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War with Mexico
After the war Mexico City government had little choice but to agree with U.S. terms -
Compromise of 1850
The compromise added to the North's political powert and political debate deepened the commitment of many Northerners to saving the Union from secession. -
Fugitive Slave Law
The Fugitive Slave Law drove aa wedge between the North and the South. -
Underground Railroad
Northern free blacks, ex-slaves, and white abolitionists helped slaves escape in the North and Canada. -
Pro/Anti Slavery Literature
The Book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" moved a generation of northeners as well as europeans to regard all slave owners as cruel and inhuman. -
KS-NE Act
This gave Southern slave owners opportunity to expand slavery that had been closed by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. -
Republican Party Established
The purpose of the Republican Party was to oppose the spread of slavery in the territories.
Because this remained mainly a Northern Party, the success threatened the south. -
Bleeding Kansas
Fighting broke out between pro-slavery and antislavery groups. -
Sumner-Brooks Incident
Brooks beat Sumner with a cane because of Sumner's verbal attack about democrats.
The House voted to Censure Brooks after what he did. -
Panic of 1857
Prices for Midwestern Farmers dropped sharply.
Unemployment in the Northern cities increased. -
Lecompton Constitution
Democrats joined Republicans in rejecting the Lecompton Constitution. -
Dred Scott V Sandord
The Dred Scott decision increased Northeners' suspicions of a slave power conspiracy and induced thousands of former Democratics to vote Republican. -
Pro/Anti Slavery Literature
In the book, "Impending Crisis of the South" attacked slavery from another angle. A North Carolina Native believes that slavery weakens the South's economy. Southerners acted fast and banned the book. -
Lincoln - Douglass Debate
In what became known as the Freeport Doctrine, Douglass said slavery couldn't exist in a community if local citizens din't pass laws maintaining it. -
John Browns Raid
Because John Brown spoke wuith simple elequence at his trial of his humanitarion motives in wanting to free slaves, he was hailed as a martyr by many anti-slavery Northeners. -
Election of 1860
Americans understood that their country was moving to the brink of disintegration after John Browns raid. The election of 1860 would be a test if the Union could surviuve.
