a House Divided

  • Mexican-American War

    April 1846- fecuary 1848
    This was a war between America and Mexico
    The Americans won and it resulted in America gaining more than 500,000 square miles of Mexican territory
    They got, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, Texas, and western colorado
  • Compromise of 1850

    Henry clay
    Compromise between north and south about slavery
    1, allowed California to enter the union as a free state
    2, divided to rest of the Mexican cession into states, NM and Utah
    3, ended the slave trade in Washington DC
    4, Strict fugitive slave law
  • Underground Railroad

    1810-50
    Helped to guide 100,000 enslaved people to freedom
    Cundudctors guided runaway slaves from place to place
    It wasn't an actual train, just a group of people
  • Fugitive slave law

    Passed on September 18, 1850
    The act required slaves to be returned to owners, even if in free states
  • Pro and anti- slave literature

    Wrote by William Lloyd Garrison and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
    Garrison wrote poetry
    Harriet wrote (1852) the novel, uncle toms cabin
  • KS-NE act

    Repealed Missouri compromise
    Senator Stephen Douglass split land west of Missouri into Kansas and Nebraska
    Anti-slavery supporters were mad because, under the Missouri compromise in 1820, slavery would have been outlawed in both territories
  • Bleeding Kansas

    Anti-slavery and pro-slavery people were fighting about the new territories and whether slavery should be allowed there
    (1854)
  • Republican party est

    -founded march 20, 1854
  • Sumner- Brooks indecent

    May 22, 1856
    Brooks found Sumner attaching his portal franks to copies of his “crimes against Kansas” speech\
    He slammed his metal cane on sumners head
    Sumners was carried away bleeding
    Brooks wasn't detained
    He resigned and was reelected, then state there for 18 years
  • panic of 1857

    Financial panic
    Caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion
    Investors were losing in the stock market and railroads weren't able to pay debts
  • Lecompton constitution

    2nd out of 4 proposed constitutions for Kansas
    Pro-slavery
    If it was approved it would allow Kansas to have slaves
    Never went into effect
    (1857)
  • Dred Scott v Stanford

    Landmark decision
    Established that enslaved persons had no rights in federal court
  • lincoln-Douglas debates

    Series of 7 debates between Abraham lincoln and the republican party.
    For one of 2 Illinois US senate seats.
    (1858)
  • john brown raid

    Raids on harpers ferry
    John was an abolitionist
    (1859)
    Initiate a slave revolt in the south by taking the US arsenal at harpers ferry, Virginia
  • election of 1860

    -19th quadrennial presidential election
    Lincoln won