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Wilmot Proviso
designed to eliminate slavery within the land acquired as a result of the Mexican War (1846-48). Soon after the war began, President James K. Polk sought the appropriation of $2 million as part of a bill to negotiate the terms of a treaty. Lowered slavery tension -
Mexican War
The Mexican–American War, also known as the Mexican War, the U.S.–Mexican War or the Invasion of Mexico, was an armed conflict between the United States of America and the United Mexican States from 1846 to 1848.; Raised tension of slavery -
California Gold Rush
Raised tension over slavery; After James Marshall discovered gold in Coloma, he tried to keep his discovery a secret. But the secret was too big to keep. The laborers at the sawmill had close friends working at Sutter's Fort. -
Compromise of 1850
a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850, which defused a four-year political confrontation between slave and free states regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). Lowered Tension over slavery -
Missouri Compromise
It regulated slavery in the country's western territories by prohibiting the practice in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30′ north, Lowered slave tension -
Fugitive Slave Law
Raised tension over slavery; passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. -
Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly, is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman; increaed slavery tension -
Republican Party Forms
anti-slavery Whigs had begun meeting in the upper midwestern states to discuss the formation of a new party. One such meeting, in Wisconsin on March 20, 1854, i -
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 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´; Raised slavery tension -
Charles Sumner caned in the Senate
Representative Preston Brooks (D-SC) attacked Senator Charles Sumner (R-MA), an abolitionist, with a walking cane in retaliation for a speech given by Sumner two days earlier; Raised slavery Tension -
Dred Scott vs. Sandford
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.: Raised slavery tension -
John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was an effort by white abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.; Raised slavery tensions -
Abraham Lincoln elected President
Lincoln won the party's presidential nomination. In the November 1860 election, Lincoln again faced Douglas, who represented the Northern faction of a heavily divided Democratic Party, -
“Bleeding Kansas”
Bloody Kansas or the Border War was a series of violent political confrontations in the United States involving anti-slavery. and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian", elements in Kansas raised d Slavery Tension -
Battle at Fort Sumter
the bombardment of U.S. Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina, by the Confederates, and the return gunfire and subsequent surrender by the U.S. Army that started the American Civil War. -
Southern states begin to secede
South Carolina was the first to leave the Union and form a new nation called the Confederate States of America. Raised Slavery Tension
