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John Brown
John Brown was born May 9, 1800, and died December 2, 1859. Brown was an American abolitionist leader and veteran of Bleeding Kansas. In 1859, he was made a martyr to the antislavery cause because of his raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He also went to the Kansas Territory with five of his sons to assist the antislavery forces with the Bleeding Kansas. The South had seen Brown as a major threat, but he was very committed, so much so he would even give his own life. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
In Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe shared her personal ideas on the injustices of slavery. With this novel, her voice was made a major factor in the antislavery movement. The novel widened the debate between North and South, strengthened Northern abolitionism, and weakened British sympathy for the South. This was a contributing cause of the Civil War. -
Republican Party
The Republican Party was founded in 1854, becoming one of the two leading political parties. Before they were founded they were known as the Whigs. They quickly gained support from the North and the South was threatening secession if the Republicans won the Presidency. After the Civil War, the party went on to protect the rights of African Americans. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois presented "the Nebraska bill" to organize the Western Territory with the use of popular sovereignty. Once Senator Salmon Chase of Ohio saw the bill he greatly disliked it because it would make the new territories mainly slaves. After all the debate the Senate passed the bill, and with this, it repealed the Missouri Compromise and created two new territories. -
Lincoln Douglas Debate
There were a total of seven debates between the Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, these were mainly about the issues of slavery and extensions into the Western territories. -
Bloody Kansas
From about 1855 to 1859, citizens in Kansas went back and forth over pro-slavery and anti-slavery. This caused the North and South to be greatly separated. -
Brooks-Sumner incident
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Election 1856
This election was where Democrat James Buchanan defeated Republican John Fremont. Buchanan wanted to let the western territories decide if they wanted slavery before getting statehood and admitting California as a free state, he did this in the hopes of keeping slavery. Fremont wanted to end all slave power and get rid of the Kansas Nebraska Act to stop the spread of slavery into the western territories. -
Dred Scott
Dred Scott was an enslaved Black man who sued for his freedom in the St. Louis Circuit Court. He and his wife had claimed they were actually free since they were in a free territory where slavery wasn't allowed. Although he had a valid point the Court had stated since he was black he couldn't be a citizen so the Court ruled against him. This causes Scott and his family to remain slaves. -
The LeCompton Constitution
The LeCompton Constitution was a proslavery document and if approved then it would allow for slavery in Kansas. This included clauses that would protect slave owners and a bill of rights that excluded free blacks and stopped them from going into the state of Kansas. -
House Divided Speech
In this speech, Abraham Lincoln identified slavery as a moral and political issue that threatened the United States' existence and could split them apart. One of Lincoln's main points was that if they didn't want this to happen they needed to act fast before it got any worse. -
Harper's Ferry
Abolitionist, John Brown, and some of his supporters went to the U.S. military arsenal at Harper's Ferry in order to capture some prominent citizens and seize the federal armory and arsenal. This was an attempt at starting an armed revolt against slavery. Later on, Brown was caught and convicted of treason and hung. -
Election 1860
On May 16, 1860, the Republican Party held their second national convention. Abraham Lincoln stood for the Republicans, Stephen Douglas for the Democrats, and John Bell was a Constitutional Union candidate. Lincoln easily one the Electoral votes but he had less than 40% worth of popular vote. This resulted in Lincoln winning the final election. -
Lincoln's 1st inaugural Address
Lincoln's first inaugural dress touched bases on the possession of property and whether it belonged to the government, but mainly was based on keeping the Union a whole and preventing the Civil War. Lincoln didn't want to go to war because he knew it would make them weak and open for attack but also he would not interfere with slavery to keep from arguing more, so he reassured the Slave states no one would have any problems -
Secession
The cause of Secession was how the Southern states desired to preserve the slavery institution. First, there was secession in South Carolina then in, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. Then, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina went into succession. These states went on to form the Confederate States of America.