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Wilmot Proviso
This bill aimed to outlaw slavery in territories taken from Mexico. The bill passed in the House of Representatives but was defeated in the Senate thus causing a division in Congress. Although, not a success it led to the formation of Free Soil Party. -
Compromise
By the end of September, Douglas succeeded, and the plan,now know as the compromise of 1850 became a law. Some people think that it had saved the Union. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
An 1854 law that established the territories of kansas and Nebraska and gave their residents the right to decide whether to allow slavery. -
"Bleeding Kansas"
Proslavery and antislavery settlers rushed in to the kansas territory, just west of Missouri, to vote for the territorial legislature. At the time of the election in March 1855, there were more proslavery settler than antislavery settlers in the territory. -
Caning of sumner
In 1856, during the "Bleeding Kansas" crisis, Sumner denounced the Kansas-Nebraska Act in his "Crime against Kansas" speech, delivered on May 19 and May 20. -
Dred scottv.Sandford
An 1856 supreme court case in which a slave, Dred Scott, sued for his freedom because he had been taken to live in territories where slavery was. -
Attack on Harpers Ferry
The U.S. Marines attacked Brown at Harpers Ferry. Some of this of his men escaped. But Brown and six others were captured, and ten men were killed. -
Election of 1860
The election of 1860 turned into two different race for the presidency, one in the North and one in the South. Lincoln and Douglas were the only candidates with much support to the North.