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Preston Brooks and Charles Sumner
Brooks and Sumners had different veiws, Sumners was against slavery while Brooks was proslavery and Brooks hurt Sumners while in a discussion on Brooks's Congress adress about the topic. -
Wilmot Proviso
An amendment to an 1846 Military approproations bill, proposing none of the territory acquired in the war with Mexico would be open to slavery. The territory gained in the Mexican War, many Southern farmers that use slave labor, moved to Texas and California to farm the land. -
Stephen A. Douglas
Helped Henry Clay finish the Compromise after Clay became very sick. -
Free-Soil Party
A political party formed in 1848 to oppose the extension of slavery into U.S. territories. This group was antislavery people from the Whig Party and the Democratic Party. The Civil War because the people in the Whig and Democratic Party had strong opinions and would fight to get their way. -
Underground Railroad/Harriet Tubman
A system of routes along which runaway slaves helped to escape to Canada or safe areas in the free states. -
Know-Nothing Party
A name given to the American Party, formed in the 1850's to curtail the political influence of immigrants. They wanted to have more people like them in Congress and Presidency, so they elected many of them for Congress. -
Popular Sovereignty
The principle that the residents of a territory should have control over their own affairs - particulary the power to decide whether to admit slavery. -
Compromise of 1850
A compromise that Henry Clay made to settle the controversy between free and slave states growing out of the subject of slavery. This Compromise was only a temporary fix to the growing problem. -
Fugitive Slave Act
A lave enacted as part of the Compromise of 1850, designed to ensure that escaped slaves would be returned into bondage. This caused the outbreak of the Civil War. -
Presidency of Franklin Pierce
Won the electon in 1848 and 1852 and he made the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He was antislavery and tried to bring up the discussion of expanding slavery in the new territories in Congress when he was a Senetor. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin/Harriet Beecher Stowe
A best-selling novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, published in 1852, that potrayed slavery as a great moral evil. People saw her novel was a significant force in leading to the Civil War. -
Repubican Party
The modern political party that was formed in 1854 be opponents of slavery in the territories. This party took took on the mission of saving the union and destroying slavery during the Civil War. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
A law enacted in 1854, that established the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and gave their residents the right to decide whether to allow slavery. This gave the states the right to declare a free state or a slave state. -
Bleeding Kansas
A name applied to the Kansas Territory in the years before the Civil War, when the territory was a battle-ground between proslavery and antislavery forces. -
Presidency of James Buchanan
During his administration, the Union brok apart, he left office which caused the Civil War to be threatened. -
Dred Scott vs Sanford
1857 Dred Scott was a slave, his owner took him from the slave state of Missouri to the free state of Illinois. Scott sued his owner for his freedom on the grounds of kliving in a free state should make him a free man. -
Freeport Doctrine
The idea expressed be Stephen Douglas in 1858, that any territory could exclude slavery by simply refusing to pass laws supporting it. In the end of the war, this helped Lincoln for his nomination for president 2 years later. This gave territories the freedom to not pass slavery laws. -
Raid on Harpers Ferry
Was wheh John Brown and his men attacked the U.S. Federal Arsenal. Brown thought be stealing weapons he could help free most of the slaves. His goal was to get the slaves and have them battle against their slave owners which was a reason for the Civil War. -
John Brown
An antislavery fanatic who believed that God had called him to fight slavery. On October 16, 1859, he led 21 men on a raid of the federal arsenal. -
Election of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham led the union in the Civil War amd ended slavery. This is significant to the Civil War because he was the first ever Republican president, and republicans were antislavery. -
Formation of the Confederate State of America
On Feburary 4, 1861, Secessionists states met in Montgomery, Alabama where they formed Confederate State of America. This closely resembled that of the United States, But with a few notible differences. The most important point was, "Protected and recognized" also stressed each state was to be "Sovreign and independent." -
Presidency of Jefferson Davis
First President and only one for the Confederate States of America. When the South's defeat in the Civil War, he was stripped of citizenship. Wen he returned a treson case against him.