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Uncle Tom's Cabin was a book written by Harriet Beecher Stowe that delves into the topic of slavery surrounding a man named Uncle Tom. The book first came out with a lot of criticism from both sides, but in the North, people gradually sympathized more with Uncle Tom and saw the true workings of slavery. It increased tensions between the North and the South and some truths about slavery.
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Bloody Kansas was a series of continual violence in the Kansas territory between pro-slavery and anti-slavery activists over the newly passed Kansas-Nebraska Act that gave the people popular sovereignty. The incidents showed the extent in which people are willing to go for their beliefs on slavery, and that war over slavery is nigh unavoidable and inevitable.
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The Kansas-Nebraska Act, created by Stephen Douglas in an attempt to encourage westward expansion and create the frameworks for a transcontinental railroad, set up the Kansas and Nebraska territories, repealed the Missouri Compromise, and created a gateway for more use of popular sovereignty. The Act led to the Bloody-Kansas incident and stirred political conflict within each territory.
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The Republican Party was on a high rise throughout the 1850s. Its primary purpose was to resist and combat against the expansion of slavery into westward territories. It was created mainly in part to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed for the debate of allowing slavery between the people themselves. The party dominated the North, and further grew tensions between the North and the South primarily in the political department surrounding Congress and the presidency.
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The Brooks-Sumner Incident, also known as the Caning of Charles Sumner, was an event that ended civilized debate on slavery. The event consisted of an angry Preston Brooks storming into the Senate floor and beating the brakes off of Charles Sumner with his cane. During the incident, Preston's cane broke, and he was delivered many more canes to enact more violence against the political opposition.
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The Election of 1856 was heavily dominated by the topic of slavery expanding into the territories and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The outcome was Democrat James Buchanan as President of the United States over Republican John Fremont and Whig-American Millard Fillmore. The significance of this election is the Republican Party being a mass political force.
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The LeCompton Constitution was the first attempt at a Constitution, made by pro-slavery activists, for the Kansas territory. It consisted of laws that made the Kansas territory more for slavery, but was ultimately rejected due to excessive opposition against it.
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Dred Scott was an enslaved man that lived in free states and territories for a good while. Scott, because of this, attempted to sue his owner for his and his wife's freedom. Scott was unsuccessful in this attempt, and the court ruled that enslaved peoples do not have rights, let alone the right to sue. The case also restricted Congress from limiting the expansion of slavery into the territories.
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The Lincoln-Douglas Debates were a series of political debates between Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democratic Stephen Douglas for the spot of a U.S. Senator representing Illinois. Slavery was a heated topic in these debates, and became the reason as to why the Democrats split into two separate parties. Douglas ended up winning the Senator position, but also ended up with extremely divided support that would follow him into the Presidential Election of 1860.
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In Lincoln's House Divided Speech, he focuses on his mentioning that the United States will not last if it were to be divided, saying also that it will gradually be either fully free, or fully for slavery. The speech also acted as a persuasive effort to convert pro-slavery activists to anti-slavery to support the lifespan of the United States.
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John Brown conducted a weapons raid on a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia on October 16th, 1859. The goal of the raid was to initiate a slave revolt and spread across the south, where slaves were given weapons to fight back against their oppressors. The raid ultimately failed, and John Brown was convicted and to be executed for treason. The raid was considered a prelude in itself to the Civil War due to the event heavily intensifying tensions between the North and the South.
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John Brown was an abolitionist leader often thought to be a fanatic, sometimes even by his own supporters. He believed he was doing the work of God by attempting to aid the slaves against their oppressors. Brown conducted the raid on the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and was caught and convicted for treason because of it. His sentence was death, and his execution split the United States even more-so because depending on perspective, he was viewed as either a terrorist, or a martyr.
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In response to Abraham Lincoln being elected as president in 1860, South Carolina, followed by 7 other states, seceded from the union and formed the Confederate States of America. Another four states would be added after the Fort Sumter attacks.
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The Election of 1860 was an important event for the future of the United States at the time. The outcome resulted in Abraham Lincoln being President of the United States, South Carolina seceding from the union, and the start of the Civil War. It also created a divide in the Democratic party, almost to the point of collapsing.
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Lincoln's First Inaugural Address was an attempt at conveying what could happen if the intense debate over slavery were to persist, and an attempt at saving the union from total collapse through an effort to stop the secession of the southern states. The address involved mentions of the rights and liberties of people, and the question of the Constitution's authority and vagueness.
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