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Northwest Ordinance (Red)
(Political) The Northwest Ordinance created a single Northwest Territory out of the lands north of the Ohio that could be divided into three to five territories. The ordinance also gave specifications on the powers of the Northwest Territory being that a territory was guaranteed freedom of religion and the right to trial by jury to residents of the Northwest, required a minimum population of 60,000 people for statehood, and prohibited slavery throughout the territory. -
Missouri Compromise (Green)
(Political)
The Missouri Compromise was a proposal that created a balance of slave and free states by affirming Missouri as a slave state and affirming the territory north of Massachusetts (Maine) as a free state. The compromise also prohibited slavery in the section of the territory purchased in the Louisiana Purchase that was north of the southern boundary of Missouri (the 36 30 parallel). -
Nat Turner Rebellion (Red)
(Social)
The Nat Turner Rebellion was a slave revolt organized by slave preacher, Nat Turner, who led a band of African Americans who armed themselves with guns and axes and went house to house in Southampton County, Virginia and kill the white people who oppressed them. The rebellion was eventually halted by state and federal troops but only after 60 white citizens were murdered. The rebellion led to the executions of over 100 blacks and the spread of slave conspiracies throughout America. -
Gag Rule (Red)
(Political)
The Gag Rule was a series of congressional resolutions implemented by pro-slavery forces that prevented the discussion of slavery and the consideration of anti-slavery petitions within the House of Representatives. This rule upset many people because it took away the first amendment right to freedom to petition. -
Amistad Case (Red)
(Political and Social)
The Amistad Case was a suit that was taken to the Supreme Court that decided whether or not a group of African slaves, who were illegally being sent to Cuba on a ship called the Amistad, were considered free after they rebelled by seizing the ship and attempting to return it to Africa. The Supreme Court declared that the Africans free in 1841 since the crew was caught violating laws that forbade international slave trade. -
Annexation of Texas (Red)
(Political
The Annexation of Texas was the process of granting a section of Mexican territory called Texas statehood after Americans who settled Texas wanted to be independent from Mexico. Deciding whether or not to annex Texas into the United States was a very controversial topic for political candidates because the annexation would most likely create tension between the U.S. and Mexico and start a war. Eventually, Texas was annexed in 1845 and a war with the Mexicans seemed inevitable. -
Mexican War (Red)
(Political)
The Mexican War was a conflict that arose after the annexation of Texas and Mexico didn't recognize Texas's Independence from the country. Mexico ended up declaring war and America saw the war a way to annex more territory from Mexico. The war ended on February 2, 1848 with the creation of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which ended the war. In the treaty, Mexico agreed to cede California and New Mexico to the U.S. and acknowledge the Rio Grande as the boundary of Texas. -
Wilmot Proviso (Red)
(Political)
The Wilmot Proviso was proposed as an amendment to the appropriation bill prohibiting slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico. The amendment was passed by the House of Representatives but wasn't passed in the Senate leading to its failure.This made the north upset since the south would now have a greater amount of slave states to rival the free states of the north. -
California Gold Rush (Red)
(Economic and Social)
The California Gold Rush was a movement that all started by James Marshall who discovered traces of gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.The word spread and soon enough hundreds of thousands of people around the world flocked to California to profit off the gold that was obtainable in the area.The gold rush created a serious labor shortage in California and led to an overt exploitation of Indians who were used as slaves but it was critical to the growth of California. -
Compromise of 1850 (Green)
(Political)
The Compromise of 1850 was an agreement presented to the senate by Henry Clay that relieved tensions between the north and the south. The compromise admitted California as a free state, formed territorial governments in the territories acquired from Mexico, abolished the slave trade, and formed a new an more effective fugitive slave law. The compromise was considered as a victory and a triumph that solved a sectional problem. -
Fugitive Slave Act (Red)
(Political)
The Fugitive Slave Act was a resolution made in the Compromise of 1850 that required that if a slave had escaped to the north, that the federal government would have to returned the slave to its owner in the south. This act made the south upset because the north refused to enforce it so owners rarely had their slaves returned to them. -
Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin (Red)
(Social)
Uncle Tom's Cabin was an antislavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It is a story about slavery and an aging black man named, Uncle Tom, who is submissive to his white masters. The novel criticizes slavery and how it violates the importance of domestic values an d family security. When the novel was published it inflamed the public opinion in the North and South in the years before the Civil War and was claimed to be the cause of the war by Abraham Lincoln. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act / Bleeding Kansas (Red)
(Political and Social)
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was proposed by Stephen Douglas and was used to organize the area west of Missouri and Iowa by creating two territories (Kansas and Nebraska) that would be declared as a free or slave state by popular sovereignty. The act repealed the Missouri Compromise and allowed everything above the line decided in the compromise to be considered free.Pro- and anti-slavery groups fought in a conflict known as "Bleeding Kansas" over the status of the state. -
Ostend Manifesto (Red)
(Political)
The Ostend Manifesto was a private document sent from Ostend, Belgium that made a case for Franklin Pierce to seize Cuba from Spain by force. The antislavery northerners were enraged by the document because it would bring a new slave state into the Union and the south opposed all efforts to acquire the new territory since it would not support the slave system. The treaty eventually died in Senate because it contained a clause prohibiting slavery in the islands. -
Dred Scott Decision (Red)
(Political and Social)
The Dred Scott Decision was a case that was taken to the Supreme Court that decided whether Dred Scott, a Missouri slave that was taken to Illinois by his master who died, would be free since he now lived in a state where slavery was forbidden.This case was originally decided in a circuit court that declared Scott as free but was taken to the Supreme Court to be retried. The court decided that since Dred was considered property, he couldn't sue in federal court. -
Raid on Harper's Ferry (Red)
(Political and Social)
The Raid on Harper's Ferry was led by John Brown, an antislavery zealot, who attempted to seize a fortress in Virginia where he could foment a slave insurrection in the South. Brown and a group of followers seized control of an arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia but were besieged by citizens, local militia companies, and eventually United States troops. After the raid, Brown was executed and the south believed that the north was committed to starting a slave insurrection. -
Crittenden Compromise (Green)
(Political)
The Crittenden Compromise was a proposal submitted by Senator John Crittenden that called for six constitutional amendments that guaranteed the permanent existence of slavery in the slave states.It also satisfied Southern demands on issues such as fugitive slaves, slavery in the District of Columbia, and the reinstating of the Missouri Compromise line. Southerners in the senate agreed with the compromise but the republicans rejected it due to too many concessions given to the south.
