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The Compromise of 1850 was made up of five bills that attempted to resolve disputes over slavery in new land added to the United States. -
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed in order to help catch runaway slaves and signed by the thirteenth president, Millard Fillmore. Anyone who aided a runaway could be fined or imprisoned. People in the South believed the law would force Northerners to recognize the their rights. Instead, the enforcement of the law lead to building anger in the North. This law also helped to convince more people the evils of slavery. -
Signed into law by Franklin Pierce (fourteenth president), the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 raised the possibility that slavery could be extended into territories where it had once been banned. This act repealed the Missouri Compromise, which had outlawed slavery above the Louisiana territories and reopened the national struggle over slavery in the western territories. -
Bleeding Kansas describes the period of repeated outbreaks of violent warfare between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces following the creation of the new territory of Kansas in 1854. Both sides sought and received help from outside, the pro-slavery side from the federal government. In total, over 55 documented people died through the years of fighting.
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In Dred Scott V. Sandford, the Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. Dred Scott argued that if his residence was in free territory he should be a free man however the court felt otherwise.
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Charles Sumner, a Massachusetts antislavery Republican, addressed the Senate on the issue of whether Kansas should be admitted to the Union as a slave state or a free state. He was soon assaulted in the U.S. Senate by Congressman Preston Brooks after the speech by Sumner. Sumner went unconscious and was never the same afterwards from the beating. This shows how extreme people felt on the issue of slavery, even in the government. -
The Lincoln-Douglas debates consisted of seven debates between the Democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas and Republican challenger Abraham Lincoln during the 1858 Illinois senatorial campaign. Douglas backed the idea that power was best used at the local level. By contrast, Lincoln argued that only the federal government had the power to abolish slavery. He was against the expansion of slavery however did not want to completely remove it just yet. -
John Brown led a small group of 18 men into the small town of Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His plan was to start a major slave rebellion in the South. He stole several of the weapons and ammunition from the federal arsenal. He then sent a patrol out into the country to contact slaves, collected several hostages, including the great grandnephew of George Washington, and sat down to wait. This would lead to further dividing the south and north by bringing anger on both sides. -
Lincoln had become the symbol of the nation, hard work, the self-made man and the American dream. His debates with Douglas had made him a national figure and was now running for president, Abraham Lincoln received only 40% of the popular vote and 180 electoral votes but it was enough to narrowly win the crowded election. With the north in favor, the south felt outraged from this.