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The Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an attempt to keep a legislative balance between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions. It tells which states are free and which states are not free. The 36' 30" line was the main divisor between the free and not free states. Missouri was a slave state. Maine was a free state. -
Andrew Jackson Election
Democrat Andrew Jackson was elected the president of the United States. Jackson was the seventh president elected. He was the fifth president that had been a slaveowner. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner started an uprising that spread through many plantations in southern Virginia. Turner and about seventy others killed around sixty white people. Fifty-five slaves were tried and executed for their role in the rebellion. Nearly 200 others were killed by mobs. -
Congress Passes Gag Rule
The Gag Rule was passed. Congress voted to delay antislavery petitions, prohibbit their publication, and censor any discussion or mention of them on the floor. Most northern Democrats voted for it but most northern Whigs were against it. -
William Henry Harrison Election, Inauguration, and Death
William Henry Harrison won the presidential election of 1840. He was part of the Whig Party. He was inaugurated on March 4, 1841. He died of pneumonia on April 4, 1841. His vice president John Tyler was then sworn in as president. -
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was a proposal by David Wilmot that stated that none of the Mexican Cession territory would be allowed to permit slavery. Because of the arguments for this proviso, the Compromise of 1850 was created. -
Mexican-American War Ends
The Mexican-American War ended with The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. California, Utah, Nevada, most of Arizona and New Mexico, and the disputed regions of Texas were all obtained by the United States. It was the largest single land acquisition since the Louisiana Purchase. -
Free Soil Party
A new political party was formed by Northerners who wanted to discuss the issue of slavery. It was the first sectional party. -
The Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 is one of the legislative bills that was a version of the Fugitive Slave Act. It considered Califiornia a free state, creating Utah and New Mexico territories with the question of slavery in each to be determined by popular soveignty, settling a Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute in the former's favor, ending the slave trade in Washington, D.C., and making it easier for southerners to recover fugitive slaves. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
The anti-slavery novel called Uncle Tom's Cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The novel changed how Americans viewed slavery. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act divides lands into Kansas and Nebraska territories. The issue of slavery would be a popular sovereignty decision. -
Bleeding Kansas
A series of violent confrontations in Kansas and the bordering neighbor towns. They occured following the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It lasted from 1855 to 1861. -
Dred Scott v. Sanford
The Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. -
John Brown's Raid
John Brown tried to lead a slave uprising in Virginia. Brown along with four of his men were hung for the uprising. -
Abraham Lincoln's Election
Abraham Lincoln being elected and him being anti-slavery made the Southerners fearful of what would come next.
