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Missouri Comprimise
The missouri Comprimise of 1820 stated that no new slave territory could be added within the Louisiana Purchase above the 36 degrees, 30 minutes line. -
War With Mexico
The war with mexico was started in order to take California, new Mexico,and part of Texas from mexico. The north saw this as the souths way of trying to acquire more slave territories. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided vast new slave territories for the south. -
Wilmot's Proviso
Congressman Wilmot proposed legislature to bann slavery from the territory acquired by mexio but the free vs. slave representatives were equal in the senate so the southern representatives just blocked the legistlature. This created riffs between the north and south in congress. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The fugitive slave act was part of the comprimise of 1850. It stated that southerners could search for and bring back their slaves that crossed into the north. It also stated that blacks could not have trial by jury, even free blacks, and therefore any white that said that a black was theirs basically acquired him as a slave. This was the most contreversial part of the cmoprimise of 1850 and led to blacks fleeing to canada and an increase in the underground railroad. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska act repealed the 36,30 line and introduced popular sovreignty. Popular sovereignty is the right of each state to choose whether or not to be a slave state by the popular vote. This act was introduced by Stephen Douglas whos main incetive was the railroad running through his city. -
Kansas Popular Sovereignty
This was the first test of the method popular sovereingty. Pro slavery missourians came across the border to intimidate the people to vote pro slavery and hundreds ended mudered. This event was known as "Bleeding Kansas". The significants of this is that it completely demolished the whig party and it divided the northern democrats. -
Republican Party
The massacre in kansas led to the creation of the republican party. The Republican party was solely for the north as its main platform was the issue of abolishing slavery. The southerners took this as a declaration of war against the way that they live. -
Breakdown of 2-party system
The creation of the republican party symbolized a new era for the nation. The north and south could no longer work together as a union. The north and the south increaseed their calls for abolition and extending slavery with no comprimise in either's minds. -
Brooks vs. Sumner
After a heated discussion of slavery vs. free congressman Preston Brooks became so outraged that he savegly beat Senator Charles Sumner with a cane. Brooks beat sumner so badly that brooks even broke his cane. Instead of being remorseful the south hailed him as a hero, which outraged the north. This showed that the nation was falling apart when even the people in charge were acting like savages. -
Dred Scott Supreme Court Case
The southern dominated supreme court ruled in the Dred Scott case that Concress had no power to restrict slavery in any territory, which nullified the Missouri Comprimise and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This then enforced the northern fear that the south would use the government to legalize slavery everywhere which led to many northerners flocking to the republican party. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
The book Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was a novel showing the brutality of slavery. The north was shocked at the horrors of slavery. Upon meeting Stowe Lincoln remarked that she was "the little lady who made this big war." -
House Divided
This speech was given by Abraham Lincoln in his debate against Douglass. He stated that the country could not continue half free and half slave and that we will fall if we do not go one way or the other. -
Harper's Ferry Revolt
John Brown and some of his children conceived the plans to go down to Harper's Ferry, Virginia and start a slave revolt. They thought they would raid the armory and then hand out weapons to all the slaves. Their plans failed drastically as the only person killed was a slave. It did confirm the souths fears that the north would arm the slaves against their masters at any given chance. -
Presidential Election
The presidential election of 1860 was between abraham lincoln, an anti slavery republican, and Breckinridge, a pro slavery democrat. The northerners voted for Lincoln and the southerners voted for Breckinridge but the north had a bigger population so the Lincoln ended up winning the election. The south believed that after this election they had no choice but to abandon the union. -
Crittenden Comprimise
This comprimise was the last effort to save the union by trying to bring back the missouri comprimise but the north and south were past comprimise at this point. -
Fort Sumter
by 1861 7 states had seceeded from the union and had transferred their federal forts over to state government but the federal fort in charleston, fort sumter, was not. South attacked the fort to keep it from being resupplied. Afterwords Lincoln called for volunteers which signaled war.
