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Nat Turner Rebellion
A slave rebellion lead by Nat Turner, a slave, that turned out to be the largest and deadliest slave uprising in American History. The rebels killed 55-65 people, mostly white women and children. The rebellion was put down within a few days, but the aftermath of the rebellion shocked the nation and put fear into the hearts of Americans. This caused harsher slave laws to be put into place, such as the prohibition of slave education. -
Period: to
Period leading up to the Civil War
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Fugitive Slave Law
The Fugitive Slave Law was passed on September 18, 1850 that required all escaped slaves to be returned to their masters after they were captured, and that citizens and officials of slavery-free states had to cooperate with this law. This law was passed as part of the Compromise of 1850 between slave and free states in the areas acquired during the Mexican-American war. -
Compromise of 1850
Henry Clay proposed a series of resolutions seeking compromise between the North and South concerning slavery that became the Compromise of 1850. Five bills were proposed:
-Addition of California as a free state
-Strengthening of the Fugitive Slave Act
-Popular sovereignty in Utah and New Mexico concerning Slavery
-Abolition of slave trade in D.C.
-Federal assumption of Texas’s debt -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a novel written in 1852 by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe that displayed the stark reality of slavery, and is regarded to as one of the major causes of the Civil War. -
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas, or Bloody Kansas was a series of violent political confrontations in the U.S. involving anti-slavery and pro-slavery states. The conflict started with the question of Kansas being an anti or pro slavery state. Tensions about slavery in this new territory grew out of control quickly; Congressman Preston Brooks nearly killed his cousin Charles Sumner with a heavy cane due to this disagreement. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act called for popular sovereignty, therefore the decision of slavery would lie in the hands of the settlers in the territories of Nebraska and Kansas. -
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of secret passageways and safe-havens used by African-American slaves to escape the confederacy into slave free states. Abolitionists who were sympathetic to their cause allied with the slaves to help them escape. The Underground Railroad was formed in the late 1700s, but peaked in the 1850-1860s. 100,000 slaves reached safety through the Underground Railroad. -
Dred Scott Case
Dred Scott was a slave who lived with his master in a free state before moving into the slave state of Missouri. Scott argued that he should be entitled to freedom due to his time spent in free states. Court argued that "A negro, whose ancestors were imported into the U.S. and sold as slaves, whether enslaved or free, could not be an American citizen”. The decision affirmed the right of slave owners to take slaves into the Western territories, neglecting the doctrine of popular sovereignty. -
Emancipation Proclamation
As America approached its third year of the horrid Civil war, president Abraham Lincoln proposed the Emancipation Proclamation that declared that all persons held as slaves within rebellious states are, and will continue to be free. It also proposed that freed slaves could be enlisted in the Union Army, providing more soldiers for the North, which helped the Union succeed, -
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso Banned slavery in and new territory acquired from the Mexican-American war, besides Texas. The conflict over the Wilmot Proviso was one of the major events leading to the American Civil War.
