-
The Wilmot Proviso
In 1846, David Wilmot, an anti slavery democratic congressman from Pennsylvania took up the refrain and proposed the so called Wilmot proviso, a ban on slavery in any territories gained from the war. -
Free soil Movement
The free spoilers quickly organized the Free Soil Party in 1848 which abandoned the Garrisonians and liberty party's emphasis on the sinfulness of slavery and the natural rights of African Americans. -
Compromise of 1850
To mollify the South, the compromise included a new Fugitive Slave Act giving federal support to slave catchers. -
Uncle Toms cabin Published
Conveying the moral principles of abolitionism in heartrending personal situations using the now familiar literary trope of sentimental domesticity Stowe's book quickly sold 310,000 copies in the United States. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Frederick Douglass agreed to the formation of Kansas and Nebraska raising the prospect that settlers in the southern one, Kansas would choose slavery. -
Republican party formed
The new party was a coalition of ex-whigs, free soilers , and abolitionists and all the members opposed slavery which they argues drove down the wages of free workers and degraded the dignity of manual labor. -
"Bleeding Kansas" incidents
A proslavery force, seven hundred strong looted and burned the fee soil town of Lawrence. The attack enraged John Brown, a fifty-six year old abolitionist from New York and Ohio who commanded a free state militia. -
Caning of Charles Sumner
In his "Crime Against Kansas" speech, Sumner identified two Democratic senators as the principal culprits in this crime—Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Andrew Butler of South Carolina. He characterized Douglas to his face as a "noise-some, squat, and nameless animal . . . not a proper model for an American senator." -
Dread Scott v. Sandford
The Supreme Court decided controversial issue of Congress's constitutional authority over slavery. Dred Scott was an enslaved African American who had lived for a time with his owner. -
Lincoln-Douglass debates
Lincoln pointed out that the proslavery Supreme Court might soon declare that the constitution "does not permit a state to exclude slavery". During a series of seven debates, Douglass declared his support for the white supremacy. -
John Browns raid on Harper's Ferrys
In October 1859, Brown lead eighteen heavily armed black and white men in a raid in the federal arsenal at a Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown hoped to arm slaves with the arsenals weapons and mount a major rebellion to end slavery. -
The Election of Lincoln
The national republican convention chose Lincoln as its presidential candidate because he was more moderate on slavery than the best known republicans, Senators William Seward of New York and Salmon Chase of Ohio.
