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Uncle Tom's Cabin
This was a novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. This novel was written to let people know about slavery and how cruel it was. Stowe wanted slavery to end so she wanted to convince other to join the antislavery movement. People form the South were mad about her novel because they believed it misrepresented what slavery was. People from the North were mostly sympathetic. This novel further divided the North and the South leading to the civil war. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
This Act was proposed by Stephen A. Douglas which created Kansas and Nebraska. This act allowed slavery to be determined by popular sovereignty. This meant that the residents could vote to have their territory be either a free or slave state. Though people could choose, the results wouldn't satisfy everyone and instead divide them. This act also repealed the Missouri Compromise because Douglas believed it was void. It also destroyed the Whig party and divided the democratic party. -
Republican Party
Previous members of the Whig Party met to form a new party. People in the Republican were against slavery and didn't want slavery to spread in the west. A lot of their supporters came from the North. Their first candidate was John C. Fremont and won the majority of the Northern states and in 1860 Republican Abraham Lincoln won presidential election. -
Bloody Kansas
The Kansas-Nebraska Act caused conflict in Kansas because of the popular sovereignty issue. The conflict was about the disagreement between the proslavery and antislavery because some didn't want it to be a slave state but others did. There wasn't much conflict in Nebraska because it far in the North that most people agreed to have a free state. Warfare between the proslavery and antislavery broke out in Kansas and many died. Kansas became a free state and entered the Union but many were angry. -
Election of 1856
This election was happening during the Kansas war. President Pierce wanted to continue being a president but the democrats chose James Buchman as their candidate. The Republican Party's selected John C. Fremont. This election was the most bitter election because of many disagreements. People believed Fremont would destroy the Union. Buchanan won the electoral College votes and Fremont didn't receive a single vote form the South but did get most of his votes from the free states. -
Brooks-Sumner Incident
This incident was between Senator Charles Sumner who was an abolitionist and Congressman Preston Brooks. Brooks charged and Sumner and began to hit him over his head with a cane and it even broke. Sumner was very hurt and it took him three years to recover and go back to his Senate seat. Brooks hit him because of Sumner's speech about criticizing slaveholders. Many Southerners saw Brooks as a hero. This incident showed the conflict between the proslavery and the antislavery. -
Dred Scott
Dred Scott was a slave and sued for his freedom. He argued he lived in a free state for years and therefore could be a free person. He was free until the Supreme Court reversed it and went to appeal it to the federal court. The Supreme Court ruled that Scott couldn't sue in federal court, the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, and Congress couldn't prohibit slavery in the territories. Slaves and free blacks couldn't become citizens. The court declared an act of congress unconstitutional. -
LeCompton Constitution
The LeCompton Constitution was written by the proslavery in LeCampton Kansas. It protected slaveholding and it also stated that there couldn’t be any free blacks. It was denied in territorial election but president James Buchanan but he made a compromise with Congress and it resubmitted. Kansas rejected it again and Kansas was allowed in the Union as a free state. -
Lincoln Douglas Debates
The election Campaign for U.S senator from Illinois was between Abraham Lincoln against Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln predicted the Union would get divided. Lincoln wanted slavery gone. He believed the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision would help make slavery lawful in the North and South. They were in seven face-to-face debates. Douglas believed Lincoln wanted the civil war to occur, emancipate slave, and have the whites and black be equal. Douglas won the election. -
House Divided Speech
Lincoln gave this speech at the Illinois Republican State Convention. This speech addressed the Dred Scott decision and how it allowed slavery to be legal in the North and other territories of the U.S. Lincoln states that if the U.S wanted to be a free country then it had to do it now. During his speech he said "A house divided against itself cannot stand". He believed that the government couldn't be half lave an half free forever. It made people realize the slavery conflict was leading to war. -
John Brown
After John Brown was taken prisoner after attacking Harper’s Ferry, he had a trial in a Virginia court. The court said he was guilty of treason, conspiracy, murder, and was sentenced to death. He gave a short speech saying he didn’t go to Virginia to commit violence but to free the slaves and that he was a martyr to cause of freedom. His execution was on December 2. The southerners realized that the northerners also wanted to free the slaves so they wanted to stop them. -
Harper's Ferry
John Brown wanted to eliminate slavery. He recruited men to invade the South. His plan was to go to Virginia and capture the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry so that he could arm slaves. He wanted to incite slave insurrections but failed. He his men to Harper's Ferry and were able to seize the federal arsenal. He sent people to free slaves. But Brown was was cut off from his escape routes and his men were trapped in the armory. Brown and his men fought back but Brown was then taken prisoner. -
Election of 1860
The presidential election was between Republican Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, and John C. Breckinridge as democrats. There were two campaigns, one in the North and in the South. In the election Lincoln’s name wasn’t on some of the ballots but he was still able to gain the most electoral votes. Lincoln won the election -
Lincoln's 1st Inaugural Address
During Lincoln's 1st Inaugural Address he created a speech for the public. He addressed that he wasn't going to harm the people's rights given by the Constitution. He stated that the Union is older than the Constitution and that the Union is not perfect because people are being divided by their opinions. He promised to interfere in areas where slavery existed. He believed the confederacy was void. He ended his speech saying "we are not enemies, but friends". -
Secession
After South Carolina was the first to leave the Union, other states also left the Union. States were leaving the Union because they didn’t want to abandon slavery. People in the upper South really opposed leaving the Union. Texas voted to leave the Union but the governor refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy and then he was removed from office. Texas said they would fight to protect slavery.