A House Divided

  • Period: to

    Pro & Anti Slave Literature

    Boosted the message of pro-slave and anti-slave ideas. Two examples are Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Antebellum Propaganda.
  • Period: to

    Underground Railroad

    Guided approximately 100,000 slaves to freedom.
  • Period: to

    Mexican-American War

    U.S.A. gained Texas as a slave state.
  • Compromise of 1850

    Compromise of 1850
    California joined the Union as a free state, Utah and New Mexico could choose
  • Period: to

    Fugitive Slave Law

    Required slaves to be returned to their en-slavers, even if in a free state.
  • Period: to

    Bleeding Kansas

    Immigrants flooded Kansas to effect vote by either force or voting, Kansas did end up a free-state.
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act

    Kansas-Nebraska Act
    Lead to Bleeding Kansas and NE and KS becoming free-states.
  • Republican Party Establishment

    Republican Party Establishment
    Formed a powerful anti-slavery political party.
  • Period: to

    Dred Scott vs. Stanford

    This Supreme Court landmark court decision ruled that slaves where not citizens of the U.S.A. and could not sue.
  • Sumner-Brooks Incedent

    Sumner-Brooks Incedent
    Sumner, an antislavery politician, was beaten hard after a speech. After three years of recovery, he returned as a powerful proponent of equal rights.
  • Period: to

    Panic of 1857

    Northern states where weakened; by association, Southern slave states where lightly hit but gained some advantage.
  • Lincoln-Douglass Debates

    Lincoln-Douglass Debates
    Lincoln and Douglass were both running for Senate in IL. Douglass won; however, this boosted Lincoln’s career and somewhat dimmed Douglas’s career. (August - October)
  • Lecompton Constitution

    Lecompton Constitution
    This was a proposed constitution for Kansas that supported slavery and added to friction leading to the Civil War.
  • John Brown's Raid

    John Brown's Raid
    Brown strongly added friction to the slave issue through his intense actions of activism. (October 16-18 1859)
  • Election of 1860

    Election of 1860
    Lincoln, a Republican anti-slavery proponent, won the election of 1860; as a result, the Southern states decided to secede from the nation.