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The Oregon Territory was a major diplomatic issue. Claimed by multiple powers such Spain, Russia, Britain, and the U.S, the U.S. based its claim on Lewis Clark’s explorations and the Pacific Fur Company’s trading posts. After growing American settlement, President Polk pushed the boundary to the 49th parallel. Britain accepted, and the Senate ratified a compromise treaty on June 18, 1846. (Office of the Historian) -
Ended the Mexican-American War. Mexico ceded California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming to the U.S., and recognized the Rio Grande as Texas border. The U.S. paid $15 million (McPherson, 70). These new territories sparked intense debate over slavery’s expansion, directly leading to crises like the Compromise of 1850, sectional tensions, and political battles over statehood and slave laws. -
The Compromise of 1850, supported by Henry Clay, was the last major national compromise. It admitted California as a free state and banned the slave trade in D.C., but strengthened the Fugitive Slave Law, enforced by U.S. Marshals. Commissioners deciding cases were paid $5 if the person was free, $10 if enslaved. -
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin exposed the cruelty of slavery using stories she learned while helping the Underground Railroad in Ohio. The book became the best seller of the 1850s and angered the South, where it was banned. Lincoln called her the “little lady who started this great war.” Southerners responded with Aunt Phillis’s Cabin to defend slavery. The book increased North South tension. -
The Kansas–Nebraska Act, pushed by Stephen Douglas, overturned the Missouri Compromise and used popular sovereignty in Kansas and Nebraska. Douglas wanted to expedite to make Kansas a state so a faster settlement would support a railroad through Chicago. Pro and anti-slavery groups rushed into Kansas, sparking “Bleeding Kansas,” where two governments formed and violence erupted as Congress fought over which constitution to accept. -
A slave named Anthony Burns escaped and then was captured in Boston under the Fugitive Slave Act. Thousands gathered at Faneuil Hall to protest, and abolitionists attempted a rescue that left a guard dead (Varon, 241). Federal troops marched Burns through hostile crowds to return him to slavery, enraging Northerners and convincing many that the government served slaveholders, deepening sectional conflict. -
Was an agreement by which the U.S. paid Mexico $10 million for about 29,670 square miles of land, now part of southern Arizona and New Mexico. This purchase secured a favorable route for a southern transcontinental railroad and helped resolve lingering border issues after the Mexican-American War. (Office of Historian) -
The Dred Scott Decision was a U.S. Supreme Court ruling stating that enslaved and formerly enslaved people were not U.S. citizens and could not sue in federal court. Chief Justice Roger Taney, a Maryland slaveholder, wrote the opinion. The Court also ruled that Congress could not ban slavery in U.S. territories, effectively saying African Americans had no standing as citizens and limiting federal power over slavery expansion. -
Suddenly ended the economic boom after the Mexican War. It started when a major insurance company in New York collapsed because of fraud. British investors pulled money out of U.S. banks. Grain prices fell, factories shut down, and many people lost jobs. Railroads failed, and land speculation collapsed, ruining many investors. A bank holiday was declared to stop runs on banks. The depression spread globally and lasted until the Civil War. -
John Brown, an anti-slavery zealot, killed pro-slavery settlers in Kansas and believed God told him to lead a slave rebellion. In 1859, he raided the Harpers Ferry arsenal to arm enslaved people, but the attack failed. Captured and tried in Virginia, he was sentenced to death. The North saw him as a martyr, the South as a threat, and militias stayed on high alert.