-
Missouri Compromise
To preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, the Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. With the exception of Missouri, this law prohibited slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of the 36° 30´ latitude line. -
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 unfairly targeted their region of the country. The tariff, which became law in the spring of 1828, set very high duties on goods imported into the United States, and it did create major economic problems for the South. Adding insult to injury, the law had been devised to protect manufacturers in the Northeast. -
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso of 1846, an amendment to a bill put before the U.S. House of Representatives during the Mexican War, provided $2 million to enable President Polk to negotiate a territorial agreement with Mexico. David Wilmot introduced an amendment to the bill stipulating that none of the territory acquired in the Mexican War should be open to slavery. The Wilmot Proviso created great bitterness between North and South and helped emphasize the conflict over the extension of slavery. -
Free-Soil Party
The Free-Soil Party was a political party that came into existence in 1847–48 chiefly because of rising opposition to the extension of slavery into any of the territories newly acquired from Mexico. -
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad, a large network of people who helped fugitive slaves escape to the North and to Canada. It consisted of many individuals, many whites but predominently black, who knew only of the local efforts to aid fugitives and not of the overall operation. Still, it effectively moved hundreds of slaves northward each year -- according to one estimate, the South lost 100,000 slaves between 1810 and 1850. -
Know-Nothig Party
The Know-Nothing Party was a prominent United States political party during the late 1840s and the early 1850s. Its members strongly opposed immigrants and followers of the Catholic Church. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Acts increased federal and free-state responsibility for the recovery of fugitive slaves. The law provided for the appointment of federal commissioners empowered to issue warrants for the arrest of alleged fugitive slaves and to enlist the aid of posses and even civilian bystanders in their apprehension. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, allowing slavery in the territory north of the 36° 30´ latitude. The Kansas-Nebraska Act stipulated that the issue of slavery would be decided by the residents of each territory, a concept known as popular sovereignty. After the bill passed on May 30, 1854, violence erupted in Kansas between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers, a prelude to the Civil War. -
Republican Party
Generally belligerent toward the South, the Republicans were regarded by Southerners with mingled hatred and fear as sectional tension increased. They were successful in the elections of 1858 and passed over their better-known leaders to nominate Abraham Lincoln in 1860. -
The Election Of 1856
The Republicans ran their first presidential campaign in 1856. Buchanan emerged the victor, but failed to gain a majority of the popular vote. -
Sack Of Lawrence
The sack of Lawrence was a direct act of violent aggression by slave-owning southern "fire eaters." On May 21, 1856, the pro-slavery forces sprung into action. A posse of over 800 men from Kansas and Missouri rode to Lawrence to arrest members of the free state government. -
Brooks/Sumner Senate Caning
South Carolina Representative Preston S. Brooks entered the chamber to avenge the insults that Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner had levelled at Brooks' cousin, Sumner was addressing copies of the speech at his desk when Brooks began his attack, striking the senator repeatedly with a walking cane.. -
Pottawatomie Massacre
On the night of May 24, 1856, a small band of abolitionists led by John Brown murdered five pro-slavery men along Pottawatomie Creek. This massacre in "Bleeding Kansas" was one of the most famous events leading up to the American Civil War. Brown was later captured, tried and hanged for his unsuccessful raid on Harper's Ferry, (West) Virginia in 1859. -
Dred Scott Deision
In March of 1857, the United States Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, declared that all blacks, slaves as well as free, were not and could never become citizens of the United States. The court also declared the 1820 Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, thus permiting slavery in all of the country's territories. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
The Lincoln-Douglas debates were a series of formal political debates between the challenger, Abraham Lincoln, and the incumbent, Stephen A. Douglas, in a campaign for one of Illinois' two United States Senate seats. Although Lincoln lost the election, these debates launched him into national prominence which eventually led to his election as President of the United States. There were 7 debates. -
Freeport Doctrine
At Freeport, Illinois, on August 27, 1858, in the second of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Douglas made an effort to revive the doctrine of popular sovereignty. He stated that slavery could legally be barred from the territories if the territorial legislatures simply refused to enact the type of police regulations necessary to make slavery work. Without a legal framework and enforcement officials, slavery would be excluded. -
Harpers Ferry Incident
On October 16, 1859, abolitionist John Brown and several followers seized the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. The actions of Brown's men brought national attention to the emotional divisions concerning slavery -
South Carolina Secession
A month after Lincoln's election, South Carolina secedes the Union. Followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. -
The Election of 1860
By the election of 1860 profound divisions existed among Americans over the future course of their country, and especially over the South's slavery. Abraham Lincoln won. -
Formation Of The Confederate States Of America
In Alabama, representatives met to form a new nation. Jefferson Davis elected temporary president and new constitution protected slavery. -
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter, a Union fort, was on Confederate land. The Confederacy felt that the Union should give up the fort but the Union said no.The Confederate artillery opened fire on the fort and an outgunned Fort Sumter surrendered thenext day.
