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Importation of slaves ends
An important step toward the end of slavery was taken in 1808 when the United States formally stopped importing slaves. Nevertheless, the domestic slave trade remained forcing many enslaved people to relocate unwillingly and causing them tremendous suffering. -
The Missouri Compromise/The Compromise of 1820
An arrangement made in the US Congress known as the Missouri Compromise permitted Maine to become a free state and Missouri to become a slave state upon entering the Union. It created a boundary at the parallel, north of which slavery was outlawed in the other Louisiana Purchase territories, with the exception of Missouri, while preserving the balance between slave and free states. -
The Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot proviso was an 1846 amendment to the constitution that attempted to outlaw slavery in any land that the United States acquired from Mexico after the Mexican-American War. Despite passing the House of Representatives, the Senate repeatedly postponed it, escalating the division between the North and South over the spread of slavery. -
The Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 mandated that runaway slaves be returned to their owners, regardless of whether they were discovered in a free state. Tensions between the North and South increased as a result of the harsh fines it placed on people who helped fugitives and the denial of a jury trial to those who were accused of being fugitives. -
The Compromise of 1850
Following the Mexican-American War, a set of five legislative actions known as the compromise of 1850 were intended to ease tensions between slave and free states. Among other things, it strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act, allowed popular sovereignty in the territories of Utah and New Mexico, and admitted California as a free state. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the influential anti-slavery book Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852. It showed the harsh reality of slavery and inspired resistance to the system in the North. Due to its widespread popularity, tensions between the various states grew, resulting in the North and South becoming further divided in the years before the American Civil War. -
The Kansas Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 established the states of Kansas and Nebraska, giving local residents the power to choose whether to accept slavery by popular power. This act effectively overturned the Missouri Compromise, resulting in the bloody battles called "Bleeding Kansas" and furthering the division over slavery in the country. -
Bleeding Kansas
The term "Bleeding Kansas" describes the bloody fights that broke out in the Kansas Territory between 1854 and 1859, when the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed. These bloody battles, characterized by retaliation and vicious attacks, emphasized the growing divide in the country on slavery and hinted at the oncoming Civil War. -
The Caning of Charles Sumner
In the 1856 "Canning of Charles Summer," pro-slavery Congressman Preston Brooks viciously attacked Senator Charles Summer on the Senate floor following Summer's speech against slavery and those who supported it. In the years before the Civil War, the violent incident that left Summer gravely injured served as a symbol of the violent sectional warfare and further split the country. -
The Dred Scott Decision
The Dred Scott decision of 1857 was a landmark Supreme Court ruling that declared African Americans, whether free or enslaved, were not U.S. citizens and had no legal standing to sue in federal court. Additionally, the ruling maintained Congress's inability to forbid slavery in the territories, thereby eliminating the Missouri Compromise and growing tensions between the North and South.