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After winning the Mexican War, the US had aquired new territory futher west. With this, a new problem arised: would this territory be settled as free or slave states?
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The Fugitive Slave Act was a part of the Comprimise of 1850. This act fined federal officials who did not arrest run-away slaves. This act boosted Underground Railroad activity, and motivated the abolitionists against slavery.
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Harriet Beacher Stowe wrote a book about the evils of slavery calle Uncle Tom's Cabin or Life Among the Lowly. Uncle Tom's Cabin became the bestseller of it's time. It had a huge impact on America's view of slavery, and helped the abolitionist grow.
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The Kansas-Nebraska Act gave the states of Kansas and Nebraska the choice of being a slave state or a free state. This started a bloody war in Kansas between pro- and anti-slavery forces. This was just a preview of the Civil War, and was labeled "Bleeding Kansas."
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After giving a speech attacking the pro-slavery forces about the violence in Kansas, Charles Sumner was attacked by pro-slavery congressman Preston Brooks with a cane.
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Dred Scott was a black man who had been held as a slave in a free-state, He brought his case to court and lost because he did not own property, and slaves were considered property of their slave-owners. This furthered the cause of the abolitionists even more.
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The state of Kansas advanced several constitiutions in relation with the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Lecompton Constitution was among them. It was a pro-slavery constitution, and with the support of the president, was pushed through congress in December of 1857. There was, however, enough opposition that in January of 1858 it was sent back to Kansas so that the people could vote on it. Kansas rejected the constitution and eventually became a free state.
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John Brown, a radical abolitionist, led a group of seventeen men, five of them black, to raid an est arsenal in Harper's Ferry in present day West Virginia. Using captured weapons , he planned to start a slave uprising, but eventually he and his men were captured or killed.
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