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The Missouri Compromise
Missouri requested for admission to the union as a slave state. This act, however, upset the balance between free state and slave states. To solve this problem, the Missouri Comprise was set so that Maine would join as a free state in replacement of Missouri. The compromise on one level or another caused the civil war because it established the principle that Congress could make laws regarding slavery and expanded slavery on the west. -
Nat Turner Rebellion
In 1831, Nat Turner incited an uprising in Virginia which killed around sixty white people. Although small-scale slave rebellions were fairly common in the American South, Nat Turner’s rebellion was the bloodiest. Governors of Virginia at that time reacted to this crisis by taking back what few civil rights the colored people possessed. They prohibited education to black people and limited their rights to assemble. This event raised southern fear and awareness of slaves. -
The Compromise of 1850
The compromise admitted California as a free state and did not regulate slavery in the Mexican cessions all while strengthening the Fugitive Slave Act which compelled Northerners to seize and return escaped slaves to the South. While the compromise achieved great success in suspending hostilities between the North and South, it did not address the structural disparity that divided the United States. The new Fugitive Slave Act also led to an increase in polarization among centrist citizens. -
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Bleeding Kansas
It's a fight over slavery which took place in Kansas. A poll was held in Kansas deciding whether it would be a slave state or a free state. Supporters from both sides fouth over this issue for years. After Bleeding Kansas, Kansas eventually entered the union as a free state. -
Abraham Lincoln's election
Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860. As a Republican, his anti-slavery outlook made many Southerners worried. By the spring of 1861, 7 states seceded from the Union.
