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Texas became a state which gave more power to the southern states and greatly contributed to the Civil War.
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With the end of the Mexican War, America was ceded western territories. This posed a problem: as these new territories would be admitted as states, would they be free or slave? To deal with this, Congress passed the Compromise of 1850 which basically made California free and allowed the people to pick in Utah and New Mexico. This ability of a state to decide whether it would allow slavery was called popular sovereignty.
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The Fugitive Slave Act was passed as part of the Compromise of 1850. This act forced any federal official who did not arrest a runaway slave liable to pay a fine. This was the most controversial part of the Compromise of 1850 and caused many abolitionists to increase their efforts against slavery. This act increased the Underground Railroad activity as fleeing slaves made their way to Canada.
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Uncle Tom's Cabin was realeased and showed northerns the cruelty of slavery and inspired more efforts of abolitionists.
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The Kansas-Nebraska act allowed both states to choose whether they were free or slave states. This act tore apart Kansas.
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The attack on Lawrence, Kansas basically lead to Charles Sumner being attacked by Preston after giving a speech about that event about "...attacking the pro-slavery forces for the violence occurring in Kansas."
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Dred Scott lost his case in a contreversial ruling, which futhered the cause of abolitionists.
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This was created allowing Kansas to be a slave state, but after much debate and opposition, "Kansas voters rejected the Constitution and Kansas became a free state."
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Jonh Brown lead seventeen men on a raid at Harper's Ferry, Virginia in hope to cause a slave uprising usuing the captured weapons. Later they got caught and all were hanged for treason.
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While Abraham Lincoln was running for Presidentry, 6 states including South Carolina said that they would brake off from the Union if he won causing Lincoln and the Republican Party to make is so that any states joining the Union could not be slave states.
