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The Underground Railroad
A network of people who helped fugitive slaves escape to the North and to Canada -
Period: to
Antebellum
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Compromise of 1850
The compromise of 1850 was a series of congretional measures intended to settle disagreements between slave states and free states. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was part of the Compromise of 1850. The act required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state. The act also made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin published
Written in 1852 by Harriet Beecher Stowe, an activist who wrote the book to show the evils of enslavement the book became a best-seller and had a huge impact on the way that Northerners viewed enslavement. It helped further the cause of Black activism. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas Nebraska act established the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and gave the people the right to vote for if they wanted the state as a slave state or as a free state. -
Bleeding Kansas
Following the Kansas-Nebraska Act, by 1856, Kansas had become a hotbed of violence as pro- and anti-enslavement forces fought over the state's future to the point where it was nicknamed "Bleeding Kansas." -
Attack on the Senate Floor
Violence occurred on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Congressman Preston Brooks, who favored enslavement, attacked Sen. Charles Sumner with a cane after Sumner had given a speech condemning the pro-enslavement forces for the violence occurring in Kansas. -
Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Dred Scott case
Dred Scott lost his case to be free because he had been held as an enslaved person while living in a free state. The Supreme Court ruled that his petition could not be seen because he did not hold any property and that he was still an enslaved person because such individuals were to be considered the property of their enslavers. -
John Brown Raids Harper's Ferry
He led a group of 17, including five Black members, to raid the arsenal located in Harper's Ferry looking to start an uprising led by enslaved people using the captured weapons. After capturing several buildings, Brown and his men were killed or captured by troops and Brown was tried and hanged for treason. -
Abraham Lincoln elected President
Lincoln agreed that the South was becoming too powerful and made it part of the Republican party platform that slavery would not be extended to any new territories or states added to the Union.