-
Period: to
War with Mexico
Battle over slavery in the south and also over who should have ownership of Texas. Ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. -
Compromise of 1850
Agreement designed to ease tensions caused by the expansion of slavery into western territories -
Fugitive Slave Law
Passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, it set high penalties for anyone who aided escaped slaves and compelled all law enforcement officers to participate in retrieving runaways. Strengthened the antislavery cause in the North. -
Underground Railroad
A system of secret routes used by escaping slaves to reach freedom in the North or in Canada -
Period: to
Pro & Con Literature
Books published to express ones feelings about southern slave holders and their inhuman ways. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Created Nebraska and Kansas as states and gave the people in those territories the right to chose to be a free or slave state through popular sovereignty. -
Republican Party est.
Formed preceding the Whig party and named after republicanism, or the ideology of the American Revolution. -
Period: to
Bleeding Kansas
A sequence of violent events involving abolitionists and pro-Slavery elements that took place in Kansas-Nebraska Territory. The dispute further strained the relations of the North and South, making civil war imminent. -
Sumner-Brooks Incident
Charles Sumner gave a two day speech on the Senate floor. He denounced the South for crimes against Kansas and singled out Senator Andrew Brooks of South Carolina for extra abuse. Brooks beat Sumner over the head with his cane, severely crippling him. -
Panic of 1857
Economic downturn caused by overspeculation of western lands, railroads, gold in California, grain. Mostly affected northerners, who called for higher tariffs and free homesteads -
Lecompton Constitution
Supported the existence of slavery in the proposed state and protected rights of slaveholders. It was rejected by Kansas, making Kansas an eventual free state. -
Dred Scott v Stanford
Supreme Court case that decided US Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in federal territories and slaves, as private property, could not be taken away without due process - basically slaves would remain slaves in non-slave states and slaves could not sue because they were not citizens -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
1858 Senate Debate, Lincoln forced Douglas to debate issue of slavery, Douglas supported pop-sovereignty, Lincoln asserted that slavery should not spread to territories, Lincoln emerged as strong Republican candidate -
John Brown's Raid
Began when he and his men took over the arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in hopes of starting a slave rebellion. -
Election of 1860
Lincoln, the Republican candidate, won because the Democratic party was split over slavery. As a result, the South no longer felt like it has a voice in politics and a number of states seceded from the Union.
