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Compromise of 1850
A set of laws, passed in the midst of fierce wrangling between groups favoring slavery and groups opposing it, that attempted to give something to both sides. The compromise admitted California to the United States as a “free” state but allowed some newly acquired territories to decide on slavery for themselves. Part of the Compromise included the Fugitive Slave Act, which proved highly unpopular in the North. Senator Henry Clay was a force behind the passage of the compromise. -
California becomes 31st State
Californians sought statehood and, after heated debate in the U.S. Congress arising out of the slavery issue, California entered the Union as a free, non-slavery state by the Compromise of 1850. California became the 31st state on September 9, 1850. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
A novel, first published serially, by Harriet Beecher Stowe; it paints a grim picture of life under slavery. The title character is a pious, passive slave, who is eventually beaten to death by the overseer Simon Legree. Portrayed slavery as brutal and immoral, made northerners more skeptical of slavery -
Election of 1852
The Whig candidate was military hero General Winfield Scott while the Democratic candidate was Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire, who was thought to have southern sympathies. The Democratic platform was execution of the Compromise of 1850, and Democrats earned the votes of former free-soilers as well as German and Irish immigrant workers. Pierce easily won the election. -
Gadsden Purchase
an agreement between the United States and Mexico, finalized in 1854, in which the United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico. -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
declared that "popular sovereignty" would decide whether Kansas would be a slave or free state when admitted to the Union. And people on both sides of the issue flooded into the Kansas territory in order to weigh any potential vote in favor of their cause. -
Bleeding Kansas
the Border War was a series of violent political confrontations in the US involving anti-slavery “Free-Staters” and pro-slavery. violent civil disturbances in the US territory of Kansas from 1854 to 1858. The violence was provoked by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, a piece of legislation passed in the US Congress in 1854. -
Charles Sumner and Preston Brooks Incident
In 1856 Senator Charles Sumner made an abolitionist speech insulting SC Senator Andrew Butler. Preston Brooks, Butler's nephew and Congressman from SC, heard Sumner's speech and on the Senate floor beat him into a coma with his cane. The beating helped to escalate tensions between north and south -
Election of 1856
Democrats nominated Buchanan, Republicans nominated Fremont, and Know-Nothings chose Fillmore. Buchanan won due to his support of popular sovereignty -
Dred Scott Decision
A Missouri slave sued for his freedom, claiming that his four year stay in the northern portion of the Louisiana Territory made free land by the Missouri Compromise had made him a free man. The U.S, Supreme Court decided he couldn't sue in federal court because he was property, not a citizen. -
Douglas/Lincoln Debates
A series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, when both were campaigning for election to the United States Senate from Illinois. Much of the debating concerned slavery and its extension into territories such as Kansas. -
John Brown Raid
an effort by white abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
