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Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was measures passed by Congress in 1820 to admit Missouri into the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state while also setting a line at lattitude 36 30’. North of which all Louisiana Purchase territory would be free. -
Period: to
1800’s
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Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early to mid 19th century. Used by the African American slaves to escape into free territory. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 allowed California to enter the Union as a free state. The rest of the Southwest was left open to slavery, depending on the vote of the people who settled there. -
Fugitive Slave Law
This law required the return of escaped slaves to their owners, something slaveholders had been demanding for years. -
Uncle Toms Cabin
Uncle Toms Cabin was the best-selling novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe that described the cruelties of slavery through the story of a dignified slaved named Uncle Tom. It described Toms experiences with three slaveholders. Two of them treated Tom kindly but the third abused Tom and had Tom beaten to death for refusing to tell him where two slaves were hiding. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act overturned the Missouri Compromise by organizing Kansas and Nebraska territories on the basis of the popular sovereignty. -
Dred Scott Decision
The Dred Scott Decision was the ruling of the Surprime Court in the case of Scott V. Sandford that legalized slavery in the territories and declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. -
John Browns Raid
John Brown provoked an armed uprising of slaves to free themselves. Brown and 21 other men seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown intended to distribute weapons to the slaves for the uprising. -
Election of 1860
In 1860 there was a presidential election that drove the final wedge between the north and the south. The country was devided along party lines. Lincoln and the Republicans took the Northern states and the far west. The Southern Democrats took most of the south. Lincoln won the electoral college with less than 40 percent of the popular vote. -
Fort Sumter
Southern forces opened fire on Fort Sumter, a federal fort in Charleston harbor. After a day and a half of bombardment, the troops in the fort surrendered.
