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Missouri Compromise
In 1820, amid growing sectional tensions over the issue of slavery, the U.S. Congress passed a law that admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while banning slavery from the remaining Louisiana Purchase lands located north of the 36º 30' parallel. 4) -
Tariff of Abominations
The Tariff of 1828 was a very high protective tariff that became law in the United States in May 1828. It was called Tariff of Abominations by Southerners because of the effects it had on the Southern economy. It puts 38% tax on some imported goods and a 45% tax on certain imported raw materials. 5) -
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Abolitionist Movement
This was an organized effort to end the practice of slavery in the United States. An influential leader was William Loyd Garrison who was a social reformer who lead the American Anti-Slavery Society. (10) -
The liberator-William Lloyd Garrison
The Liberator was a weekly abolitionist newspaper published in Boston by William Lloyd Garrison. Religious rather than political, it appealed to the moral conscience of its readers, urging them to demand immediate freeing of the slaves. (24) -
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Nat Turner Revolt
He led a rebellion of enslaved people which led to new oppressive legislation prohibiting the education, movement, and assembly of slaves. (20) -
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Nullification Crisis
Conflict between South Carolina and Fed gov’t in which Calhoun opposed tariffs of 1828 and 1832 arguing the US constitution gave states the right to block federal law. (13) -
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Gag Rule
Rules that suppressed talking about the topic of slavery in the house of representatives from 1836 to 1844 (19) -
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Mexican American War
Conflict fought from April 1846 to February 1848 between the United States and Mexico. It stemmed from the annexation of the Republic of Texas by the U.S. in 1845 and from a dispute over whether Texas ended at the Nueces River or the Rio Grande. (21) -
Wilmot Proviso
An important congressional proposal in the 1840s to prohibit the extension of slavery into the territories.8) -
The North Star, Frederick Douglas
The North Star was a nineteenth-century anti-slavery newspaper published in Rochester, New York by Frederick Douglass an abolitionist (25) -
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Free Soil Party/Movement
Organized by Anti-slavery men in the North, the party was against slavery in the new territories, also advocated federal aid for internal improvements and urged free gov’t homesteads for settlers (14) -
Compromise of 1850
package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that defused a political confrontation between slave and free states on the status of territories acquired in the Mexican–American War. (18) -
Fugitive Slave Act
This act provided for the seizure and return of runaway slaves who escaped from one state into another or into federal territory. It was among one of the most controversial laws in the early 19th century. (12) -
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin
American Author and abolitionist who became best known for her novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” which exposes the harsh conditions slaves lived in. (15) -
Republican Party Formation
New Party that emerged with ideas that clashed against slavery and Democratic ideas, also supported tariffs. (11) -
Kansas Nebraska Act
This act repealed the Missouri Compromise creating two new territories allowing for popular sovereignty. This led to an uprising known as “Bleeding Kansas” between pro and antislavery activists. (9) -
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas describes the period of repeated outbreaks of violent guerrilla warfare between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces in the new territory of Kansas in 1854. Some 55 people were killed between 1855 and 1859.6) -
Summer-Brookes Incident
Occurred in the U.S. senate chamber when Rep Preston Brooks, a pro slavery democrat used a walkig stick to attack senator Charles Sumner, an Abolitionist Republican. (17) -
Dred Scott v Sanford Decision
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scott, a slave, was not entitled to his freedom as he resided in a free state and territory where slavery was prohibited. (22) -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Series of 7 debates Between Abraham Lincoln and Senator Stephen Douglas, much of the debate concerned slavery and its extension into territories such as Kansas (16) -
Freeport Doctrine
Stephan Douglas’s doctrine that said slavery could be excluded from territories of the United States by local legislation. 7) -
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John Brown, Herper's Ferry
American abolitionist leader best known for his radical abolitionism and fighting in Bleeding Kansas. After his failed Harper’s Ferry raid, he was captured and executed for the slave rebellion. (23) -
Election of 1860
This election demonstrated the divisions within the U.S. just before the Civil War. Lincoln won becoming the first republican president. This election established the Democratic and Republican parties as the major parties in the United States. 3) -
Secession of South Carolina
South Carolina became the first state to secede from the federal Union on December 20, 1860 after the Election of 1860 and win of Abraham Lincoln. 2) -
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Fort Sumter bombing
The bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina by the South Carolina militia with the surrender by the United States Army which started the civil war. 1)