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Slavery
Most enslaved African Americans lived in rural areas where they worked on farms and plantations. Generally, slaveholders viewed slaves as prperty, not as people. Slaveholders bought and sold slaves to make a profit. -
Popular Sovereignty
The idea that political power belongs to the people, who should decide in banning or allowing slavery, was passed during the Missouri Compromise. -
Abolition
Supporting a complete end to slavery -
American Anti-Slavery Society
Members wanted immediate emancipation and racial equality for African Americans. Founded by William Lloyd Garrisoon. -
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Dred Scott Case
Scott sued for his freedom in Missouri state courts, argueing that he had become free when he lived in free territory. 11 years later the case reached the supreme court, they decided that his staus depended on the laws of Missouri and was sent back as a slave. -
Lincoln- Douglass Debates
In 1858 Illinois Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln for the U.S. Senate. His opponent was Democrat Stephen Douglas, who had represented Illinois in the Senate since 1847. Lincoln challenged Douglas in what became known as the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. -
Seneca Falls Convention
Stanton and Mott announced the first public meeting about women's rights held in the United States in Seneca Falls, New York -
Compromise of 1850
California was able to enter the Union as a free state. The rest of the Mexican Cession was divided into two territories- Utah and New Mexico- where the question of whether to allow slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty. -
Congress Passed the Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act made it a crime to help runaway slaves and allowed officials to arrest slaves in free areas. Slaveholders were permitted to take suspected fugitives to U.S. commissioners, who then decided the fate of that African American. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin was publsihed
An anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Baacher Stowe. It's a fictional book that informed people about the evils of slavery and spoke out powerfully againsy slavery. The novel elctrified the nation and sparked outrage in the south. -
Kansas- Nebraska Act was passed
A plan that would divide the remainder if the Louisiana Purchase into two territories- Kansas and Nebraska- and allow the people in each territory yo decide on the question of slavery. -
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Pottawatomic Massacre and Sack of Lawerence
John Brown and his men killed fice pro-slavery men in Kansas in what became the Pottawatomic Massacre.
Violence broke out between pro-slavery and antislavery settlers, 800 pro-slavery men went to Lawerence to arrest antislavery leaders, but thwy had already left. Anger broke out amongst the pro-slavery men and they began to set fires, loot buildings, and destroy presses used to print antislavery newspapers. -
Brooks Attacks Sumner
Preston Brooks attacked Charles Sumner with a walking cane until he was unconscious because he insulted a pro-slavery senator. -
John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry
Began on the night of October 16, 1859 when John Brown and his men took over the aresenal in Harpers Ferry, Vrginia, in hopes of starting a slave rebellion. -
Election of 1860
The northern Democrats chose Senator Stephen Douglas as their representative, the southern democrats chose the current vice president, John C. Breckingridge. A new political party was formed, the Constitutional Union Party, and chose John Bell as their representative. The Republicans' chose Senator William Seward. Lincoln had a unified Republican Party behind him and ended up winning the election. -
Confederate States of America
Also known as the Confederacy, Mississppi, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas seceded from the U.S.
