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The United States Constitution.
It stared on May of 1787. Fifty five man form twelve states met in philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederetion. However Governor Edmund Randolph presented a plan prepared by James Madison for the design of an entirely new national government. On September 17, 1787 the final draft of the new Constitution was read to the delegates, they all signed but three of them. On June 21, 1788 New Hamphire became the 9th state to ratify the Constitution, it went into effect. -
The Missouri Compromise
This law it was admitting Missouri as a slve state and Maine as a free state. With the expception of Missouri, this law prohibited in the Louisiana territory. Three years later the Missouri Compromise was declared uncostitutional by the supreme court in the Dred Scott decision, which ruled that the congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery in the territories. -
The Compromise of 1850
It consist of five laws that dealt with the issue of slvarey. in 1849 California requested permission to enter the Union as free state, potetially upsetting the balance between the free and slaves states in the U.S. Senate. Senator Henry Clay introduces a serious of resolutions on Jan. 29, 1850 i an attempt to seek crisis between the North and South. As part of the Compromise the Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in D.C. was abolished. -
Kansas- Nebraska Act.
It stipulated that the issue of slavery would be decided by the residents of each territory, a concept known as popular sovereignty. After the bill passed violence erupted in Kansas between pro- slavery and anti- slavery settlers, a prelude to the Civil War. -
The Dred Scott Decision
It was delivered by Chief Justice Roger Taney, this opinion declared that were not citizens of the United States and could not sue in Federal Courts. In addition this decision declared that the Missoury Compromise was uncostituttional and the congress did not ave the authority to prohibit slavery in the territories. The Dred decision was overturnes by the 3th and 4th Amendments of the Constitution. -
John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry.
He and his man planed to help the slaves scape and run away. They had stablish a base in the Blue Ridge Mountains. he had been ready to make a move but he had to put it in hold because one of his followers threatened to reveal the plan. So after a year with only 21 men including his sons he made the move. No slaves joined in the fight. Brown being seriously injured was taken to Charles town, Virginia along with the others, they were quickly tried, sentenced and then executed. -
Election of 1860
Four candidates were nominated. The Republicans had their forst candidate in 1856, was opposed to the expansion of slavery: Abraham Lincoln, he was seen as a moderate on slavery . Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas. while the Southern held their own convention in Richmond and nominated vice president John Bleckinridge for president. The Constitutional Union Party before the election nominated John Bell, he carried Virginia and Breckinridge had the most votes in Western Virginia. -
Bleeding Kansas.
The years 1854 - 1861 were a turbulant times for Kansas. The Kansas - Nebraska Act of 1854 established the territorial boundaries of Kansas and Nebraska and it opened the land to legal settlement. It allowed the residents to decide the popular vote whether their state was free or slave. Three distinct political groups occupied Kansas: pro- slavers, free- staters and abolitionist. Violence broke out immediatly between them it contitued until 1861 when Kansas entered as free state on Jan. 29th. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Issued by Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1 1863 the Emancipation Declaretion deckared "all person held as slaves within any state or designed part of the state, the people where of shall be in rebellion against the U.S. shal be then, then forward and for ever free". Although the Emancipation did not end slavery but it did change the basic chararcter of the Civil War.
