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Period: to
Causes of civil war
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Dec of Independance
Who: Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and many other representatives for the thirteen colonies
What: The document used by America to separate themselves from Britain
Why: The document was going to blame the evils of slavery on the British but the framers removed it from the final draft since it was such a prosperous industry
How: The wording “all men are created equal” led to conflict as to what was a man and what was property -
Constitution 3/5s
Who: Thomas Jefferson
What: A clause in the constitution that recognized slaves as three-fifths of a person
When: July 12, 1787
Why: This meant that if a slave owner owned one hundred slaves, himself plus them counted as 61 people in the house of representatives
How: The south was given far more political power as the majority of slaves lived there -
Cotton Gin
Who: Eli Whitney
What: The creation of a machine that could remove seeds from cotton
Where: all around the South
When: created on March 14, 1794.
Why: The machine allowed for cotton to be produced at exponentially increasing rate eventually amounting to almost half of the South’s total exports
How: The demand for cotton increased as was the demand for slaves and the work they were forced to do -
Emnbargo Act of 1807
Who: Thomas Jefferson, John Paige
What: Embargo against Britain
Where: America, The Atlantic, and Britain
Why: Britain claiming deserters and any who could pass for British, led to many sailors who weren't british to be taken instead
How: Led to general hate of Britain in America due to unkind/fair actions -
The Underground Railroad
Who: Harriet Tubman, Owen Brown, Levi Coffin
What: A system of meeting places, secret routes, passageways and safe houses that slaves used to escape to their freedom.
When: Between 1810-1850s
Why: tens of thousands of slaves escaped using this method, leading to the creatation of the fugitive slave act
How: Abolitionists provided safe houses and assisted escaped slaves any way they could even though it violated state and federal laws. -
Missouri Compromise
Who: James Tallmadge, Henry Clay
What: A Missouri made into a slave state, Maine turned into a free state, no slavey above the 36”30’ coordinate line
Where: Congress
Why: to keep to debate about state rights at bay by giving the north a free state and making Missouri into a slave state.
How: Seen as flawed since states wanted to be able to choose whether or not they approved of slavey even if they were above the 36”30’ line -
Tariff of Abominations
Who: John Quincey Adams
What: taxes that raised cost of living in south and hurt profits for New England industrialists
Where: America
Why: to protect northern and western agricultural products from competition with foreign imports
How: South Carolina rejected the tariff for months until eventually accepting a compromised tariff in the winter of 1833 -
Wilmot Provision
Who: David Wilmot
What: A law that if enacted would prevent slavery in any territory won through the Mexican American war
Why: It fueled the debate as to what should be done with the new territory and if it should be proslavery or antislavery
How: Southern states wanted the new territories to expand their slave driven agricultural industry into while the north wanted it the land for their own industries. -
Compromise of 1850
Who: Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster
What: California joins the Union, Slave trade would be prohibited in Washington, fugitive slave law is passed, no slavey restrictions in either Utah or New Mexico
Where:
Why: It prevented the rising debates on slavery and state power from erupting into nationwide civil war
How: Ironically added more fuel to the fire in the form of the Fugitive Slave Law which wouldn't even be enforced by the North -
Fugitive Slave Act
What: It allowed slave owners to go into Free states and take back their escaped salves
Why: It ignored the rights of a black man whether or not he was a slave
How: Abolitionists helped slaves escape anyway enraging southern slave owners even further -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Who: Harriet Beecher Stowe
What: a book depicting life as a slave
Why: It gave people who had never witnessed what slavery involved a understanding of the different aspects of it.
How: caused most northerners to oppose slavery by describing its tortures -
Bleeding Kansas
Who: John Brown, “Border Ruffians”
What: Violence between proslavery and anti-slavery groups
Where: All throughout Kansas
When: throughout the mid to late 1850s
Why: It was a foreshadow of the impending civil war and what people were willing to do over their beliefs
How: Forces on both sides of the issue of slavery opened the door for violence and murder. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Who: Stephen A. Douglas
What: Area above the 36”30” line was no longer outlawed to slavery and was open to popular sovereignty
Where: Kansas and Nebraska
Why: It was possible the biggest issue leading to the Civil war because it allowed the new territories to be open to slavery through popular sovereignty so people with both opinions flooded the areas to further their own causes.
How:People who believed in slavey and those who didn't came into the states to decide whether the sat -
Dred Scott Case
Who: Dred Scott, Robert B, Taney, John Emerson
What: Dred Scott sued for his freedom after living in a free state for an extended period of time
Where: The Supreme Court
When: March 6, 1957
Why: legally decided that slaves were to be considered property
How: outraged northern abolitionists due to unfair treatment/view of slaves -
John Browns Raid
Who: John Brown, Colonel Robert E
What: Brown and others marched upon and seized a town, took control of the arsenal then set out on a ferry but while holding the arsenals engine house colonel R.E. took it back
Where: Harpers ferry
Why: Showed that abolitionists were willing to kill in opposition of slavery
How: made south feel as if they had to protect their rights to slavery -
Election of 1860
Who: Abraham Lincoln. Stephen A. Douglas
What: Lincoln and Douglas ran against each other for president
Where: Charleston, SC
Why: Abraham Lincoln opposed slavery and won
How: South became outraged because it meant the North would have support against slavery -
South Carolina secedes
Who: Algernon Sidney, John Locke, James Madison, British Commonwealth
What: After Lincolns win SC held a convention to succeed from the U.S.
Where: Charleston, SC
Why: It led to other Southern states to separate
How: Showed that the South felt like they couldn’t be part of an anti-slavery country