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Compromise of 1850
Package of 5 bills, that was passed in September of 1850. The bills dealt with slavery. -
Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin is a story about a noble, long-suffering, christain slave. The book was translated into all the major langauges in the United States, it became the second best-selling book after the bible. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement, and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing settlers in those territories to determine through Popular Sovereignty whether they would allow slavery within each territory. -
Brooks/Sumner Affair(Violence in Congress)
Preston Brooks strode forcefully into the Senate chamber looking for Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, Without warning, Brooks rushed forward and began beating the unsuspecting Sumner savagely. What in the world could cause such an eruption of naked violence right there on the floor of "the world's greatest deliberative body?" The answer is slavery. Or, to be more precise, an increasingly destructive debate over the future of slavery—a debate which would soon lead to the Civil War. -
Dred Scott Decision
Was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that people of African descent brought into the United States and held as slaves (or their descendants,whether or not they were slaves) were not protected by the Constitution and were not U.S. citizens. Furthermore, the Court ruled that slaves, as chattels or private property, could not be taken away from their owners without due process -
John Brown's Raid
An abolitionist who used violent actions to fight slavery in the United States. Brown commanded forces at the Battle of Black Jack and the Battle of Osawatomie. Brown's followers also killed five pro-slavery supporters at Pottawatomie. In 1859, Brown led an unsuccessful raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry that ended with his capture. Brown's trial resulted in his conviction and a sentence for death by hanging. -
Election of 1860
The United States had been divided during the 1850s on questions surrounding the expansion of slavery and the rights of slave owners. In 1860, these issues broke the Democratic Party into Northern and Southern factions, and a new Constitutional Union Party appeared. In the face of a divided opposition, the Republican Party, dominant in the North, secured enough electoral votes to put Abraham Lincoln in the White House without support from the South. -
Bleeding Kansas
A series of violent political confrontations involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the neighboring towns of Missouri between 1854 and 1861.
