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war with mexico
A war between the United States and Mexico stemming from the United States’ annexation of Texas in 1845 and from a dispute over whether Texas ended at the Nueces River or the Rio Grande. -
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underground railroad
A network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early to mid-19th century, and used by African-American slaves to escape into free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. -
compromise of 1850
A package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress, which defused a four-year political confrontation between slave and free states on the status of territories acquired during the Mexican–American War. -
fugitive slave law
A law passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, which provided southern slaveholders with legal weapons to capture slaves who had escaped to the free states. -
bleeding kansas
A series of violent civil confrontations in the United States between 1854 and 1861 which emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas. -
kansas - nebraska act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders -
republican party est.
The first official party convention was held on July 6, 1854 in Jackson, Michigan. By 1858, the Republicans dominated nearly all Northern states. The Republican Party first came to power in the elections of 1860 when it won control of both houses of Congress and its candidate, Abraham Lincoln, was elected President. -
sumner-brooks incident
Preston Brooks beats Charles Sumner with a cane. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was an avowed Abolitionist and leader of the Republican Party. After the sack of Lawrence, on May 21, 1856, he gave a bitter speech in the Senate called "The Crime Against Kansas." -
panic of 1857
A financial panic in the United States caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy. -
dred scott v sandford
Supreme Court decision that stated that slaves were not citizens; that living in a free state or territory, even for many years, did not free slaves; and declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitional. -
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lecompton constitution
The second of four proposed constitutions for the state of Kansas. -
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lincoln-douglas debates
A series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, when both were campaigning for election to the United States Senate from Illinois -
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john brown's raid
An effort by abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. -
election of 1860
The nineteenth quadrennial presidential election to select the President and Vice President of the United States.
