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fugitive slave act
slave are not allowed to have a trial by jury
could not testify on their own behalf
anyone helping a slave escape would be fined and jailed -
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century enslaved people of African descent in the United States in efforts to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. -
harriet beecher stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin as a response to the pro-slavery movement. -
kansas nebraska act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act passes Congress and thus overturns the Missouri Compromise opening the Northern territory to slavery. Both sides begin to send settlers into the areas in an effort to influence the future status of these areas. -
bleeding kansas
Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War was a series of violent political confrontations in the United States involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the neighboring towns of the state of Missouri between 1854 and 1861. -
anti slave
A pro-slavery legislature is elected in Kansas when 6,300 ballots are cast in a region with only 3,000 voters. Intimidation and ballot-box stuffing by "border ruffians" from neighboring Missouri account for the result. Later in the year, free-soil supporters hold a convention at Topeka, where they declare the pro-slavery legislature illegal and draft a constitution calling for the territory's admission to the union as a free state. -
violence in the senate
On May 22, 1856, the "world's greatest deliberative body" became a combat zone. In one of the most dramatic and deeply ominous moments in the Senate's entire history, a member of the House of Representatives entered the Senate chamber and savagely beat a senator into unconsciousness. -
the atmosphere
In this atmosphere, a wagon train of non-Mormon settlers moving through southern Utah on their way to California falls victim to Mormon fears. Paiutes besiege the settlers at Mountain Meadows in southern Utah and call on local Mormons to help destroy them, or face attack from the Indians themselves. Perceiving the settlers as part of the general threat to their community, the Mormons, led by John D. Lee, lure them from their wagon train and, with Paiute help, murder all but a few of the children -
mormons
Political supporters secure a federal pardon for the Mormon's alleged violations of federal law, and two weeks later federal troops move through a nearly deserted Salt Lake City to establish an outpost forty miles away, bringing the "Mormon War" to a close. -
juan cortina
Juan Cortina, member of a prominent Mexican family living near Brownsville on the Rio Grande border, leads an uprising against the mistreatment of Mexicans by Texans. He and his supporters occupy Brownsville and proclaim the Republic of the Rio Grande with the shout, "Death to the gringos!," but they leave the city unharmed. Cortina defeats a force of Texas Rangers and local authorities, but when they are reinforced by army troops, he retreats into Mexico where he continues his guerilla war agai
