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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 primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories. It prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30′ north except within the boundaries of the proposed state of Missouri. -
Wilmot Proviso
David Wilmot first introduced the Proviso which was one of the major events leading to the American Civil War, would have banned slavery in any territory to be acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War or in the future, including the area later known as the Mexican Cession but it never passed through the senate where southerners had greater representation. -
Fugitive Slave Law
It declared that all runaway slaves be brought back to their masters. Forcing everone to become slave catchers, which the North didn't obey. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin published
Uncle Tom's Cabin is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe.This book featured the character of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave around whom the stories of other characters revolve. It depicts the reality of slavery while also asserting that Christian love can overcome something as destructive as enslavement of fellow human beings. It was the second best-selling novel in the 19th century, after the bible. -
Onsted Manifesto
Ostend Manifesto was a document that described the rationale for the United States to purchase Cuba from Spain while implying that the U.S. should declare war if Spain refused. Four months after its drafting, the dispatch was published in full at the behest of the House of Representatives. Dubbed the "Ostend Manifesto", it was immediately denounced in both the Northern states and Europe. -
Charles Summer beaten
Summer voiced his opinions about the violence in Kanas with a speech entitled "The Crime Against Kansas." Only two days after this speech Preston Brooks attacked Summer, beating him with his cane until he was unconscious. The reactions to the attack on Summer showed how badly divided the county had become. -
John Brown invades Pottawatomie, Kansas
In reaction to the sacking of Lawrence (Kansas) by pro-slavery forces, John Brown and a band of abolitionist settlers killed five settlers north of Pottawatomie Creek .This was one of the many bloody episodes in Kansas preceding the American Civil War, which came to be known collectively as Bleeding Kansas. -
Dred Scott Decision
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.The case before the court was that of Dred Scott v. Sanford. Dred Scott, a slave who had lived in the free state of Illinois and the free territory of Wisconsin before moving back to th -
Lincoln-Douglas debates
Douglas posed and opinion of there being no problem with the nation being half pro-slavery, half anti-slavery causing Lincoln (Douglas's opponent) to challenge him to debate the slavery issue, in which Douglas agreed. Lincoln lost the election but he still became wildly popular after these debates. His national figure caused the nation to look more closely at this on going problem of slavery. -
Harper's Ferry Raid
This was an attempt by white abolitionist John Brown to start an armed slave revolt by seizing a United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry.Brown's raid was defeated by a detachment of U.S. Marines led by Col. Robert E. Lee. John Brown had originally asked Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, both of whom he had met in his formative years as an abolitionist in Springfield, Massachusetts, to join him when he attacked the armory, but illness prevented Tubman from joining him, and Douglass believed t -
Abraham Lincoln elected President of United States
Abraham became president after winning against two opponents with 40 percent of the votes. With this win the south now felt for sure like a minority This caused talk of secession to break out. -
South Carolina secedes
Lincoln made a speech about slavery after his was elected stating that he would not interfere with slavery and would support the Fugitive Slave Law but would not let slavery espand into the territories. That same day South Carolina, delegates attending a state convention voted to leave the Union. Six more states soon followed. -
Fort Sumter attack
This attack was the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina, that started the American Civil War. Following declarations of secession by seven Southern states, South Carolina demanded that the U.S. Army abandon its facilities in Charleston Harbor. -
Raid on Lawrence, Kansas
The struggle over slavery quickly turned violent after the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Pro-slavery settlers from Missouri invaded Lawrence, Kansas.The raid on Lawrence began a wave of outrage in the North. Thats when John Brown thought up his own revenge. Brown and seven followers, mostly related to him, invaded the pro-slavery town of Pottawaatome. They killed five men that were suspected of supporting slavery. The north found him a hero while the south thought of him as a cruel murderer. -
California Statehood
When deciding whether to make california a slave or free state an idea of making the compromise line stretch all the way to the pacific was put on the table but quicly disagreed with. Then Califonia applied itself for admission of a free state, which took much controversy but was later aloud although the Southerners were still upset do to slave state minority -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Douglas proposed a bill in congress stating that he wanted to build a railroad all the way to California and in order to make that happen he wanted to organize the Great Plains into Nebraska Territory and open the region to settlers. Even though the territory lied north of the compromise line southerners would only agree if he made a few changes. His final bill created two new territories Kansas and Nebraska while leaving the settlers to deciede if the territories would become slave of free.
