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Compromise of 1850
The compromise prevented further territorial expansion of slavery while strengthening the Fugitive Slave Act. The new Fugitive Slave Act, by forcing non-slaveholders to participate in the institution, also led to increased division among political citizens. Some of the major terms were that California be admitted as a free slave, and Utah, New Mexico territories decide about slavery, the sale of slaves be banned in the District of Columbia, but slavery was still to be permitted. -
Fugitive Slave Act
This was passed by the United States Congress as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers.
It was one of the most controversial elements of the 1850 compromise and heightened Northern fears of a "slave power conspiracy". It required that all escaped slaves were, upon capture, to be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin is published
Thi book had a major influence on the way the American public viewed slavery. Uncle Tom's Cabin contributed to the outbreak of war by personalizing the political and economic arguments about slavery. Across the north, readers became acutely aware of the horrors that tracts and newspapers accounts could not describe. Uncle Tom's Cabin helped many 19th-century Americans determine what kind of country they wanted. -
"Bleeding Kansas"
Bleeding Kansas refers to the time between 1854-58 when the Kansas territory was the site of much violence over whether the territory would be free or slave. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 set the scene by allowing the territory of Kansas to decide for itself whether it would be free or slave, a situation known as popular sovereignty. With the passage of the act, thousands of pro- and anti-slavery supporters flooded the state. -
The 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´.
As a result, Congress did not recognize the constitution adopted by the pro-slavery settlers and Kansas was not allowed to become a state. -
The Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott was a slave who sought citizenship through the American legal system, and whose case eventually ended up in the Supreme Court. The famous Dred Scott Decision in 1857 denied his request stating that no person with African blood could become a U.S. citizen. Besides denying citizenship for African-Americans, it also overturned the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had restricted slavery in certain U.S. territories. -
Harpers Ferry
On the evening of October 16, 1859 John Brown, a staunch abolitionist, and a group of his supporters left their farmhouse hide-out en route to Harpers Ferry. Descending upon the town in the early hours of October 17th, Brown and his men captured prominent citizens and seized the federal armory and arsenal. Brown had hopes that the local slave population would join the raid and through the raid’s success weapons would be supplied to slaves and freedom fighters throughout the country. -
Abraham Lincoln is elected
He received 180 of 303 possible electoral votes and 40% of the popular vote. After this, seven slave states in the deep South seceded and formed a new nation, the Confederate States of America. -
Secession
The force of events moved very quickly upon the election of Lincoln. South Carolina acted first, calling for a convention to SECEDE from the Union. State by state, conventions were held, and the CONFEDERACY was formed.
Within three months of Lincoln's election, seven states had seceded from the Union. -
Fort Sumter
On April 10, 1861, knowing that resupplies were on their way from the North to the federal garrison at Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, provisional Confederate forces in Charleston demanded the fort’s surrender. The fort’s commander, Major Robert Anderson, refused. On April 12, the Confederates opened fire with cannons. At 2:30 p.m. the following day, Major Anderson surrendered.
