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The Missouri Compromise began on March 2 1820. it divided the Nation into two halves, one free and one slaves. The compromise maintained a delicate balance between free and slave states. This was also one of the main causes of the Civil war. -
Wilmot Proviso, in U.S. history, important congressional proposal in the 1840s to prohibit the extension of slavery into the territories, a basic plank upon which the Republican Party was subsequently built. -
Zachary Taylor was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor died on the evening of July 9, after four days of suffering from symptoms that included severe cramping, diarrhea, nausea and dehydration. -
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in 1850 that defused a political confrontation between slave and free states. -
The Fugitive slave act provided a return for runaway slaves that had runaway to a free slave state or a national territory. It also extended the federal government to track down fugitive slaves in the north. Those who assisted runaway slaves were fined. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin is a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The novel is an anti-slavery novel. the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the United States and is said to have "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War" -
Millard Fillmore was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853, the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. -
The Republican Party was created in 1854 to combat the Kansas Nebraska Act and the expansion of slavery into American territories. The early Republican Party consisted of northern Protestants, factory workers, professionals, businessmen, prosperous farmers, and after 1866, former black slaves. -
The Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854 was a territorial organic act that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. It was passed by the 33rd United States Congress, and signed into law by President Franklin Pierce. -
When Representative Preston Brooks, a pro slavery Democrat from South Carolina, used a walking cane to attack Senator Charles Sumner, an abolitionist Republican from Massachusetts. The attack was in retaliation for a speech given by Sumner two days earlier in which he fiercely criticized slaveholders, including South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, a relative of Brooks. The beating nearly killed Sumner and contributed significantly to the country's polarization over the issue of slavery. -
Franklin Pierce was the 14th president of the United States serving from 1853 to 1857. He was a northern Democrat who believed that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to the unity of the nation -
The Dred Scott case, also known as Dred Scott v. Sandford, was a decade-long fight for freedom by a Black enslaved man named Dred Scott. The case persisted through several courts and ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court, whose decision incensed abolitionists, gave momentum to the anti-slavery movement and served as a stepping stone to the Civil War. -
From August 21 until October 15, Stephen Douglas battled Abraham Lincoln in face to face debates around the state. The prize the fought for was a seat in the senate. During the debates, Douglas still advocated "popular sovereignty," which maintained the right of the citizens of a territory to permit or prohibit slavery. Lincoln pointed out that Douglas's position directly challenged the Dred Scott decision, which decreed that the citizens of a territory had no such power. -
The Lincoln–Douglas debates were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican Party candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois, and incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate -
John Brown was a radical abolitionist from the United
States, who advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a
means to abolish slavery for good. Some people call him
“the father of American terrorism,” but others say Brown was “an
American who gave his life that millions of other Americans might be free." -
The raid on Harpers Ferry was intended to be the first stage in an elaborate plan to establish an independent stronghold of freed slaves in the mountains of Maryland and Virginia. Choosing Harpers Ferry because of its arsenal and because of its location as a convenient gateway to the South, John Brown and his band of 16 whites and five blacks seized the armoury on the night of October 16. -
The election of 1860 was one of the most pivotal presidential elections in American history. It pitted Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln against Democratic Party nominee Senator Stephen Douglas, Southern Democratic Party nominee John Breckinridge and Constitutional Union Party nominee John Bell. The main issue of the election was slavery and states’ rights. -
James Buchanan Jr. was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvania in both houses of the U.S. Congress -
The Southern Secession was when the nation was split into two halves due to Lincolns election. The south was not happy with Abraham Lincoln having a anti slavery viewing point causing some of the states in the south to leave the country. South Carolina was the first to leave the country.