-
Period: to
America from 1846-1860
-
The Treaty of Oregon
The Oregon Treaty established the border between the United States and British Canada along the 49th Parallel. Before the treaty, as the Americans continued their westward push, conflicts with the British would be frequent over the Resoruce-rich lands of the Pacific Northwest. Ameircan Manifest Destiny had pushed settelrs West on the Oregon trail. This treaty helped ease the tension between the two powers and establish the order that remains today (Commager 18). -
The Wilmot Proviso
As the Mexican-American War raged on, Northern Fears of the expansion of slavery grew. To combat the expansion of slavery after the Mexican-American War, Senator David Wilmost proposed the Wilmot Proviso, which declared that all lands gained from the war would not be slave lands. The Proviso was infnecitve. It was not passed by Congress. All the Provisio did was deepen the rift between northern and Southern states further and continue the fight for slavery only making the civil war more likely. -
End of the Mexican American War
The Mexican-American War was fought for 18 months between 1846-48. After the war, Mexico had to seed large territories to the United States. Despite the amazing success of the USA, the war was deeply unpopular in the North. Northerners saw the new territories as more land for slavery to expand into. Since Texas joined the union in 1845 as a slave state, the North assumed the rest of the states that would come out of this land would too, creating a much larger American slave-owning South. -
Harriet Tubman Joins the Underground Railroad
After escaping Slavery in 1849, Tubman joined the Underground Railroad to help fight slavery. She would be granted the role of conductor. Conductors were tasked with helping to guide slaves north. She helped them find a safe house on their way north. During her time, she helped over 70 slaves escape the North, including her parents, Rit and Ben. Tubman would become the icon of the Underground Railroad. She was praised for her work helping free slaves with the Underground Railroad (Bradford 23). -
Nashville Convention
The Nashville Convention was a meeting between the slave-owning southern leaders to discuss the future of slavery in the United States. Seeing where the union was going, Leaders in the South met in Nashville to decide the fate of the South. As the Free states of the North continued to centralize power, fear that the South would soon be powerless grew larger. The convention sought to untie the state, and they talked of what the future would hold for the southern slave waiting states (Varon 5). -
Compromise of 1850
After many debates on the question of California's admission as a state, the Compromise of 1850 was agreed to. The compromise admitted California as a free state, but it also created the Fugitive Slave Act. This act made it so that slave owners could enter the North and look for the escaped slaves. The compromise, while helping the free states by admitting Claifnoria, ended up being a Southern victory, The Fugitive Slave Act became so important to the South that Califonia did not matter. -
Fugative Slave Act
The counterbalance to California's admission under the Comprisme of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act, was the most important piece of legislation of the 1850s. The act mandated that fugitive slaves are to be reunited to their masters. It also created the US Marshal Service. They have tremendous power. They can demand that anyone has to come help lookign for a slave and they cannot be told no. It also created Tribulas. An unjsut sysmtem that often saw free blackmen being put back into slavery. -
The Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase was the last territorial exchange between Mexico and the United States. The purchase gave the United States control of what is now South Arizona and New Mexico. President Franklin Pierce made the purchase, which cost the United States 10 million dollars. The purchase was made with the intent to help finish the Southern Transcontinental Railroad. The railroad was created so that the South did not have to rely on the North for transportation of goods (Sugg 117). -
Bleeding Kansas
Following the Kansas-Nebraska Act, thousands of pro and anti-slavery settlers flock to Kansas to sway the vote in their favor. While both groups are there, major fighting ensues, and there have been raids and killings for years. One of the most famous people in Bleeding Kansas was an abolsiihtis named John Brown. He moved his family to Kansas and, together with his three oldest kids, would carry out raids on the pro-slavery camps in Kansas. Kansas would be admitted as a free state in 1961. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed the idea of popular sovereignty for the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska. This would allow for the territories to decide if they wanted to be either free or slave states before coming into the Union to avoid conflict between the North and South. While it seemed like a good idea, this bill would lead to bleeding Kansas, causing the death of thousands of Americans and only increasing tensions between the Northern and Southern States. -
The Ostend Manifesto
Many Southern radicals wanted to push for an American Empire. They pushed for annexations of South America and Caribbean nations. The Ostend Manifesto was a Southern expansionist writing pushing for an annexation of Cuba. Southerners supported this push for Cuban annexation as it aligned with their goals of expansion for both the nation and for slavery. Northern strongly opposed this idea as they knew it would only lead to slavery spreading across any newly acquired territories (Rodríguez 19). -
The Sumner-Brooks Incident
When Senator Charles Sumner calls Senator Andrew Butler a rapist, and he rapes his slaves Butler's Cousin, Preston Brooks, calls Sumner a liar. Brooks was a member of the House of Representatives, and he and his friends stormed the floor of Congress. His friends were armed with guns. Brooks then beat Sumner with a cane. The only reason that he stopped was his cane broke. While violence was not a rarity on the Congress floor, this aggression marked the intensity between the South and the North. -
The Dred Scott Decision
Scott was a slave to a military doctor. He argued for his freedom from slavery as he traveled to Minnesota, a free state that had never had slavery before. Scott took his case before the Supreme Court, where chief justice Roger Taney ruled against Soctt. He aruged that Scott had no legal standing to be arugung as slaves are not ctizens and therefore do not have the right to go to court. This decision was hated by many in the North. As it pushed back major strides in the abolitionist movement. -
The Lecompton Constitution
Following the Kansas-Nebreaska Act, Kansas quickly became a battleground. The Lecompton Constitution was only one part of what became known as Bleeding Kansas. The Constitution was proposed by pro-slavery settlers. It was harsh and biased towards the pro-slave side. As Kansas swung in the balance, imposing this constitution on the territory would elevate Kansas to statehood as a slave state. The Constitution was debated for months in Congress, but it was eventually voted down (Teeter 64-66). -
Election of 1860
The fruition of Southern fears for decades. In order to win the presidency, a candidate no longer needs to carry a single Southern state. Abraham Lincoln, in a four-person race, managed to win the election without carrying a single Southern state. His name did not appear on the ballot of most southern states. Regardless, he still won. This loss pushed the Southern states to succeed from the Union as they now realized that they did not hold any real power over the Northern states.