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Missouri Compromise
The Missouri compramise admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state and added Maine as a free state. Henry Clay wrote this compromise in the year, 1820. The compromise also included a line that considers any states above the line as a free state. This part of the compromise was violated by the compromise in 1850. This was created to ease tension among the Southern and Northern states, but this compromise only put aside the inevitable civil war. -
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was written by representative David Wilmot from Pennsylvania, who proposed a ban on slavery in all Mexican Cession territories. The bill was passed in the House of Representatives, but not in the Senate. But, it angered Southerners, who viewed the bill as an attack on slavery by the North. The purpose of this was an attempt to try to prevent slavery from expanding to the west, but it only increased tensions further divide among the south and the north. and created a big. -
Compromise of 1850
The compromise created by Henry Clay had California joined as a free state and had two other territories decide whether they will be a slave or free state based on popular sovereignty. Congress passed the fugitive slave act, which forces all runaway slaves to be brought back to their owner. Henry clay put into the compromise that Texas would give up its claim to New Mexico and receive 10 million dollars. The compromise also allowed slavery to go above the Missouri Compromise line. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 allowed officials to arrest anyone accused of being a runaway slave. Slaves had no rights to a trial, and Northern citizens were required to help capture accused citizens. The purpose of it was to return slaves to their rightful masters, and Senator Calhoun hoped that it would force Northerners to admit that slaveholders had rights to their property, but instead it convinced more Northerners that slavery was evil and Northerners began to resist the law. -
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which was about an enslaved man who is abused by his cruel owner. Stowe wrote the book through abolitionist viewpoints. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, brought attention to the horrors of slavery in a more personal way than political speeches and newspapers could ever hope to accomplish, and thereby helped to support the abolitionist cause, which incited the war. This novel affect the opinions of many people in the north. -
Kansas Nebraska Act / Bleeding Kansas
The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed the people in the territories to decide the slavery issue through popular sovereignty, and its other purpose was to settle the debate over slavery between the states of Kansas and Nebraska. Violence occured and was so bad that it earned Kansas the name Bleeding Kansas. While, in Congress, abolitionist Charles Sumner spoke out against pro slavery. Butler's nephew beat Sumner unconscious in the Senate chamber. The effect was that tensions would now greatly increase. -
Dred Scott Case
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote the decision in the Scott case, which proclaimed that Scott could not sue because he was a slave and not a U.S. citizen, living in a free state did not make Scott free, and slaves are property protected by the U.S. Constitution. The effect the Dred Scott decision had on Dred Scott's freedom and on the Missouri Compromise, was it erased all previous thoughts on the limits of slavery and made it clear that slavery was allowed anywhere in the Union. -
Lincoln Douglas Debate
The Lincoln Douglas Debate was a series of debates that mostly took place in the state of Illinois between Lincoln and Douglas. Douglas's views were that individual states should decide whether or not to allow slavery in there state. On the other hand, Lincoln believed that there should be equality among African Americans. The significance of the Lincoln Douglas Debate was that it fuels the fire for war and it made Lincoln a popular figure. -
John Brown’s Raid
John Brown was an American abolitionist who believed in and advocated armed insurrection as the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States. John Brown raised a group of followers to help him free slaves in the South, and he tried to lead a slave revolt. John Brown was later on caught, put on court, found guilty, and was put to death. The effect was that Southerners saw Brown as proof that the North was out to destroy their way of life. -
Abraham Lincoln's Election
On Tuesday, November 6, 1860 Abraham Lincoln won the electoral vote and popular vote which made him president of America. Throughout his election, it was clear that Lincoln was against the spread of slavery to new territories. When Lincoln won the electoral college and gained the position of the president, it became a big victory for the north, but it led to many southerners to being angered, and the south seceding. This ended in a civil war between the union north and confederate south. -
Southern Secession
After Lincoln's election, states in the South started to secede from the Union because the laws and acts of the Union violated the constitution. The American Civil War was due to increased tensions over slavery and the attack of Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter was a fort that the Confederacy wanted, but it was filled with Union soldiers. The Confederate States of America was formed from the first seven states that left the Union and they nominated Jefferson Davis as their leader.
