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A former slave named Shadrach Minkins is caught in Boston by U.S. marshals, they have to go before the tribunal, as they are waiting for their turn, a crowd bursts through the doors of hundreds of people who grab Minkins, tear him away from these marshals, shoot one of the marshals in the process and leave Minkins about half a mile away at the harbor where they put him on a boat and send him to Canada. Minkins is freed. This is just one situation of many similar situations.
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In 1852, Uncle Tom’s cabin started to be published. Written by a woman named Harriet Beecher Stowe. Stowe’s book is a detailed book based on her experience with fugitive slaves. She and her husband were a stop on the underground railroad. The book is eye opening for northerns. It is a way to spread the evils of slavery among the northern population who don’t have first hand interactions. The south will publish a pro slavery approach titled Aunt Phillis’s cabin.
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This case coincided with an epidemic of slave challenges to white authority. Hatcher was a slave and was hired to work in a tobacco factory. He got into a brawl with the white factory overseer, who had attacked him for not working well enough. He defended himself by striking the overseer on the head with a nearby iron poker. Hatcher was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to hang. (Varon 240). It was incidents like this that showed just how horrible the treatment of black people was.
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Illinois enacted legislation, barring the immigration of any black person, free or slave. 3/5ths of the nation's border between free and slave state ran along the southern boundaries of these states. The exclusion laws also reflected racist sentiments of many whites. Although Ohio had repeated its Negro exclusion law in 1849, many residents of the southern tier of Ohio counties wanted no part in black people and were more likely to aid the slave catcher than the fugitive (McPherson 88).
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Kansas and Nebraska were territories in the 1850s. A senator from Illinois, a guy named Steven Douglas proposed the Kansas and Nebraska act. Are they going to be free or slave states? People are going to pour into Kansas for both sides (pro-slavery and anti-slavery). Kansas over goes a civil war. There’s a free city and a slave city. Ultimately, two constitutions get drafted, both of these constitutions are submitted to congress. Kansas is only admitted as a free state when the civil war occurs.
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In Kansas at this time, there were two territorial governments. It was only a matter of time before a fight or a shooting broke out. The murder of a free-soil settler by a proslavery man set off a chain of events that were a part of the start of the war. 1,500 Missourians crossed the border to march on the free-soil of Lawrence where 1,000 men waited for them with rifles. Federal troops stood by because they had received no order to intervene in the mob (McPherson 148).
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Kansas is also directly tied to an event that occurs in 1856, the caning of Charles Sumner. An abolitionist senator who speaks on the floor about the question of Kansas. He gives a speech and calls out people by name. Preston Brooks is offended by this. He is the cousin of the senator that Sumner is claiming is a rapist. Brooks shows up and walks up to Sumner who is at his desk. He has a cane and he starts wailing on Sumner. Brooks will beat Sumner until the cane snaps in two.
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Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas faced a challenge for his seat from Abraham Lincoln. In the campaign that followed Lincoln and Douglas engaged in seven public debates across Illinois where they debated slavery. Although Douglas won the senate race, these debates gave Lincoln national spotlight and enabled him to become a nomination for president in 1860. The debates also alienated Douglas from the southern wing and destroyed his chances of running for president. (battlefields.org)
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The party balance shifted from twenty-nine democratic and twenty-one republicans congressmen to sixteen democrats and thirty-four republicans. The republican share of the vote in the four lower-states jumped from 35 percent to 52 percent (McPherson 188). This shift in the party balance was a crucial factor that lead to the civil war because when the parties shifted, it caused more tension between people who were pro-slavery and anti-slavery.
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Brown believes that God speaks to him directly. Who tells him he needs to end slavery. Brown starts to recruit, their initial target is Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His group is going to try to seize a federal arsenal and convince slaves to rise up. October 17, 1859, Brown and his unit moved into Harpers Ferry. They are spotted. The very first person that dies is a slave that Brown and his unit accidentally kill. Virginia charges him with crimes. He is convicted and he is executed.