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Compromise of 1820
In an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, the Missouri Compromise or the Compromise of 1820 was passed in 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state,in exchange for legislation which prohibited slavery north of the 36°30′ parallel except for Missouri. -
FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was part of the Compromise of 1850. The act required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state. The act also made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves.The act forced citizens to assist in the recovery of escaped slaves, and if they were unwilling to assist or aided a fugitive in escaping, they were subject to a fine and prosecution. -
COMPROMISE OF 1850
It admitted California as a free state, left Utah and New Mexico to decide for themselves whether to be a slave state or a free state, defined a new Texas-New Mexico boundary,abolished the slave trade in Washington D.C,and made it easier for slave owners to recover runways under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. -
UNCLE TOM'S CABIN
Uncle Tom's Cabin is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S. and is said to have "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War" -
KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT
The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, created two new territories, and allowed for popular sovereignty. It also produced a violent uprising known as “Bleeding Kansas,” as proslavery and antislavery activists flooded into the territories to sway the vote. -
POTTAWATOMIE CREEK KILLINGS
The Pottawatomie massacre occurred during the night of May 24 and the morning of May 25, 1856. Using swords, Brown and a band of abolitionist settlers took from their residences and killed five "professional slave hunters and militant pro-slavery" settlers north of Pottawatomie Creek, in Franklin County, Kansas. -
DRED SCOTT DECISION
Dred Scott was an enslaved person who accompanied his owner in a free state Illinois and free territory Wisconsin before returning with him to the slave state of Missouri. In 1846 Scott and his wife, aided by antislavery lawyers, sued for their freedom in a St. Louis court. Scott's case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that he was not entitled to his freedom and, more broadly, that African Americans were not U.S. citizens. -
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE
Lincoln-Douglas debates, series of seven debates between the Democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas and Republican challenger Abraham Lincoln during the 1858 Illinois senatorial campaign, largely concerning the issue of slavery extension into the territories. -
RAID ON HARPERS FERRY
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was an effort by abolitionist John Brown, from October 16 to 18, 1859, to initiate a slave revolt in Southern states by taking over the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. It has been called the dress rehearsal for, or Tragic Prelude to, the Civil War. -
ELECTION OF 1860
The election of 1860 firmly established the Democratic and Republican parties as the majority parties in the United States. It also confirmed deep-seated views on slavery and states' rights between the North and South. Before Lincoln's inauguration, eleven Southern states had seceded from the Union.