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There was question as to wether or not the new territories that would be admitted as states would be free or slave. The Congress paased the Compromise of 1850 that made California free and allowed people to pick at Utah and New Mexico.
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This act was passed as part of the Compromise of 1850. The Fugitve Slave Act required all citizens to help catch runaway slaves.
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Uncle Tom's Cabin Was Released was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. This book was written to show the injustice of Slavery.
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The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed which allowed Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves using popular sovereignty. By 1856, Kansas was full of violence.
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Border Ruffians ransacked Lawrence, Kansas that was known as a stanch-free state area. Pro-slavery Congressman Preston Brooks attacked Charles Sumner after he had given a speech attacking the pro-slavery forces for the violence occurring in Kansas.
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Dred Scott lost his case proving that he should be free due to being a slave while living in a free state.
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Numerous constitutions were advanced in Kansas to determine wether it would join the union as a slave state or a free state. The Lecompton Constitution was created allowing Kansas to eneter as a slave state. However, pro-slavery forces attepmted to stop the Constitution and was soon rejected by a vote in Kansas.
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John Brown was a radical abolitionist. On October 16, 1859, he led a group of 17 members, including 5 blacks, to Harper's Ferry, Virginia, to raid the arsenal.
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Republican canidate Abraham Lincoln was elected President. South Carolina, along with 6 other states, seceded from the Union. South Carolina warned Abraham Lincoln that this would happen if he was elected. The South had began to become more powerful and wanted to make sure that slavery would not be extended to other states/territories.
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The South was enraged at Lincoln's election. Acting against this, the Southern states began to form a seperate Confederacy against the union.
