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Compromise of 1850
Henry proposes the Compromise of 1850 to handle Claifornia's petition for admission to the Union as a free state and Texas's demand for land in New Mexico. The Compromise set up a status between the northern and southern regions of the United States in terms of slavery policy. The Compromise of 1850 determined that new states would be slave-free, and the slave trade was also abolished in Washington D.C. -
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin as a response to the pro-slavery movement. Uncle Tom's Cabin illustrated slavery's effect on families. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act passes congress and thus overturns the Missouri compromise opening the Norhtern territory to slavery. Both sides begin to send settlers into the areas in an effort to influence the future states of these areas. The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed for new territories to decide if they were a free or slave state by popular sovereignty. The Kansas-Nebraska act reignited the disagreement between pro and anti slavery factions. -
Bloody Kansas
As Kansas prepares for elections thousands of Border Ruffians from Missouri enter the territory in an effort to influence the election. This begins the Bloody Kansas period with duplicate constitutional conventions, separate elections and constant and violent attacks. The anti-slavery supporters and the proslavey supporters took extreme actions to express how they felt toward eachother, this included kidnappings, death and burning of buildings. -
Andrew Butler and Charles Sumner
Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner delivers a speech attacking slavery supporters in the senate. He singles out senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina in his new speech. Two days later, South carolina Representative Preston Brooks, Butler's nephew, attacks Sumner on the senate floor and beats him with a cane. The House did not expel or censure Brooks for the attack, Sumner took three years to recover. -
Tariff of 1857
Congress passes the Tariff of 1857 lowering rates to the lowest level since 1812 to 20%, this is very unpopular in the North and praised in the South. March- Dred Scott Decison- The Supreme Court rules in Scott v. Sandford that blacks are not U.S citizens, and slaveholders have the right to take existing slaves into free areas of the country. The panic gave the South false hope and an overconfidence in their economy to be able to withstand a possible secession from the U.S. -
Minnesota- free state
Minnesota becomes the thirty second state and enters the Union as a free state in 1858. Before the war, Minnesota was a temporary home for Dred Scott, a slave at Fort Snelling. Minnesota being admitted as a free state helped to elect Abraham Lincoln. -
Oregon- free state
Oregon becomes the thirty third state and enters the Union as a free state in 1859. -
1860 Election
November 6, Abraham Lincoln wins the 1860 presidential election on a platform that includes the prohibition of slavery in new states ad territories. Lincoln wins all of the electoral votes in all of the free states except New Jersey where he wins 4 votes and Stephen A.Douglas wins 3. The official count of electoral votes occurs February 13,1861.
