Catalysts of the Civil War

  • Invention of the Cotton Gin

    A machine that revolutionized the cotton industry. Rather than th slave doing it by hand, it seperated the seeds from the cotton.
  • Misssouri Compromise

    The Missouri Compromise was bill passed in 1819 that outlawed slavery in the Louisiana Terroitory. This billed was passed while James Monroe was in office.
  • Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

    The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was critical book at the time of it's conception, as it opened many people's eyes to the true horrors of slavery. At the same time, it told the tale of a man who experienced these horrors and survived.
  • Free Soil Party

    The Free Soil Party was a short lived political that was anti-slavery, a semi-uncommon ideal at the time. The party was mostly absorbed by the Republican party.
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    Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad

    The Underground Railroad was a secret slave escape system set up by Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave. An estimated 30,000 slaves excaped through it.
  • Compromise of 1850

    The Compromise of 1850 was a collaboration of five bills passed in the United States in September 1850, which solved a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the territories gained during the Mexican-American War.
  • Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

    The Fugitive Slave Act was a law passed that allowed slave holders to go into free states and retrieve run away slaves. The worst part was that any black person could be accused of being a slave, whether they were free or not.
  • Uncle Tom's Cabin

    Uncle Tom's Cabin truly helped white northerners to understand the horrible living standards and work conditions that slaves had to endure. At the time this book was second in fame only to the bible.
  • Kansas Nebraska Act

    The Kansas Nebraska Act created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands to be settled, and caused the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to be repealled by allowing white male settlers in those territories to determine through popular authority whether or not a territory will have slavery.
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    Bleeding Kansas

    Bleeding Kansas was a series of violent political confrontations in the United States involving anti-slavery and pro-slavery people, that happened in the Kansas Territory and the neighboring towns of the state of Missouri between 1854 and 1861.
  • Dred Scott v. Sandford

    This was a really important federal case in which the government decided that African-Americans (free or not) weren't US citizens, and therefore couldn't sue. this decision was later claimed unconsttutional, only the second time in history.
  • The Election of 1860

    This election was a real page turner in history, considering the confusion surrounding whether or not California would be a slave state or a free state. This also lead citizens to fight over parties, causing one of the greatest splits in American history.
  • The Start of the Civil War

    The bloodiest war in America truly left it's mark in our history. Causing literal brothers to fight and kill each other it truly was a tragedy. Thankfully, the anti-slavery side won, abolishing all forms of slavery