-
The Missouri compromise did not apply to the territory gained from Mexico, and David Willmot did not want it to become a slave state, and tried to pass a law that said that any territories gained from the Mexican American war would be a free state, and even if the law was not passed, the south saw it as an attack on slavery by the north -
The fugitive slave act was a law passed as a result of henry clay's compromise of 1850 in 1850, it was a very controversial law that allowed slave owners to accuse any African American of being an escaped slave, and bring them back to slavery, without the right to a trial. -
when California wanted to become a state, both the north and south were afraid the other would gain the state for themselves, so Henry clay made multiple proposals, known as the compromise of 1850, which declared California as a free state to please the north, and a new slave law for the south, and that new slave law angered and stunned the north. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin was a novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, as a response to the fugitive slave act, and it was about a kind enslaved man named Tom, who is beaten to death by his cruel owner. and this book was important because it exposed some of the horrors of slavery to people that were previously disconcerned with slavery, and turned it from just a political issue, to a human and moral issue as well. -
The Kansas-Nebraska act was passed in 1854 and was pushed by senator Stephen Douglass, because a year earlier, he proposed Kansas and Nebraska be admitted into the union, but they would be admitted as free states. To please the south, Douglass decided that popular sovergnity would decide if a state was a free or slave state, which undid the Missoury compromise, and debates between pro slavery and anti slavery settlers escalated to become violent in Kansas, earning it the name "Bleeding Kansas" -
Dred Scott was an enslaved man that sued for his freedom with the reasoning that he had lived in free states before, and the court decided that Dred did not have a right to sue because he was property, and the ownership rights were protected in every state, which meant that Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in any state, making the Missouri compromise unconstitutional. Southerners rejoiced at this, but many northerners were stunned and supported the abolitionist cause. -
In 1858, Lincoln challenges Douglass to a series of public debates, while lincoln said he didn't want to abolish slavery, he didn't want it to expand, while Douglass protected popular sovereignty, and framed Lincoln as a dangerous abolitionist, when he really thought that there was no reason black people not to have every right stated in the constitution. -
John Brown was an extremist abolitionist that raided the town of Harpers Ferry to get weapons and arm the slaves there in order to free them and rebel. When he attacked with his sons and a few other men, they raided the armory, but not one slave joined them, and they were arrested. The north mourned him, and the south was glad a dangerous extremist like Brown was gone. -
when the south realized they could not elect their president anymore, they decided to form their own country, known as the confederate states of America and seceded from the Union in order to preserve slavery and their way of life. with south Carolina being the first to secede, eventually leading to the civil war taking place later on. -
in 1860, Lincoln was elected president of the united states of America, being a victory for the north, and the south was outraged because every state voted against Lincoln, and he still won, and the south realized that they really had little to no power in congress.