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Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada -
Fugitive Slave Act
Act required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state. The act also made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves. -
Compromise of 1850
It admitted California as a free state, left Utah and New Mexico to decide for themselves whether to be a slave state or free state, defined a new Texas-New Mexico boundary, and made it easier for slaveowners to recover runways under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. -
Uncle Toms Cabin
Story of Uncle Tom, an enslaved person, depicted as saintly and dignified, noble and steadfast in his beliefs. While being transported by boat to auction in New Orleans, Tom saves the life of Little Eva, an angelic and forgiving young girl, whose grateful father then purchases Tom. -
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Anti-Tom literature
Books that supported the south and went against what was being said in Uncle Tom's Cabin continued to be made after the civil war. -
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Bleeding Kansas
Series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas. -
Republican Party
The Party began as a coalition of anti-slavery Conscience Whigs and Free Soilers. The first anti-Nebraska local meeting where "Republican" was suggested as a name for a new anti-slavery party was held in a Ripon, Wisconsin schoolhouse on March 20, 1854. -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Repealed the Missouri Compromise created two new territories and allowed for popular sovereignty. It also produced a violent uprising called “Bleeding Kansas,” as pro-slavery and antislavery activists flooded the territories to sway the vote. -
Sumner-Brooks Incident
When Representative Preston Brooks, a pro-slavery Democrat from South Carolina, used a walking cane to attack Senator Charles Sumner, an abolitionist Republican from Massachusetts. -
Panic of 1857
A financial panic in the United States caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy. Because of the invention of the telegraph, the Panic of 1857 was the first financial crisis to spread rapidly throughout the United States. -
Dred Scott v Sandford
The Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. The Court also ruled that Congress lacked the power to ban slavery in the U.S. territories. -
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Lincoln-Douglas debates
The Lincoln-Douglas debates were a series of formal political debates between the challenger, Abraham Lincoln, and the incumbent, Stephen A. Douglas, in a campaign for one of Illinois' two United States Senate seats. -
Lecompton Constitution
The Lecompton Constitution was the second of four proposed constitutions for the state of Kansas. Named for the city of Lecompton where it was drafted, it was strongly pro-slavery. However, it never went into effect. -
John Brown’s Raid
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was an effort by abolitionist John Brown, from October 16 to 18, 1859, to initiate a slave revolt in Southern states by taking over the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. It has been called the dress rehearsal for, or Tragic Prelude to the Civil War -
Election of 1860
The Republican Party was relatively new; 1860 was only the second time the party had a candidate in the presidential race. The Constitutional Union Party was also new; 1860 was the first and only time the party ran a candidate for president. The results of the 1860 election pushed the nation into war.