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Wilmot Proviso
one of the major events leading to the civil war. it was one of the important congressional proposal to prohibit the extension of slavery into the territories, After the Mexican War James K. Polk asked the Congress for $2 million to settle the boundry with mexico -
The Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a series of five bills that were intended to stave off sectional strife. -
Nativism and the Know Nothings
The Know-Nothings is called that because members responded "I know nothing" when asked about their party's positions. Nativists believed that the United States should be reserved for those born here. They opposed immigration and were anti-Catholic, arguing that Catholics were loyal to the pope. -
The Fugitive Slave Law
The Fugitive Slave Law was 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.In 1843, several hundred slaves a year were sescaping to the North and making slavery an unstable institution in the border states. -
Kansas Nebraska Act 1854
created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska by opening new lands for settlement and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing settlers in those territories to determine through Popular Sovereignty. whether they would allow slavery within each territory. -
Bleeding Kansas
was a series of violent political confrontations involving anti-slavery, Free-Staters and pro-slavery elements. It took place in the Kansas Territory and the neighboring towns of Missouri between 1854 and 1861. -
Charles Sumner Beating-Preston Brooks
was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer. He was the leader of the anti slavery and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate. During the Civil War he was working to destroy the Confederacy to free all the slaves. -
The Dred Scott Decision 1857
The decision for Dred Scott was read in court in March 1857. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote the "majority opinion" for the court. It stated that because Scott was black he was not a citizen and therefore had no right to sue. The decision also declared the Missouri Compromise of 1820, legislation which restricted slavery in certain territories unconstitutional. -
Lincoln Douglas Debates
The debates between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln were held during the 1858. Lincoln stated that the US could not survive as half-slave and half-free states. The Lincoln-Douglas debates drew the attention of the entire nation. Although Lincoln would lose the Senate race in 1858, he would beat Douglas out in the 1860 race for the US Presidency. -
The New Republican Party Forms
The Republicans gained supporters in the North. In 1856 their first presidential candidate John C. Fremont won 11 out of the 16 Northern states. April 1861 the Civil War began when Confederate shore batteries under General P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina's Charleston Bay. -
Harpers Ferry Incident
assault by an armed band of led by John Brown. It was a main incident to the American Civil War. The raid on Harpers Ferry was elaborate plan to make an independent stronghold of free slaves in the mountains of Maryland and Virginia. -
Lincoln Elected President
Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States over a deeply divided Democratic Party, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency. Lincoln received only 40 percent of the popular vote. -
Southern Succession-the Confederacy
Secession in the United States typically refers to state secession.The most serious attempt at secession was in the years 1860 and 1861 as eleven southern states each declared themselves seceded from the United States and joined together to form the Confederate States of America. This movement collapsed in 1865 with the defeat of Confederate forces by Union armies in the American Civil War.
