-
Missouri Compromise
who: Henry Clay
when: 1820
where: Missouri
what: Maine would be admitted as a free state and Missouri would be admitted as a slave state. an imaginary line was drawn across the southern border of Missouri. slaves would be permitted in the Louisiana purchase south of the line, but north of the line, slavery was banned.
why: Missouri wanted to become a state, but the admission of Missouri as a slave state would cause the south to have a majority in the senate. -
Wilmot Proviso
who: Wilmot
when: 1846
where: Oregon country
what: designed to eliminate slavery within the land in the west as a result of the Mexicsm Cession
why: northern democrats didn't want the addition of slave territory, so they came up with the Wilmot Proviso -
Compromise of 1850
who: Henry Clay
when: 1850
where: the south basically
what: California was admitted as a free state, a harsher fugitive Slavs law was enacted, and the Mexican cession was divided into the territories of New Mexico and Utah. In each territory, voters would decide the slavery question by popular sovereignty.
why: southerners wanted slavery to be allowed in the new territories, but northerners were opposed to the spread of slavery. -
Fugitive Slave Law
who: James Mason
when: 1850
where: like all of the United States
what: it made it a crime to help runaway slaves and allowed officials to arrest those slaves in free areas. slaveholders were permitted to take suspected fugitives to US commissioners.
why: many slaves were running away because of the Underground Railroad. -
Kansas-Nebraska act
who: Stephen Douglas
when: 1854
where: Kansas and Nebraska
what: Kansas and Nebraska would use popular sovereignty to answer the question of slavery. the act please southerners but outraged many northerners because if repealed the Missouri compromise.
why: there was a debate on letting slavery spread to the west. -
Bleeding Kansas
who: John Brown, pro-slavery settlers, anti-slavery settlers
when: 1854
where: Kansas
what: John Brown (an anti-slavery supporter) led one of the most violent campaigns to end slavery. there was a lot of blood.
why: popular sovereignty -
Dred Scott vs. Sandford
who: Dred Scott
when: 1857
where: Missouri, Supreme Court of the United States
what: Dred Scott moved with his owner from a slave state to a free state, then his owner died and Scott sued for his freedom. the court made the following decisions: slaves were not citizens, they were property, congress could not ban slavery from the territories, the Missouri compromise was unconstitutional.
why: in the mid-1850's, there was a feeling that the slavery question should be answered in court. -
Lincoln-Douglas debates
who: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln
when: 1858
where: Illinios
what: Lincoln challenged Douglas in a debate. Lincoln always stressed that the central issue of the campaign was to spread slavery in the west (he also mentioned Dred Scott). But Douglas wanted slavery.
why: Abraham Lincoln wanted slavedy to be abolished.
