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Missouri Compromise
This was a compromise that admitted Missouri as a slave state in 1850. To keep an equal balance of slave and free states, Congress also accepted Maine as a free state. This compromise, proposed by Henry Clay, also states that everything above the Missouri Compromise Line would be free. -
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was a proposal by Congressman David Wilmot from 1846. This proposal wanted to ban slavery in the Mexican Cession Territories, however it did not get enough support to pass. This proposal angered many southerns who felt like the north was imposing on their right to own slaves. -
Compromise of 1850
This compromise was from 1850 and was passed by Henry Clay. It ended the slave trade in Washington D.C. and would admit California as a free state. Those in the Utah and New Mexico Territories would decide by a vote if they would be free or slave. In addition, Congress passed a strict new fugitive slave law. This compromise was passed in order to end the controversies over slavery, but many northerners were unhappy over the controversial fugitive slave act. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act, passed in 1850 with the Compromise of 1850, was highly controversial. This was a law that permitted officials to arrest blacks accused of being a runaway slave without a trial. This resulted in angering many Northerners, and they began to resist the law. This also resulted in many free blacks and escaped slaves being claimed as runaway property and forced into slavery. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a passionate abolitionist, this book was published in 1853 in order to promote the abolition movement. This is a fictional story about a slave who was treated cruelly by his master. Northerners were horrified by the events of slavery described in the book, and started to view slavery as a moral evil instead of a political one. Southerners regarded this as propaganda. -
Kansas Nebraska Act / Bleeding Kansas
This act proposed to help decide whether any new state added to the union would be free or slave. It also proposed that the Kansas-Nebraska area be divided into two parts (Kansas and Nebraska). It used popular sovereignty as its tool for deciding whether the state was going to be free or slave. There was much violence between pro/anti-slavery supporters, and increased tensions between the two sides -
Dred Scott Case
A major supreme court decision occurred when slave Dred Scott was taken by his owner to free states Illinois and Wisconsin. Scott argued that that made him a free man Finally in 1857, the Court ruled against Dred Scott citing the Constitution’s protection of property. The decision increased tensions over slavery. -
Lincoln Douglas Debate
Lincoln and Douglas debated about 8 times, mainly about slavery.
Lincoln got Douglas to admit there would be ways for people to exclude slavery (lost him support in the south). Douglas won the election, but Lincoln gained a national reputation -
John Brown’s Raid
John Brown was a white abolitionist who started an armed slave revolt in 1859 by seizing a ship at Harper’s ferry. His men succeeded in capturing the weapons but were discovered on October 17. Brown was found guilty of treason and was executed.
This event showed the mixed feelings of southerners toward slavery. The north viewed Brown as less of a convict and more of a hero. -
Lincoln's Election of 1860
This election further demonstrated the division between the North and the South. National political parties no longer existed. Voters in the North chose between Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, while Southerners voted for J.C Breckinridge or John Bell. While votes in the Border States were missed, many in the lower South supported Breckinridge. Abraham Lincoln won the election without winning a single electoral from a southern state. -
Southern Secession
For many southerners the last straw was Lincoln’s election to President in 1860. Led by South Carolina, several southern states leave the union on December 20, 1860. These states included Mississippi, Alabama, Florida Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Arkansas. The Confederate States then stole the federal owner fort, Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The Confederates decided to attack Fort Sumter, starting the Civil War.
