organize the Nebraska Territory to clear the way for a central route for the transcontinental railroad.
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"Bleeding Kansas" refers to a period of guerrilla warfare, political fraud, and violence in the territory. The conflict involved two main groups of armed settlers who moved into the Kansas Territory: Free-Soilers and Border Ruffians. The violence proved that Popular Sovereignty was not a peaceful solution to the slavery question. -
It was a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, delivered by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. The ruling stated that Dred Scott, an enslaved man who had lived in free territories, was not a citizen. This decision, made in Washington, D.C., intensely outraged the North, gave a massive political victory to the South. -
It was an armed attack in 1859, led by abolitionist John Brown, on the U.S. federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His goal was to seize weapons to incite a massive, violent slave rebellion across the South. The raid failed quickly, resulting in Brown's capture and execution, but it greatly intensified sectional hatred.
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The election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860 was the immediate cause of the American Civil War, as Southern states viewed his victory as a direct threat to the institution of slavery. Lincoln and the Republicans were committed to preventing the expansion of slavery into any new U.S. territories. Within weeks of the election, South Carolina voted to secede from the Union. -
South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. The secession vote and the signing of the ordinance took place in Charleston, South Carolina. The action provided the critical push for other Southern states. Within six weeks, six more states followed suit, and by February 1861, they had formed the Confederate States of America.
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The CSA was formed by the states that seceded from the United States, cementing the political division that led to the Civil War. The States were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. The states formed the CSA to protect the institution of slavery and the concept of States' Rights; specifically, the right of a state to allow slavery and to secede from the Union. It removed any possibility of a peaceful resolution to the sectional crisis.
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The Battle of Fort Sumter was the military engagement that officially started the American Civil War, it was led by General P.G.T. Beauregard. The Confederates attacked Fort Sumter because they saw the U.S. soldiers stationed there as a foreign army invading their new country (South Carolina). They felt the fort threatened their independence. Lincoln responded by calling for 75,000 volunteer troops to suppress the "insurrection" and preserve the Union. This act formalized the conflict as a war.