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Missouri Crisis
Missouri's admission to the Union proved to be no easy matter, since it brought to the surface a violent debate over whether slavery would be allowed in the new state. (RED) Adding Missouri gave either the North or the South two electoral votes over the other, therefore both sides fought while tensions grew over the state. -
Northwest Compromise
The Northwest Compromise of 1820 created the Mason Dixon line and declared all states North of Missouri, while all states South were declared slave states. (RED) Those living above the Mason Dixon line began to see themselves as "Northerners" and those below saw themselves as "Southerners" not Americans, dividing the country further. -
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century enslaved people of African descent in the United States in efforts to escape to free states. (RED) Tensions rose as we see with the strengthening of the 1793 Fugitive Slave Law and leaders in the north gaining a better understanding of slave conditions and disdain for Southerners. -
The Liberator
William Garrison was a journalistic crusader who advocated the immediate emancipation of all slaves and gained a national reputation for being one of the most radical of American abolitionists. (RED) Garrison's newspaper became one of the most influential newspaper in the antislavery crusade, while Southerners demanded for the paper to be disbanded or William be captured. -
Nat Turners Slave Revolt
Believing himself chosen by God to lead his people out of slavery, Nat Turner and his 70 followers kill 60 white people. (BLUE) people were more hesitant to own slaves after the revolt. -
Texas Annexation of 1844
Texas gained independence for Mexico after an increasing numbers of American settlers filled the region north of the Rio Grande. (RED) The North and the South both started fighting over wether Texas would operate as if it was Northern or Southern. -
Wilmot Proviso
It prohibited the expansion of slavery into any territory acquired by the United States from Mexico as a result of the Mexican-American War settlement.(RED) Although it was blocked in the southern-dominated Senate, it continued the growing controversy over slavery, and helped bring about the formation of the Republican Party in 1854 -
Compromise of 1850
It consisted of laws admitting California as a free state, creating Utah and New Mexico territories that got to decide their own laws on slaves, it also ended the salve trade in Washington D.C and sent the Fugitive Slave Law into affect. (BLUE) Each side received benefits, with the balance of the Senate was now with the free states, however the South was able to pass the Fugitive Slave Law. -
Fugitive Slave Act
Required the return of runaway slaves by forcing the authorities in free states to return fugitive slaves to their masters, since the slaves were property not people with freedoms. (RED) The Fugitive Slave Law produced widespread outrage in the North and convinced thousands of Northerners that slavery should be barred from the western territories. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
The strength of Uncle Tom's Cabin is its ability to illustrate slavery's effect on families, and to help readers empathize with enslaved characters. (RED) People in the North were outraged by what was going on in the South. -
Formation of Republican Party
The Republican party began as a coalition of anti-slavery who opposed to the Kansas–Nebraska Act. (RED) The formation of the Republican party is one of the reasons Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860 president over a divided Democratic Party, and six weeks later South Carolina formally seceded from the Union. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed all territory to the North decide the issue of slavery on the basis of popular sovereignty. (RED) The North was furious that the Missouri compromise was being repealed. -
Red Scott
Legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Dred Scott, who had resided in a free state and territory, was not thereby entitled to his freedom. (RED) The Supreme Court ruling meant that you could slaves into Western Territories. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
A series of seven debates between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln during the 1858 Illinois state election, they debated over wether slaves should be allowed in the West. (BLUE) This was just a state election so few paid attention. -
John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry
John Brown and twenty- one other men launched an attack on the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. (RED) Abolitionists, along with liberal and moderate Northerners, this angered the South that Northerners were celebrating a man who took many lives. -
Election of 1860
Abraham Lincoln won 1860 election defeating Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. (RED) Tensions skyrocketed after he was elected cause the South wanted to secede due to him wanting to abolish slavery. -
Bleeding Kansas
The term used to described the period of violence during the settling of the Kansas territory. (RED) Many people were in the battle between the "Free-Staters" and the pro slavery southerns.
