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Wilmot Proviso
President Polk asked Congress for $2 million, which he intended to use for a peace treaty with Mexico.The Wilmot Proviso, as it became known, would forbid the extension of slavery to any territory acquired from Mexico. The proviso caused a split among the Democrats as northerners supported it and southerners opposed it. Polk eventually got his appropriation, but Congress rejected the Wilmot Proviso after a bitter debate. The provision was reintroduced several times afterward, but never approved. -
Compromise of 1850
Senator Henry Clay introduced a series of resolutions on January 29, 1850, in an attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South on the subject of California's slavery laws. As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished. California entered the Union as a free state and the territory of Utah was added. An act was passed settling a boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. The Act was one of the most controversial elements of the compromise of 1850 and heightened Northern fears of a "slave power conspiracy". It required that all escaped slaves were, upon capture, to be returned to their masters. -
Uncle Toms Cabin
A book published by Harriet Beecher Stowe that strengthened the abolitionist movement by showing the life of slaves. -
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Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas was a series of violent political confrontations in the United States involving anti-slavery "Free-Staters" and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian", or "southern" elements in Kansas between 1854 and 1861, including "Bleeding Congress" -
Kansas/Nebraska Act
Popular Sovereignty decides on whether the state is a free state or a slave state. -
Dred Scott
Important case regarding an escaped slaves freedom. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
The Lincoln–Douglas Debates of 1858 were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois, and incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. -
Harpers Ferry
The raid on Harpers Ferry was an effort by armed abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Helped spur the civil war along. He didn't have much slave support because the slaves were scared that they would fail and be severely punished. -
Election of 1860
United States presidential election of 1860, American presidential election held on Nov. 6, 1860, in which Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. -
Fort Sumter
On April 12, 1861, General P.G.T. Beauregard, in command of the Confederate forces around Charleston Harbor, opened fire on the Union garrison holding Fort Sumter. At 2:30pm on April 13 Major Robert Anderson, garrison commander, surrendered the fort and was evacuated the next day. This all occurred because South Carolina seceded as a part of the Confederate States of America. The Union had a fort inside of S.Carolina; Fort sumter. The Confederacy did not want the Union to have the fort.