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Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin is a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, an American writer who had not been active for nearly 16 years and came out of retirement to speak against the atrocities of slavery. This novel shed light on the horrible conditions of slaves and created a wave of anger in the North over the conditions. The South was also angry, claiming that this novel misrepresented them, which grew the rift between the two sides and continued to push America down the path to civil war. -
Bloody Kansas
Bloody Kansas occurred after the Kansas-Nebraska Act that declared slavery an issue of popular sovereignty for the states entering the Union. This decision led to extremists from both sides moving to Kansas to sway the vote, where they lived in settlements not too far from each other and hoped to sway the existing Kansas residents to vote for their side's sentiment. This difference of groups of extremists so close led to violence and the deaths of members of both sides throughout Kansas. -
Republican Party
The Republican Party was composed of Northerners who were former Whigs but wanted to shift their main policy focus to the abolition of slavery. The Republican Party was founded after meetings that sparked up from Whig fears over the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The party grew quickly in the North, eventually replacing the Whig Party. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise and instated popular sovereignty for new states entering the union. All new states were to decide by popular vote whether or not they would be slave states, which created an influx of new migrants from the North and South to these new states. These migrants hoped to swing the state towards their side in the popular vote, one side in the push to abolish slavery, the other in the push to grow it. -
Brooks-Sumner Incident
The Brooks-Sumner Incident occurred after Senator Sumner, an abolitionist Republican, gave a speech mocking a senator related to Representative Brooks. After his "Crime Against Kansas" speech, Brooks walked into Sumner's chamber and hit him over the head with a cane, giving him a lasting injury. Representative Brooks and the senator Sumner insulted were both southern pro-slavery Democrats so Brooks' act was seen as heroic in the South, and evil in the North, exemplifying the sectional issue. -
Election of 1856
The Election of 1856 was won by James Buchanan, replacing incumbent Franklin Pierce for the Democratic nomination. The extreme lack of support in the North for the Whig Party signified the end of the Whig Party, which eventually splintered and reformed into the Republican Party. This election represented the discontent in the North with Southern pro-slavery leadership and led to the growth of the Republican party for the upcoming election. -
Dred Scott
Dred Scott was a slave who had been into free states by his owner, and he was suing for his freedom, stating he was a free man in those states. This court case went to the Supreme Court, and raised the questions of; is Scott free, can Scott sue if he wasn't a citizen, and can Congress establish the Missouri Compromise? This case decided that Scott was not free, he could not sue, and the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional as slavery was a state issue, reinforcing popular sovereignty. -
LeCompton Constitution
After an election riddled with voter fraud, the convention for creating Kansas' Constitution was run by slavery supporters, who made a Constitution unable to be amended for 7 years and did not give the right to popular sovereignty over slavery to the citizens. Buchanan, in a rush to stop Bleeding Kansas, endorsed Kansas' statehood under this Constitution, losing all favor with Northern Democrats as he violated popular sovereignty, letting the Kansas statehood bill fail and wait until 1861. -
House Divided Speech
At the Republican State Convention in Illinois in 1858, Lincoln spoke on the state of the federal legislature, and how he believed its' division along the line of slavery to be a temporary state. Lincoln stated that the House would pull itself together, either unifying every state under slavery or freedom which he believed to be the morally correct way. This speech brought Lincoln to fame and gave him great favor in the North, but his clear abolitionist beliefs lost him any Southern votes. -
Lincoln Douglas Debates
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates occurred in 1858 when Abraham Lincoln was running for a seat in the Senate against incumbent Stephen A. Douglas. The main topic discussed was slavery, with Douglas being accused of trying to expand slavery, and Lincoln being accused of being an abolitionist. Lincoln eventually lost the race, but gained favor in the Northern Republican with impressive debates and writing pushing to contain slavery. -
Harper's Ferry
Harper's Ferry was a point in West Virginia bordering Maryland, which was the first point John Brown, a religious abolitionist, attacked. Brown intended to free slaves to create a free black stronghold along the Maryland border. His attack on the Harper's Ferry armory was popular in the North and contributed to the abolitionist cause, but it created extreme anger among Southerners who believed that the North was attacking the institution of slavery. -
John Brown
John Brown was an extreme abolitionist, who had for years violently freed slaves in the South, often killing their former owners. John Brown had created a plan to start an anti-slavery war in the South, which he shared the plans for in the North to gather funders. in 1859 he took a small group of trained men into Harper's Ferry, a federal armory, where he planned to take weapons to free slaves, who were to become soldiers and help free more slaves. Brown failed and was hung in December of 1859. -
Election of 1860
In 1860 4 major candidates were running, which divided the South and allowed for a landslide Republican win. Lincoln, a progressive Republican from Illinois, ran on a platform that supported the abolition of slavery, which scared the South, leading them to threaten to secede in the situation Lincoln won. When Lincoln won it took less than a month for the first secession. -
Secession
South Carolina was the first state to secede, and they seceded because Lincoln won the presidential race. The South, particularly South Carolina, was scared that a Republican president would end slavery, destroying their economy. South Carolina was followed by other southern states, with states like North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia seceding months later. After seceding, the southern states seized all federal forts in their territories, stirring anger in the federal government, -
Lincoln's First Inaugural Address
Lincoln, after running previously against the institution of slavery aimed to prevent secession by telling the South that he would not and would not try to abolish slavery. Lincoln also told these states that what they were doing would undermine the democratic process as Lincoln was elected with a fair process, and seceding because you don't like the result of the election is unfair. As much as he spoke to try and keep the South, they still seceded six weeks later.