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Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin was an antislavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. She was provoked by the Fugitive Slave Law to write this riveting novel. Overall, her words hardened antislavery sentiment in the North while convincing the South that extremists were intent upon destroying its "peculiar institution." -
Kansas Nebraska Act
The Kanas Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and allowed the people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders; popular sovereignty. This act also created two territories: Kansas and Nebraska in order to keep the balance between the slave and free states. This led to Bloody Kansas. -
Republican Party
When the Republican Party rose in 1854 after the fall of the Whig Party, the primary demand was that slavery be excluded from all territories. -
Bloody Kansas
Proslavery forces and antislavery forces both wanted control over the Kansas territory and this created conflict. This conflict occurred from 1854 to 1861. -
Election 1856
This election occurred in the middle of the Kansas Civil War. James Buchanan ran for the Democrats while John C. Fremont ran for the Republicans. Buchanan won this election with 174 electoral votes. -
Brooks- Sumner Incident
Preston Brooks, a proslavery congressman, attacked antislavery Senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the Senate. This was a hint of the violence of come in the Civil War. -
Dred Scott
Dred Scott was a Missouri slave who had been taken by his master to live in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory, in which slavery was banned. Scott sued for liberation on the ground of residence on free soil. But, the Supreme Court decided that Scott lacked standing in court because he was not a citizen. Additionally, slave holders had the right to take their "property" anywhere in the federal territories. -
LeCompton Constitution
The LeCompton Constitution was framed in LeCompton, Kansas by pro-slavery advocates which proposed Kansas as a slave state. This was not passed by Congress but Kansas ended up becoming a slave state anyways. -
Lincoln Douglas Debates
These debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas discussed the critical issues that were dividing the nation at the time, such as slavery versus free labor, popular sovereignty, and the legal and political status of black Americans. -
House Divided Speech
This was a speech given by Abraham Lincoln opposing Stephen A. Douglas for election to the U.S. Senate from Illinois. -
Harper's Ferry
John Brown and eighteen other men raided Harper's Ferry in hopes to seize the guns that were stored there in order to start a slave rebellion. The raid was unsuccessful. -
John Brown
John Brown was an antislavery fanatic who captured and killed five proslavery settlers in Kansas three years before his raid upon Harper's Ferry. Brown was hanged after his trial for conspiracy, treason, and murder in 1859. -
Election 1860
Within this election, Abraham Lincoln ran for the Republican Party, John C. Breckenridge for the southern Democrats, and Stephen A. Douglas for the northern Democrats, and John C. Bell for the Constitutional Union Party. Abraham Lincoln won this election with only 39 percent of the popular vote and a majority of the electoral votes. -
Secession
A total of eleven states seceded from the Union following the election of President Abraham Lincoln. Secession ended in 1861 and this led to the Civil War. -
Lincoln's First Inaugural Address
Within Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, he begged for restoration of the bonds of the union. He also stated that he would not interfere with slavery where it already existed. But, the South did not listen and began the Civil War.