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Missouri Compromise
In an effort to to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, the Missouri Compromise was passed admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. Slavery was forever prohibited in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36th parallel.
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Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 called for the admission of California as a free state; the strengthening of the Fugitive Slave Law; popular sovereignty in Utah and New Mexico concerning the question of slavery; the abolition of the slave trade in D.C.; and the federal assumption of Texas's debt. As a result, it overturned the Missouri Compromise and left the overall issue of slavery unsettled. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
It is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. The novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S. and is said to have "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War".
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Kansas- Nebraska Act
It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820. -
Dred Scott vs. Sandford decision
The Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. The Court also ruled that Congress lacked power to ban slavery in the U.S. territories. -
John Brown's Raid
It was an effort by white abolitionist John Brown to start an armed slave revolt in 1859. He attacked and captured the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
