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The American Colonization Society forms
The American Colonization Society started in 1816 as an organization dedicated to promoting the manumission of the enslaved and the settlement of free blacks in West Africa, -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an agreement passed in 1820 between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving mainly the regulation of slavery in the western territories. It didn't allow slavery in the former Louisiana Territory. -
The American Antislavery Society forms
In 1831 Arthur Tappan and Lewis Tappan established the first Anti-Slavery Society in New York. When two years later it became a national organization. 1840 to 1870 it published a weekly newspaper, the National Anti-Slavery Standard. -
The Liberty Party forms
The Libery Party was the first antislavery party. They broke away from the American Anti-Slavery Society to support the view that the Constitution was an anti-slavery document. The American Anti-Slavery Society didn't belive that. -
The Mexican-American War starts
The Mexican-American War started in 1846 because of the annexation of Texas, Mexico considered Texas part of their territory. American forces quickly occupied New Mexico and California, then invaded parts of Northeastern Mexico and Northwest Mexico. The United States won the war February 2, 1848. -
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso would have banned slavery in any territory to be acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War. Wilmot introduced the Proviso in the United States House of Representatives on August 8, 1846, it passed the house but failed in the senate. Then in 1847 it failed the senate again. -
The Free Soil Party forms
The Free Soil Party was a politcal party in the United States, but it only was present in the 1848 and 1852 elections. It was an antislavery party with members from the Whig Party and members from the Democratic Party. Its main purpose was to stop the expansion of slavery -
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush started when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California in 1848. All in all, the news of gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad -
The Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a set of bills that stopped a four-year conflict between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North about the land aquired from the Mexican-American war -
Uncle Tom's Cabin is published
Uncle Tom's cabin is an anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement. The main purpose of this Act was to open up many thousands of new farms and a midwestern railroad. -
The Sumner-Brooks Affair
On May 22nd 1856 Pro-slavery congressman Preston Brooks attacked antislavery Senator Charles Sumner on floor of Senate. Without warning, Brooks rushed forward and began beating the unsuspecting Sumner savagely with a gold-tipped wooden cane. -
The Dred Scott decision
Roger B. Taney, declared that all blacks, slaves as well as free, were not protected by the constitution. Dred Scott was a slave that lived in the free state of Illinois, and he went to the Supreme Court in hopes of being granted his freedom. -
The Lincoln-Douglas debates
The Lincoln–Douglas Debates of 1858 were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican Party candidate, and Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. the main issue in all of these debates was about slavery. -
The Election of 1860
The election of 1860 was an election held for the office of President of the United States, and Abrham Lincoln won that election.
During the 1850's the U.S was being divided because of questions surrounding the expansion of slavery and the rights of slave owners. This caused Civil War.
