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Fugitive Slave Act of 1793
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 guaranteed a slave owner's right to recover an escaped slave. To fight this, many northern states enacted personal liberty laws that forced slave owners to show proof of ownership in order to take slaves back to the South. These laws were overruled by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 expanded the slave-catching industry and increased animosity between the North and the South's conflicting ideologies. -
Invention of the Cotton Gin
In 1793 or 94, inventor Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin: a device that revolutionized cotton production and processing. The cotton gin grew the South's economic prosperity and, more importantly, their dependence on slave labor. After the cotton gin was invented, a large portion of the South's economy towards cotton growing, so when the northern states began to oppose slavery, the South pushed back, forcing a cultural divide in the nation. -
Missouri Compromise
A Federal Legislation that allowed Missouri to join the Union as a slave state and Maine to join as a free state. It also banned slavery above the 36th parallel. Was later repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. The Missouri compromise contributed greatly to the cultural and ideological divide that caused the Civil War. -
Wilmot Proviso
An unsuccessful congressional proposal that attempted to ban the extension of slavery into territories taken from Mexico following the events of the Mexican-American War. It was proposed by congressman David Wilmot in the house of representatives twice where it passed twice but was shot down in the southern-dominated Senate. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a group of five bills designed to ease North-South tensions by passing legislation that benefited both sides. These compromises included allowing Utah and New Mexico to decide for themselves whether to be free states or slave states, admitting California as a free state, changed the border between New Mexico and Texas, and passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which allowed southern slave-owners to recover slaves that had escaped to the north. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin is a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a white anti slavery author, that follows a dignified slave that saves the life of a young girl, but is killed by a cruel master in the end. The novel won over many readers because of its humanizing depiction of black people and its appeal to religious people because of Uncle Tom's steadfast devotion to his christian values. Stowe's complex views on race have come under scrutiny recently, but Uncle Tom's Cabin remains a staple anti slavery. -
Scott vs. Sandford Decision
A Supreme Court decision that ruled that the constitution did not provide citizenship to african-americans. This decision was made about the case of a slave that sued his master for his freedom because he was taken to a free state before being taken back to Missouri, a slave state. By denying african-americans citizenship, they were also denied the fundamental rights offered to American citizens. This decision is also considered to be a major catalyst for the Civil War. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
A bill that repealed the Missouri Compromise and instituted popular sovereignty, a law that allowed newly added states to the Union to vote on whether to allow slavery or not. It also started a violent uprising known as "Bleeding Kansas," where proslavery and antislavery activists rushed Kansas to sway the vote in their favor. -
John Brown's Raid
John Brown was an abolitionist who carried out a raid on a United States arsenal in Harpers Ferry, VA in an attempt to start a slave revolution. Out of twenty-two raiders, ten were killed by US marines, seven were captured and executed, and five escaped. The event was one of the first to be publicly distributed by the electrical telegraph. Brown's raid represents a rise in violent tensions between the North and South leading up to the Civil War. -
Election of 1860
The presidential election in which Abraham Lincoln defeated opponents John Breckinridge of the Southern Democratic Party, John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party, and Senator Stephen Douglas of the Democratic Party to win the presidency. This election was the culmination of North-South tensions and directly led to the secession of the Confederate States and the start of the Civil War.