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The invention of the Cotton Gin greatly increased the rate at which cotton fibers could be separated from the seeds. This invention was crucial in increasing the amount of slaves that could farm the cotton quicker. -
The Missouri Compromise was a legislative decision admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a non-slave state at the same time, to not destroy the balance between slave and free states in the nation. The compromise also outlawed slavery above the 36º 30' latitude line in the remainder of the Louisiana Territory. -
The Wilmot Proviso was an important congressional proposal in the late 1840s. It was proposed to prohibit the extension of slavery into new territories. David Wilmot offered an amendment to forbid slavery in the new territories. This amendment caused national debate across the country heightening sectional conflict. -
The Compromise of 1850 was a set of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that temporarily defused tensions between slave and free states in the years leading up to the American Civil War. -
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was part of the Compromise of 1850. The act required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state. The act also made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves. This act caused many freed or free people to get illegally captured and sold into slavery. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin was a book published by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852. This book followed the story of an enslaved Man in the 1800s. The slave was depicted as saintly and dignified, noble and steadfast in his beliefs. This book shared ideas about the injustices of slavery. -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, created two new territories, and allowed for popular sovereignty. This act also created a violent uprising widely known as "Bleeding Kansas". Where proslavery and antislavery activists attempted to sway the vote -
The Dred Scott vs Sandford was a legal case with the U.S. Supreme Court. Scott resided in a free state and territory. But that did not thereby allow him citizenship. therefore Scott could not expect any protection from the federal government or the courts.
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John Brown's raid occurred in the middle of the 1800s. John Brown was a committed abolitionist he and his men raided and captured citizens and seized the federal armory and arsenal. Sixteen people were killed in the raid. Of the sixteen ten were Brown's men. -
The United States presidential election of 1860. A huge turning point in civil rights and leadership in the U.S. Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge. These two presidents were supported by each side of the U.S. North and South, particularly over slavery.