-
Uncle Toms Cabin
This was a book written by an American Author by the name of Harriet Beecher Stowe, which the major purpose of the book was to spread the issue of slavery and how humans were getting treated as property. This outraged southerners because they believed it might cause an attempt at a slave rebellion. -
Republican Party
With the succession of the Kansas-Nebraska act of 1854 which allowed slave or free status by popular sovereignty. The whigs had begun meeting in the midwestern states for a new political party. In the month of March, the Republican Party first become thought of. The Republican party started gaining support in the north quickly with a total of 11/16 states total. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Stephen Douglas passed a bill saying that would divide the land west of Missouri into two new territories which were Kansas and Nebraska. He argued that by popular sovereignty if slavery should be legal there or not. Anti-Slavery individuals were outraged because slavery was supposed to be outlawed according to the Missouri compromise. After months of debating the pro and anti-slavery, individuals started to get violent and the issue of slavery at this point was impossible to maintain. -
John Brown
John Brown was an abolitionist and was a strong believer in slavery not being justifiable. He did many things to try and stop slavery such as Harper's Ferry raid, bleeding Kansas, etc. His violent attempts/actions against the south to end slavery played a major role in the civil war starting. -
Bloody Kansas
As a result of the new territory in Kansas which was made in 1854, it caused multiple outbreaks between the anti and pro-slavery individuals fighting for the legality of slavery in Kansas. 55 people were killed in this vicious outbreak all for the control of the new territory in Kansas under the doctrine of popular sovereignty within the North and the South. -
Election of 1856
James Bunchman who was a part of the Democratic party won the election of 1856. During his time running the office people didn't know how to react to a Democratic member actually winning and the tension between the north and the south grew tremendously. -
Brooks Sumner Incident
With the tension between the North, South, pro-slavery, and anti-slavery growing tremendously every day. One day as Senator Charles Sumner(abolitionists) was sitting in the chamber a pro-slavery individual by the name of Preston Books came up to him and almost beat him to death with a cane simply because of a speech that was given two days prior and this proved the country stance/seriousness of the issue of slavery -
Dred Scott
Dred Scott was an African American male in the state of St. Louis who was suing for his freedom because under the laws where it was considered a free state, but that didn't grant him freedom and said that he was still considered property of the [white] men and still considered a slave. This ruled the Missouri compromise unconstitutional and this upset the Northerners because they believed this would cause slavery to never end while in the south they were happy because they cherished slavery. -
House divided Speech
A speech was given by Lincoln basically warning the North and South both, he was telling the North that the political divide over the issue of slavery cannot be an issue forever and he was telling the south the same thing. His main goal in this speech was to let the people know a "divided house couldn't stand together" meaning they would have to come to a compromise because it would eventually lead to disaster sooner or later. -
Lincoln douglas debate
Douglas and Lincoln in the year 1858 in Illinois went head to head about the ongoing controversial issue, of slavery. Lincoln did believe that African Americans were humans but also believed that Whites were the superior race and there needed to be a superior race, on the other hand, Douglas believed that slavery should be decided by popular sovereignty and that it wasn't technically a universal issue. The debates ended in 1860 with the presidential election of Lincoln winning. -
Lecompton Constitution
This was a constitution supporting slavery and slaveholders, the state of Kansas did reject this and this then made Kansas a free state. It angered some states because the majority of residents opposed slavery and under this Constitution, it was still allowed it. -
Harpers Ferry
In the year 1859, John Brown was an abolitionist (an individual who was against slavery). John Brown wanted to raid Harper's Ferry in an attempt to destroy the institution of slavery and to set all slaves free. Brown and 18 other men in the month of October tried to raid Harper's Ferry for their supplies and for the slaves to start a rebellion. Although Brown did not succeed it did make the tension between the north and the south more inflamed and accommodations were even more difficult to make. -
Election of 1860
Lincoln won the election of 1860 and now the south no longer felt as if it had a voice when it came to politics. As a result with Lincoln now in office, the southerners states feared that he would emancipate slavery. -
Lincoln 1st inagural address
This was basically a message to the south about the idea of slavery. He basically stated he would not get in the way of their wants of slavery and he called upon a compromise between the North and the South. -
Secession
The long-standing disagreement on the issue of slavery was still yet not solved. Southern troops took it upon themselves to bombard and fire Fort Sumner. This initially played a major role in the start of the civil war that begin in the year 1861.