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Slavery Timeline
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The Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 admitting slavery as a slave state and Maine as a free state. In the years leading up to the Missouri Compromise tenison began to rise between proslavery and antislavery within and around the U.S. Congress. To keep the peace Congress orchestrated a two-part compromise, granting Missouri's request but alsoadmitting Maine as a free state. They only allowed slavery South of Louisiana only. -
Formation of Free-Soil Party
In 1848 antislavery members met in buffalo, New Your. There, they founded the Free-Soil Party. The main goal was to keep slavery out of the western territiories, but only a few Free-Soilers were abolitionists who wanted to end slavery in the South as wall. Then, over a short period of time, 13 other Free-Soilers won seats in the Congress, which showed that slavery had become a national issue. -
Compromise of 1850
Senator Henry Clay introduced a series of resolutions on January 29, 1850, in attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South. As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
An event in 1852 added to growing anti-slavery mood if the North. Harriet Beecher Stowe, a New England woman, published a novel called Uncle Tom's Cabin. Stowe wrote the novel to show the evils of slavery and the injustice of the Fugitive Slave Act. -
Republican Party
In Ripon, Wisconsin, former members of the Whig Party meet to establish a new party to oppose the spread of slavery in the western territories. The Republicans rapidly gained suporters in the North. By 1860, the majority of the Southerns states were publicly threatening secession if the Republicand won the presidency. Later that year, Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president, and in April, 1861 the civil war began -
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas territory is the trem used to described the period of violence during the settling of the Kansas territory. Violence soon erupted as both factions, anti-slavery and pro-slavery, fought for control. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
An 1854 bill that mandated "popular sovereignty"-allowing settlers to a territory to decide whether slavery whould be allowed within a new state's borders. The conflicts that arose between proslavery and antislavery settlers in the aftermath of the act's passage led to period of violence known as Bleeding Kansas, and helped paved the way for the American Civil War in 1861-65. -
Dred-Scott Case
Eager to restore peace, in 1857, the Court ruled on a case that involved an enslaved person named Dred Scott. Instead of bringing harmony, however, the Court's decision further divided the North and South. Dred Scott had be enslaved for many years in Missouri. Later, he moved with his owner to Illinois where slavery was not allowed. -
John Brown's Raid
John Brown led a small army of 18 men into the small town of Harper's Ferry, Virginia. His plan was to instigate a major slave rebellion in the South. John Brown marched into an unsuspection Harper's Ferry and seized the federal complex with little resistance. The slaves did not rise to his support, but local citizens and militia surrounded him. He was arrested and sentenced to hang on December 2. -
The Election of 1860
The Democrats met in Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1860 to select their candidate for President in the upcoming election. They needed a candidate who could carry the North and win a majority of the Electoral College. In the end Abraham Lincoln emerged as the best choice. After the third ballot, he had the nomination for President.
