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Antebellum Period
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Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso proposed an American law to ban slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War. The proviso was introduced on August 8, 1846, it passed the House but failed in the Senate. It was reintroduced in February 1847 where it once again passed the House and failed in the Senate. Then in 1848 an attempt to make it part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo also failed. Disputes over slavery in the Southwest continued until the Compromise of 1850. -
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The Free Soil Party
A Short lasting political party founded in 1848 that opposed slavery in new states as they expanded westward, they believed that free men on free soil comprised a morally and economically superior system to slavery. Although none of their party members got elected president in either the 1848 election or the 1852 election, they still influenced some anti-slavery laws in some states like Ohio. -
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Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad, started by Harriet Tubman, reached it's height between 1850 and 1860. It was estimated that by 1850 around 100,000 slaves escaped via the underground railroad. -
The Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was written by Whig Henry Clay reduced sectional conflict. The Compromise admitted California as a free state, Texas surrendered it's claim to New Mexico as well as it's territory north of the Missouri Compromise line, and a more strict fugitive slave law was implemented. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin was a novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, an active abolitionist. The main character is Uncle Tom, a black slave around whom the other character's stories revolve. The book brought a lot of attention to slavery and fueled the abolitionist cause. It was also the best selling novel of the 19th century. The book is thought to have helped start the civil war so much so that when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe he declared, "So this is the little lady that started this great war." -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act, drafted by Stephen A. Douglas and President Franklin Pierce, created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. It's purpose was to create thousands of new farms and make feasible a Midwestern Transcontinental Railroad. The Act called for popular sovereignty to decide whether the states would be slave or free, which resulted in Bleeding Kansas. -
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Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas was a series of violent political conflicts between anti-slavery and pro-slavery forces in Kansas between 1854 and 1861. The conflicts were over whether Kansas would become a free state or a slave state. The Kansas-Nebraska Act called for popular sovereignty where the settlers would decide instead of outsiders, but pro-slavery forces said every settler had the right to bring his own property while anti-slavery forces were concerned with slave owners taking up all the farmland. -
The Caning of Charles Sumner
Preston brooks attacked Charles Sumner with a cane on the senate floor two days after Charles Sumner gave a speech in which he attacked slaveholders including a relative of Preston Brooks. Preston Brooks nearly killed Senator Sumner, and brought much attention to the issue of the expansion of slavery in the United States. -
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott was an African American slave who unsuccessfully sued for the freedom of him and his family in the Dred Scott v. Sanford case. He claimed that he and his family should be granted freedom since they had lived in Illinois for four years, where slavery was illegal. The US supreme court sided against them claiming that neither he nor any any other person of African ancestry could claim US citizenship, and that granting them freedom would "deprive Scott's owner of his legal property." -
The Freeport Doctrine
At the second Lincoln-Douglas debate in Freeport Illinois, Stephen A. Douglas introduced the Freeport Doctrine which he had formulated to help abolish slavery. The Freeport Doctrine stated that a territory's residents could exclude slavery by not adopting laws to protect it.
