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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. -
War with Mexico
After the war, Mexico's government had no choice with the United States terms. -
Compromise of 1850
The Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished. -
Fugitive State Law
Part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. -
KS-NE Act
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.
Goal to oppose the spread of slavery in the territories, which threatened the South. -
Bleeding Kansas
Fighting between pro-slavery and antislavery groups in Kansas. -
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. -
Lecompton Constitution
Contained clauses protecting slaveholding and a bill of rights excluding free blacks, and it added to the frictions leading up to the U.S. Civil War. Was never passed. -
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. Congress lacks the power to abolish slavery. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
A series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois, and incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. Douglass won but Lincoln became more well known to Republicans. -
John Brown’s Raid
An effort by abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. -
Election of 1860
Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell by a landslide. -
Pro and Con Literature
Popular and unpopular books brought emotions to many different people all over.
