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Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 made it legal for slaves to be captured even in free states and brought back to their masters. The law upset MANY Northerners who struggled to choose to either follow an unjust law or defy their consciences. The law lead to an increase in Northern sectionalism because citizens were required to help maintain the institution of slavery that they disagreed with, only heightening the degree of hostility between the North and the South. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin was an influential book written in 1852 by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It laid out the horrors of slavery and showcased the separation of families that occurred as part of slave trade. The book reached out especially to the women of the North because many were mothers and could not fathom having their children taken away from them. Because of the book's vivd descriptions of families being pulled apart, sectionalism increased in the North as more people began to hate the South. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 made Kansas and Nebraska new territories that could be settled by Americans. They were granted popular sovereignty to decide if slavery would be legal or not. As a result, Northerners and Southerners flooded into the states hoping to vote pro or anti slavery. Riots broke out as the two sides clashed for votes and Bleeding Kansas became the home of violence and hostility. This increased sectionalism on both sides and gave the South more reason to secede. -
Ostend Manifesto
The Ostend Manifesto was an idea supported mostly by Southern expansionists to seize Cuba by use of force. The South saw Cuba as a potential benefit given it grew many similar crops and could be annexed to expand the reaches of slavery. The North criticized the Manifesto immediately and claimed it was only drafted because the South sought to keep slavery. This further divided the ideas of the two regions and allowed the animosity of the South to grow which would eventually lead to secession. -
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott was a slave. He was brought by his master to Minnesota and Illinois-- both free states. Scott sued his master and argued that since he was currently living in a free states, he must be set free. Judge Taney, who presided over the suit, ultimately made the ruling that slaves aren't citizens, so they are not entitled to the rights that citizens have. The ruling caused and uproar in the North because it hinted a victory for the South and defied the whole idea of a free state being free. -
Raid at Harpers Ferry
John Brown had apparently been told by God to stop slavery by all means necessary. He took this to mean slaughtering pro-slavery families then years later leading an armed slave revolt on the arsenal Harpers Ferry. He killed and wounded some people before, in the end, getting caught and hanged. This act upset all of the South and gave it undeniable proof to use on the North of why it should secede from an disunited union. Within a year, the first state seceded from the Union. -
Election of Abraham Lincoln
The election of Abraham Lincoln was the final straw for the South and a perfect time to secede from the Union. The states chose to secede before Lincoln's inauguration because Lincoln couldn't threaten them with treason, President Buchanon did absolutely nothing to stop them, the anti-slavery Republicans were the majority in government which meant no legal way to keep slavery in the South, and the built up hostilities had finally been too much.
