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Compromise of 1850
Northern states believed that California, New Mexico and the Utah territories should be free states. Southern states, however felt that they would be outnumbered and believed California and possibly other territories should allow slavery. As a result, Henry Clay created the Compromise of 1850 stating that California would be a free state and New Mexico and Utah are open to slavery. This event evenly divided the north and south, beginning to split the nation in to two. -
The Fugitive Slave Law
A slave that has escpaed from their owner is known as a fugitive slave. The law created to keep slaves from running away was the Fugitive Slave Law, which stated that citizens, most likely citizens from the north, had to help bring back slaves that escpaed and gave the slaves no right to a trial by jury. This law drew more attention to the idea of slavery, which caused the division of the nation to become worse. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher wrote the story called Uncle Toms Cabin. It was written in the perspective of a black slave and gave the horrific detils about the life of a slave. When this book was released on March 20th, 1852, it caused a major uproar in the north because it made slave owners look evil. When the south argued back, it made the nation one step closer to the Civil War. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
In May of 1854, Stephen Douglas wanted to claim the territory of Nebraska, but no one knew if it should be considered a northen free state or a souhtern slave state. It was decided that the territory would be split above the 36 30 line of latitude. Nebraska is considered a free state and the southern territory became the slave state known as Kansas.This was a major event leading to the Civil War becuase it set the exact line splitting the nation. -
Dred Scott v. Stanford
Dred Scott, a black slave from Missouri, was brought into free territory by his owner. Northeners believed that his owner lost the right to treat him as a slave now the he had entered free territory but southerners believed that since he was considered property intsead of a citizen, Scott could not be taken from him. The result of this case was that African Americans were not citizens, and congress could not ban slavery overall. -
Election of 1860
The candidates were Abraham Lincoln, John Breckinridge, John Bell, and Stephen Douglas. Lincoln had the idea of wanting to completely abolish slavery all over the nation, while his main rival John Breckinridge favored policies that allowed the spread of slavery . Lincoln won by a majority of electoral college votes. After becoming president, South Carolina threatened to secede along with 10 other states. Later, rebellions fired at Fort Sumter and began the Civial War.
