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A package of five bills which defused a four-year conflict between the slave states of the south and the free stated of the north.
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Published by abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, this novel became an instant bestseller. It delivered the message that slavery was not just a political contest, but also a great moral struggle.
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The Kansas-Nebraska Act created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, as well as repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing the states to vote on the issue of slavery.
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In response to the illegitimate government formed by the Missouri "Border Ruffians", abolitionists formed a shadow free-state government, leading to two governments in Kansas.
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A proslavery posse of 800 armed men burned down the antislavery headquarters, destroyed two newspapers' printing presses, and looted many houses and stores.
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Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner was violently beaten by South Carolina senator Preston Brooks over the issue of slavery.
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John Brown, an abolitionist, had the mistaken impression that the posse in Lawrence had killed five men. Brown and his followers then pulled five men from their beds in the proslavery settlement of Pottawatomie Creek, hacked off their heads, and stabbed them with broadswords.
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A three-way contest between Democrat James Buchanan, Republican John C. Frémont, and American party candidate Millard Fillmore resulted in Buchanan taking the Presidency.
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Abolitionist John Brown led 21 men in a raid on the armory at Harper's Ferry. A force of 86 marines was dispatched to deal with the threat posed by Brown and his men. Brown was captured, tried, and hanged.
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Abraham Lincoln, a Republican nominee for president, ran against two Democratic opponents, Stephen Douglas from the North and John C. Breckinridge from the South, and John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party.
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In 1861, Kansas was officially recognized as a free state, and was accepted to the Union as such.
