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A famous antislavery novel was Uncle Tom's Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It helped move antislavery into everyday conversation for many northerners but also reinforced many racist stereotypes. Anti-Tom Literature was books written in response to Uncle Tom's Cabin and were pro-slavery. Some examples of these books are Aunt Phillis's Cabin and Southern Life As It Is.
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The Underground Railroad was a network of routes and safe houses established in the United States to help enslaved African Americans escape into the free states and Canada.
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The Mexican American War was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico over territory. The United States desired to retain the disputed land of Texas but also wanted to obtain more of Mexico's northern territory.
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The Compromise of 1850 was a series of resolutions passed by Senator Henry Clay in an attempt to seek a compromise and get rid of the crisis between the northern states and the southern states. In this compromise, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington D.C. was abolished. -
The Fugitive Slave Law required slaves to be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state. -
Bleeding Kansas was a series of violent warfare between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces over the discussion of making the Kansas territory slavery free or not.
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The Republican Party was established in Ripon, WI in which former members of the Whig Party met to establish a new party to oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories. -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was a territorial act that repealed the Missouri Compromise, created two new territories, and allowed for popular sovereignty. -
The Sumner-Brooks Incident was when Preston Brooks used a walking cane to attack Charles Sumner in the Senate Chamber. Preston Brooks was a Representative from South Carolina and was pro-slavery while Representative Charles Sumner was from Massachusetts -
In the Dred Scott vs. Sandford case, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that enslaved people were not citizens of the United States and could not expect the federal government or courts to protect them. This was later overturned with the 13th and 14th amendments.
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The Panic of 1857 was a financial panic in the United States caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy.
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The Lecompton Constitution was the second proposed constitution for the state of Kansas. The document would allow slavery, exclude free blacks from living in Kansas, and would only allow male citizens to vote. It never went into effect because the residents of the Kansas territory rejected it. -
The Lincoln-Douglass Debates was a series of seven debates between Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas and Republican Abraham Lincoln during the 1858 Illinois senatorial campaign. The main topic was the issue of slavery extension into the territories in which Stephen Douglass opposed the idea of abolishing slavery and Abraham Lincoln was in favor.
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Abolitionist John Brown led a small group on a raid against a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in an attempt to spark a slave revolt in the Southern States.
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In the Election of 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Democrats Stephan Douglass and John Breckinridge along with Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. Following the election, seven southern states led by South Carolina seceded from the United States of America.