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The American Colonization Society forms
This group was one of the first organizations in the country to work for the end of slavery. It was formed to send free African-Americans to Africa as an alternative to emancipation in the US. Primarily desired to return both free and enslaved African Americans to Africa. It was one of the first organizations in the country to work for the end of slavery. Many white Ohioans supported the American Colonization Society and its efforts to end slavery. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an agreement that allowed MIssouri ot enter the Union as a slave state and Maine to enter the Union as a free state. The compromise also drew an imaginary line through Louisiana Territory, splitting it up into two areas. Territory north of the line was free territory. -
The American Antislavery Society forms
It was founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. By 1840, its auxiliary societies numbered to 2,000, with a total membership count ranging from 150,000 to about 200,000. The society's headquarters in New York City published a weekly newspaper, the National Anti-slavery Standard. The society's anitslavery activities often were met with people who strongly believed that owning slaves was okay and formed mobs. invaded meetings, attacked speakers, and burned press buildings. -
The Liberty Party Forms
It was anitslavery political organization. It was formed by those abolitionists who repudiated William Lloyd Garrison's nonpolitical stand. -
The Mexican-American War Starts
The Mexican-American war started when a Mexican's attacked American troops along the southern border of Texas. The war ended with a treaty after 21 months of war. Mexico and the Unites States claimed the land between teh Rio Grande and the Nueces River. -
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was a proposal to prohibit slavery in the territory acquired by United States at the end of the Mexican War. David Wilmot attached the proviso to the bill that was to pay Mexico for land that the United States had taken as a result of the Mexican War. In the end the senate approved the bill but rejected the proviso. -
The Free-Soil Party Forms
The Free-Soil Party existed because of rising opposition to the extension of slavery into any of the territories newly acquired from Mexico. It was a short-lived political party active in 1848 and 1852 presidential elections. -
California Gold Rush
It started with James Marshall and his crew while they were building a saw mill on the American River. He found gold nuggets and the Gold Rush started. In 1849, quartz mining began and godl deposits were often found inside quartz vains. In 1851, gold was discovered in Greenhorn Creek. -
The Compromise of 1850
The compromise was that Texas would relinquish the land in dispute, but it would be given 10 million dollars, which they would use to pay off its dect to Mexico. It also said that Slave Trade would be abolished in the District of Columbia, and the bill of the Fugitive Slave Act. These all took place after Clay presented the compromise then the members of congress debated the comprise for eight months. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin is Published
The book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe, changed how Americans viewed slavery. In the book it demanded that the United States deliver on the promise of freedom adn equality. 10,000 copies were sold in the United States. -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress. This act allowed people who lived within Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. -
The Sumner-Brook Affair
Brooks brutally beat Sumner with a walking stick with multiple blows to the head. Investigations on this issue say that he didn't intend to kill him, just "simply punish him". The attack revealed the amount of passion for the debate about slavery in the United States. -
The Dred Scott Decision
The Supreme Court declared that all blacks--slaves as well as free-- weren't and could never become citizens of the U.S. Taney wrote in the Court's majority opinion that Dred Scott was black so he had no rights since he wasn't a citizen. He wrote that the people who came up with the constitution believed that black people "...had no rights which the white man was bound to respect ... he was bought adn sold and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic..." -
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Douglas and Lincoln debated face to face around the state of Illinois. The debates attracted tens of thousands of voters adn newspaper reporters from across the nation. -
The Election of 1860
Democrats met in Charleston, South Carolina to select their candidate for President in the upcoming election. It turned out to be turmoil. The Southern Democrats chose Breckenridge while the Northern Democrats chose Douglas.
