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The Missouri Compromise
In 1820, Congress struggled to find a way out of its dealock over Missouri,but then the solution to the problem came to Henry Clay when Maine applied to be a free state. Henry Clay called this agreement the Missouri Compromise, where Missouri was admitted a slave state and Maine a free state. This balanced the power between the free and slave states. -
The "Gag Rule"
The gag rule was basically a desicion that Congress voted for in 1836 to table all antislavery petitions. This desicion was inspired by a group of abolitionists that flooded Congress with antislavery petitions. Congress was told that they had no power to interfere with slavery in the states. This rule silenced all congressional debate over slavery for awhile, even preventing John Quincy Adams propose a constitutional amendament saying that no one could be born into slavery after 1845. -
The Wilmot Proviso
Since the gag rule kept the issue of slavery out of Congress for ten years, President James Polk was focused on the war with Mexico. He sent a bill to Congress for funds for the war. The representative from Pensylvania, David Wilmot, added an amendment to the bill known as the Wilmot Proviso. It explained that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of the territory that might be gained from Mexico after the war. This made Wilmot very unpopular with the south. -
California Applies to be a Free State
In 1849, California applies for admission to the Union as a free state. Northerners welcomed California's application, while the South rejected ir harshly. They explained it would upset the balance between slave and free states and create an unequal representation in Congress. The year concluded with Congress deadlocked over California's statehood. -
The Compromise of 1850
On January 21, 1850, Henry Clay came up with a plan to end the deadlock over California. But to get his plan throught Congress, he needed the support of Senator Daniel Webster. With his support, Clay put through a compromise that: allowed California to be a free state, allow the New Mexico and Utah territories to decide whether to allow slavery or not, end slave trade in Washington D.C., and allow a passage of a strong fugitive slave law. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin is Published
Unlce Tom's Cabin, a novel that was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, brought the horrors of slavery home to Northerners. This novel came from a vision that Harriet had in a church in 1851. This book wrote of Uncle Tom's death at the hands of his master and Eliza's escape from slavery with her young son. These volumes of Uncle Tom's Cabin influenced the Northerners to fight harder for freedom all throughout the country. -
The Ostend Manifesto
The Ostend Manifesto was a document sent to the secretary of state by three American diplomats who were meetind in Ostend, Belgium. The document urged the U.S. government to take Cube by force if Spain continued to refuse to sell the island. When this leaked to the public, angry Northerners charged that President Pierce wanted to make Cuba a slave state to add to Union. -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Stephen A. Douglas created a bill that became known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This bill abolished the Missouri compromise by leaving it up to the settlers in the territories to decide on whether their territories would slave or free. This created tension between the north and south, and both sides decided to send settlers to support their point of view. -
The Republican Party is Created
During the Kansas-Nebraska controversy, antislavery activists fromed a new political organization, the Republican Party. These men were untied by their beliefs that no man can own another, slavery must be prohibited,a nd all new states should be free. In 1858, they nominated Abraham Lincoln to run for the Senate. In his acceptance speech, abraham warned of the dissolving of the Union because of the failure to reach a compromise over slavery. -
The Beating of Senator Sumner
Senator Sumner voiced his suspicions of Stephen Douglas plotting with the South in his speech, "The Crime Against Kansas". The north congradulated Sumner on the "brave and noble speech you made, never to die out in the memories of men." Two days afterward, Preston Brooks attacked Sumner and beat him over the head with his metal-tipped cane until it broke in half. The attacks showed how divided the country had really become. -
The Massacre in Lawrence, Kansas
On the 21st of May in 1856, proslavery settlers and so-called "border ruffians" from Missouri poured Lawrence, Kansas, the home of antislavery government. There, the invaders burned hotels, looted several homes, and threw printing presses of two abolitionist newspapers into the Kaw River. IN response, a fiery abolitionists, John Brown, took seven followers, including his four sons-in-law, two days after the raid on Lawrence to the proslavery town of Pottawatomie, Kansas, and killed five men. -
The Dred Scott Case
In 1857, Dred Scott argues, and took to court, that he was a free, black man. His case was that he traveled with his owner to Wisconsin, where slavery was banned, and when he returned to Missouri he claimed he was free. First of all, Dred Scott, as a slave, did not have the right to bring a case before a federal court and second, his time in Wisconsin did not make him free. With a result of the case, the Missouri Compromise became unconstitutional. -
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
In his Senate race, Lincoln's opponent was Stephen Douglas. The Senator saw no reason to not go on half-slave and half-free, so Abraham challenged him to a debate. During these debates, Douglas arguesd that the Dred Scott desicion put the slavery issue to rest, but Lincoln disagreed. He stated the real controversy was "the sentiment of one class that looks upon the institution of slavery as a wrong, and of another class that does not look upon it as a wrong. Lincoln lost the election later. -
John Brown's Raid
John Brown felt that rather than wait for Congress to a good desicion, he would take matters into his own hadns, extreme matters. He planned to seize the federal arsenal at Harpes Ferry, Virginia, and arm the slaves there to start a rebellion that would end slavery. John launched his raid, unsuccessfully, killing all of his men and sentencing himself to death in the year of 1859. On the day of his death, Brown wrote that slavery would only be purged with blood. -
The Election of 1860
The elcetion of 1860 showed just how divided the confused nation was when election presidents. The Republicans supported Lincoln, Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas, and Southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. Then the Union Party nominated John Bell of Tennessee and the race for presidency became very crazy and confusing. -
The Secession of the South
After the election, Lincoln was interviewed by a reporter and he declared, "Let there be no compromise." The same day South Carolina delegates voted to secede from the Union, followed by six more states. Joined together, the states made the Confederate States of America in February 1861. After this desicion, a South Carolina newspaper bodly proclaimed "The Union Is Dissolved!" -
Abraham Lincoln is Elected
Without much opposition Lincoln wins the presidential election of 1860. It was an odd victory, though, he won with 40 percent of the votes, and all of them were cast in the North. Not one of his votes came from the South, in fact in the South he wasn't even on the ballot. This sent a message to the South, that Congress would eventually try to abolish slavery, and that would mean, " the loss of liberty, property, home, country-everthing that makes life worth living." -
The Battle Fort Sumter
On March 4, 1861, in Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address, he declared, "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war." A month later, Confederates opened fired on Fort Sumter, a federal fort in Charleston Harbor. After 33 hours of shelling the defenders of the fort raised the white flag surrender. This signalled the beginning of a civil war and the end of slavery.
