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The Wilmot Proviso was a piece of legislation proposed by David Wilmot. The Proviso would outlaw slavery in all of the new territories acquired from the Mexican war. Although the proviso did not pass, it started the first real talks of succesion in the south.
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The Compromise prevented the possibility of further expanding slavery as the United States expanded west. Also, the Compromise strengthened laws enforcing run away slaves to be returned to their owners. It was both a win and a loss for the north and the south as it slowed the growth of slavery but also increased tensions between slavery and non slavery states.
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Harriet's novel was first published in an anti-slavery news paper in 1851 and then in book form in 1852. It became a bestseller in only two years as it depicted the evils of slavery and showed slavery in a light that many had not pictured before.It started a rise in the anti-slavery movement across the nation.
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In New Orleans, plans for a slave uprising that would key on attacking the town in three different places and taking over major public and government buildings was discovered and snuffed out. Although the uprising did not occur, it would have probably been one of the worst ever seen and this made slave owners in the south uneasy.
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The Act allowed for new states or territiories to decide if they would be slavery states or free states by popular vote. Pro and anti-slavery supporters flocked to Kansas trying to shift support to one side or another. In this mix, conflict broke out sometimes resulting in bloodshed.
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On May 21st, the Border Ruffians a pro-slavery group attacked and pillaged the anti-slavery town of Lawrence. Two days later a Massechusetts senator was beaten on the floor of the senate with a cane by a South Carolina senator because of an argument involving slavery.
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Representative Preston Brooks attacked Sumner in retaliation of a speech Sumner had given two days prior. His speech was heavily anti-slavery and was insulting of slavery and its practices. The speech aggravated Brooks being that he was from South Carolina and pro-slavery.
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Dred Scott was origionally a slave of Dr. Emerson an army surgeon. When he was transferred in 1836 to Wisconsin, Scott met a women slave by the name of Harriet Robinson. After Dr.Emerson had passed in 1843, Scott would try to gain his freedom. He claimed he and his wife had lived in free states before therefore they were free. This was because of the 1824 case, Whinney v. Whitesides which established "once free always free". In 1857, it was decided he could not be free.
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On this night, John Brown and his followers raided the fort in order to steal a federal arsenal of weapons. The weapons were believed to have the purpose of being used for slave insurrection, although Brown denied this plan when he was asked at trial.
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When LIncoln was elected President, the southern states' fear of slavery being abolished reached an all time high. Lincoln would not stand for the expansion of slavery, but wouldn't bother it where it already existed, although many southerners did not believe this.
