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Missouri Compromise (Compromise of 1820)
Missouri would be a slave state and Maine would be admitted as a free state; help created feelings of sectionalism -
Tariff of Abominations
The Tariff of Abominations was the name given to the Tariff of 1828 by outraged southerners who felt the tax on imports was excessive and unfair; set very high duties on goods imported into the United States. -
Wilmot Proviso
suggested that slavery be banned from any territory gained from the Mexican-American war; helped to increase sectional differences -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was five bills intended to stave off sectional strife; spread of slavery to territories in order to keep northern and southern in balance. -
Fugitive Slave Act
allowed the arrest of escaped slaves in states where slavery was illegal; made it a federal crime to assist runaway slaves -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
written by angry northerner, Harriett Beecher Stowe; series of short stories about slave life for an antislavery newspaper -
Underground Railroad
an informal, constantly changing network of escape routes; helped hundred of slaves to freedom -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The deaths of Clay and Webster led to new leadership in congress -
Know-Nothing Party
campaigned against immigrants -
Sack of Lawrence
On the morning of May 21, 1856 an armed force of as many as 800 men descended upon the newly formed town of Lawrence in the Territory of Kansas and proceeded to systematically destroy it. With this act, the town of Lawrence became the first casualty in America's Civil War that would officially be declared five years later. -
Pottawatomie Massacre (Bleeding Kansas)
murder of 5 men from a proslavery settlement pottawomie creek; -
Brooks/Sumner Senate
Congressman Preston Brooks attacked Sumner with a walking stick: a while sumner was sitting at his desk
