The Nation Breaking Apart

By Mrrik Noubarentz123

  • Wilmot Proviso

    This bill aimed to outlaw slavery in territories taken from Mexico. The bill passed in the House of Representatives but was defeated in the Senate thus causing a division in Congress. Although it was not a success, it led to the formation of the Free Soil Party.

  • Compromise of 1850

    Henery Clay made a plan to make both the North and the South happy. California would be a free state, but slavery in territories won from Mexico would allow slaves. Also, there would be stronger slave laws against runaway slaves.

  • Kansas-Nebraska Act

    Stephen A. Douglas wanted to divide Nebraska territory into 2 territories, Nebraska and Kansas. Now, people could vote if they wanted to have slavery in states. This violated the non-slavery laws that were made.

  • "Bleeding Kansas"

    Joe Brown killed 5 proslavery people, which caused major chaos. As this news spread, war broke out in Kansas. Also, Missourians came to vote illegally for slavery in the state of Kansas because proslavery people wanted slaves and anti-slavery people didn't. Proslavery and anti-slavery people began to fight, and chaos arose.

  • Caning of Sumner

    In the spring of 1856, Senator Charles Sumner gave a speech that gave many insults toward proslavery people, including some toward A. P. Butler. Preston Brooks, a relative of A. P. Butler, got so mad, he attacked Sumner by hitting him with a cane over 30 times, until it broke.

  • Dred Scott vs. Sandford

    Dred Scott was a free slave and was captured by white men and sold as a slave. He tried to sue, but Roger B. Taney ruled against him. He claimed that Scott was not a U.S. citizen, therefore he did not have the right to sue. Dred Scott lost this case.

  • Attack on Harpers Ferry

    To inspire slaves to stand up for themselves, Joe Brown, and extreme abolitionist, planned to capture weapons from the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. After killing 4 people, Joe Brown set the word for slaves to come and join him to fight. Nobody came, so the U.S. Marines came and captured Joe Brown and later hung him.

  • Election of 1860

    Lincoln and Breckinbride were the 2 main contestants running for president. Lincoln opposed slavery, while Breckbrindge approved of it. Lincoln won, because he had the votes of all northerners, who made up more of the country than the southerners.