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The Missouri Compromise
This was a compromise making Missouri a slave state and Maine a free state. This was done to consider the balance of power in the Senate so that the North could not rule the South and vice versa. The 36' 30" line is then drawn, deciding whether slavery would be allowed in certain territories or not. This is the start of sectionalism in the U.S. This compromise was effective for almost 30 years. However, after about 1850, problems began to occur and the compromise was less and less effective. -
Compromise of 1850
This compromise lets California enter as a free state. The area from Mexican Cession has been divided into Utah & New Mexico & the slavery issue will be decided by popular sovereignty. The Fugitive Slave Law was part of this, requiring citizens to catch runaway slaves. If a person didn't comply they could be fined up to $1000 or put in jail for 6 months. Many freed Black people were captured & sent back into slavery. Northerners hated this law as it forced them to be part of the slavery system. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
This was a novel written by Harriett Beecher Stowe. It was written to show the horrific nature of slavery by telling the story of an older enslaved person who was whipped to death by his owner. After reading it, many Northerners began to change their view of slavery while Southerners said the book was full of lies. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act created two new territories, Kansas and Nebraska, upon repealing the Missouri compromise, allowing for slavery to be decided by popular sovereignty. -
Pottawatomie Creek Killings
On the night of May 24, 1856, radical abolitionist John Brown stripped and murdered 5 pro-salvery men from their beds along the banks of Pottawatomie Creek. With three of his associates and five of his sons, Brown slaughtered James P. Doyle and his two sons William and Drury, along with William Sherman and Allen Wilkinson, using religious and moral reasons to justify his actions. -
Dred Scott Decision
This describes the trials of Dred Scott, an enslaved man who had sued for his freedom along with his wife in a St. Louis courtroom on the grounds that their residence, Illinois, a free state, had freed them. This case reached the US supreme court, deeming he was not entitled to freedom, and subsequently, that the US Constitution wasn't meant to include US citizenship for African Americans. With this, the case also maintained that Congress had no power to abolish slavery in the territories. -
Lincoln vs. Douglas debate
Series of several debates between Democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas & Republican challenger Abraham Lincoln, largely centering on the issue of slavery in the territories. To Lincoln, slavery is immoral while Douglas thought the opposite & should be up to the public to decide by popular sovereignty. The debates are deemed inconclusive & end with senators being chosen by state legislatures, Illinois Republican candidates outpolling their Democratic rivals in the 1858 legislative election. -
John Brown's Raid On Harpers Ferry
The raid on Harpers Ferry was an effort by John Brown to occupy the United States arsenal held there in an attempt to initiate a slave revolt in the Southern states. This plan ultimately fails, ending with the deaths of ten of Brown's men and two of his sons after soldiers overrun them on the morning of October 19th. This results in Brown's execution under charges of treason and murder. It is also widely considered a major precursor to the Civil War. -
Election of 1860
Lincoln ran against Douglass in the Presidential Election of 1860. The Southern states did not like Lincoln or what he believed in and overwhelmingly supported Douglass. Lincon still got elected and Southerners grew very angry, saying the North had too much power. Many Southerners talked of seceding from the Union. -
Fort Sumter, Charleston, SC
South Carolina demanded that the US army abandon its facilities in Charleston Harbor. Seven southern states succeeded and this was the first site where the shots which began the Civil War were.