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The compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that defused a political confrontation between slave and free states -
Fugitive Slave Act
Fugitive Slave Law was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern interests in slavery and Northern Free-Soilers. -
Harriet Stowe Published Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Stowe published a novel called Uncle Tom's Cabin about the escape from slavery. The tensions are increased here because the book is about the escape of slavery and where the slaves his in uncle toms cabin. -
The Kansas-Nebraska act passed
The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, created two new territories, and allowed for popular sovereignty. It also produced a violent uprising known as “Bleeding Kansas,” as proslavery and antislavery activists flooded into the territories to sway the vote. -
Gadsdens Purchase
Gadsden's Purchase provided the land necessary for a southern transcontinental railroad and attempted to resolve conflicts that lingered after the Mexican-American War. -
Bleeding Kansas
the period of repeated outbreaks of violent guerrilla warfare between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces following the creation of the new territory of Kansas in 1854. In all, some 55 people were killed. This causes tension because it created a war between them. -
Preston Brooks attacked Charles Sumner
Representative Preston Brooks, a pro-slavery Democrat from South Carolina, used a walking cane to attack Senator Charles Sumner, an abolitionist Republican from Massachusetts. This increases the tension because a pro-slavery person attacked a slavery abolitionist -
Supreme court hands down Dred Scott decision
a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court in which the Court held that the United States Constitution was not meant to include American citizenship -
Lincoln-Douglas debate
The Lincoln–Douglas debates were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican Party candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois, and incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. -
John Brown raids Harpers Ferry
to initiate a slave revolt in Southern states by taking over the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. It has been called the dress rehearsal for, or Tragic Prelude to, the Civil War. W -
Abraham Lincoln was elected president
The 1860 United States presidential election was the 19th quadrennial presidential election, held on November 6, 1860. -
Seccesion of South Carolina
The victory of Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election triggered cries for disunion across the slaveholding South