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The Crucial Decade

  • Election of 1848

    Lewis Cass(D) vs. Zachary Taylor(W) vs. Matin Van Buren (FS)
  • Fugitive Slave Law

    Strict law that tracked down runaway slaves who escaped to a Northern state, capture them and return them to their Southern owners. The law issued warrants to arrest fugitives.
  • Compromise of 1850

    by Henry Clay, it admitted California as a free union state, divided the Mexican Cession into Utah and New Mexico who had popular sovereignty for slavery, give the land in dispute between Texas and New Mexico to the new territories in return for $10 mill, ban slave trade in the District of Columbia, and adopt a new, strictly enforced
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act

    Douglas’ bill for building a railroad and promoting western settlement, splitting land into these two states also allowing them to have popular sovereignty on slavery.
  • Bleeding Kansas

    Slave holders in Missouri crossed the boarder to vote illegally in the popular sovereignty vote for Kansas. Angry extreme abolitionists travelled to Kansas and fighting broke out in a mini civil war.
  • Caning of Sumner

    Brooks beat Sumner with a cane in Senate.
  • Pottawatomie Creek

    John Brown retaliated for the Lawrence incident by leading his sons on an attack at Pottawatomie Creek, killed 5 settlers.
  • Lecompton Constitution

    Deciding whether to accept or reject a proslavery state constitution for Kansas submitted by the southern legislature.
  • Lincoln Douglas Debates

    Lincoln challenged Douglas for a Senate seat. Lincoln questioned Douglas of how he could reconcile popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott Decision, angering southern Democrats. Douglas ended up winning, but it caused turmoil in his party.
  • Harpers Ferry Raid

    John Brown led slaves to Harpers Ferry to steal guns and powder from a storage shed. They tried to attack people, but was a fail.
  • Crittenden Compromise

    Amendment that would guarantee the right to hold slaves in all territories south of the 36°30 line.