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Compromise of 1850
Who: Henry Clay made a series of compromises in order to stop the divide of the union but they were not approved. Stephen Douglas picked up where he left off and got them approved one by one.
What: California added as a free state (North); new fugitive slave law (South); popular sovereignty for New Mexico & Utah
Where: America
Why: Made in order to stop the South from seceding
So What: Stopped (at least temporarily) Southern secession -
Bleeding Kansas
Who: Northerners and Southerners fought over whether Kansas should be a slave state or not
What: Violence erupted in the state after Kansas became a slave state
Where: Kansas
Why: “Border ruffians” from slave state Missouri had participated in the vote
So What: Further divided the North and the South -
Violence in the Senate
Who/What: Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts gave his speech called “The Crime in Kansas” and singled out Senator Andre P. Butler of North Carolina. Butler’s nephew, Congressman Preston S. Brooks, retaliated by hitting Sumner on the head with a cane until it broke.
Where: Within the Senate
Why: More and more people were speaking out about their positions on slavery
So What: Old political parties began to break down and new ones began to form in their place -
Harper's Ferry
Who: The abolitionist John Brown and people who joined him
What: They marched into Harpers Ferry to steal federal arsenal and start an uprising against slavery. Troops put the uprising down.
Where: Harpers Ferry
Why: Brown had seen uprisings in other countries such as Haiti and thought it was time for the slaves to do theirs.
So What: The event triggered a large reaction that made Northerners cry out even further against slavery and Southerners paranoid and violent towards anyone remotely connec -
Lincoln is Elected President
Who: Lincoln from the Republican party ran against other candidates, notably mentioning Stephan Douglas of the Democratic party
What: Lincoln won the election despite having less than half the popular votes, no Southern electoral votes, and missing his name on some of the ballots in the South
Why: He had moderate views and was against the spread of slavery
So What: Was the final breaking point for Southern states. Many seceded from the union afterwards. -
Southern Succession
Who/What: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas left the Union to form the Confederacy.
Why: The Southern states thought they no longer had any political say in the country and that they would lose slavery.
So What: This gave the two sides for the war. -
The Dred Scott Decision
Who/What: Dred Scott, a slave, was taken from Missouri (slave state) to Illinois and Wisconsin (free states) before being taken back to Missouri. He tried to gain freedom from being in free territories.The Supreme Court ruled against Scott.
Where: Between slave and free states
Why: Slaves were considered property and the Fifth Amendment stopped the Court from ruling for his freedom. They also stated that being in free territory did not make a slave free.
So What: Southerners thought slavery was