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Missouri Compromise
Henry Clay wrote the Missouri Compromise in an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, the Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. The Missouri Compromise was an effort by congress to change the sectional differences on slavery. -
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso, representative David Wilmot from Pennsylvanian proposed a ban on slavery in all Mexican cession territories. -
Compromise of 1850
The compromise of 1850 was wrote by Henry Clay, which had five laws that addressed issues related to slavery.
1.) Congress would admit California as a free state
2.) The people of the territories of New Mexico and Utah would decide the slavery question by popular sovereignty
3.) The slave trade-but not slavery-would be ended in Washington D.C.
4.) Congress would pass a strict new Fugitive Slave Law
5.) Texas would give up it's clams to New Mexico in return for $10 million -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 allowed officials to arrest anyone accused of being a runaway slave. Also, suspects had no right to trail. Northern citizens were required to help capture accused runaway slaves or they would be punished. Slave catchers would seize fugitives even after many years had passed since their escape from slavery. The Fugitive Slave Act was the most controversial part of the compromise of 1850. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe, the daughter of an abolitionist minster, was deeply affected by the Fugitive Slave Act. In 1853, Stowe published the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, about an enslave man who is abused by his cruel owner. President Lincoln once met her and said "So, you're the lady that started this whole war". Many Northerners were shocked and began to view slavery as a serious moral problem rather than a political issue. Many Southerns said it was misleading information meant to further a cause. -
Kansas Nebraska Act/ Bleeding Kansas
The debate over slavery continued with the Kansas and Nebraska territories. Southerns refused to admit the territories because they lay above the Missouri Compromise line. The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed the people in the territories to decide the slavery by popular Sovereignty. The North and South were divided over the Kansas- Nebraska Act also. Southerns supported the act, on the other hand Northerners were outraged about the act. -
Dred Scott Case
In 1857, a slave named Dred Scott sued for his freedom. Scott had lived with his owner in two places were slavery was illegal. He argued that this meant he was a free man. Scott could not sue because he was a slave and, was not a U.S. citizen. When living in a free state, it didn't make him a free man. Slaves are property protected by the U.S. constitution. -
Lincoln Douglas Debate
Frederick Douglas hoped the outrage against the decision would fuel the abolition movement. Abraham Lincoln, an Illinois lawyer, argued against the idea that African Americans could not be citizens. Douglas won the election, however, the debate helped Lincoln become a National Figure. Two years later, the men would be rivals for the presidency. -
John Brown's Raid
In 1859, John Brown raised a group of followers to help to help him free slaves in the south. They attacked the town of Harper's Ferry, Virginia. They seized guns and planned to start a slave revolt. Brown was wounded and captured by Colonel Robert E. Lee. Ten of Brown's followers were all killed. Brown was being sentenced, but before that he gave a passionate defense of his actions. He was willing to give up his life to follow those instructions. Brown was found guilty of murder and was hung. -
Lincoln's Election of 1860
Lincoln won in every Free State. Breckinrigde won most of the slave states. Bell won three states in the upper South. Douglas won Missouri. Abraham Lincoln received enough electoral voted to win the election. -
Southern Secession
Southerners felt that the president and congress were set against their interests-especially slavery. Some were frustrated and formed the Confederate States of America. Some moderate southerners didn't want to secede, but their voices were overwhelmed. When president Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861, the nation faced the greatest crisis in it's history.
