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The Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was an act made attempting to eliminate the expansion of slavery in the new states. This severely angered the southerners as they knew that this was an attempt at giving the north more power. This contributed to the increase of sectional tensions because the south knew that this would only contribute to the north's already great power. -
The Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was an act attempting to eliminate the expansion of slavery in any new states. This severely angered the southerners as they knew this was attempting to give the north more power. This contributed to the increase in sectional tensions because the south knew that this would only contribute to the north's already great power. -
The Mexican American war
More specifically after the war, the problem was the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This treaty acquired 525,000 square miles of land from the Mexican government for the United States. The arguments arose over what kind of states the new ones should be. Whether they should be free of slave states. This argument led to massive arguments within both of the legislative bodies within the United States government. These arguments continued to contribute to the tensions between the north and south. -
The Fugitive Slave Act
This law passed in 1850 made it so that fugitive slaves escaping into the northern states had to be brought back the southern states. The northern states saw this as an infringement on their rights. This was one of the only examples of when the north didn't get their way and got pissed. This increased the tensions between the north and south greatly and contributed to the hatred between them. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a book written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was about the life of a slave and the hardships it involved. It was one of the reasons why the abolitionist movement gained so much traction in the north. The book was so influential and imfluentiall that it was actually banned in the south. This continued to worsen tensions. While the north gained more abolitionist sentiment the south fought back even more because of the northerners reinvigorated abolitionist sentiment. -
Bloody Kansas
Bloody Kansas refers to fights in the, territory of Kansas. The North wanted it to be a free and the South wanted it to be a slave state. Both sides encouraged people to travel to Kansas and so that when the time came for people in Kansas to vote on what kind of state it would be their side would win. Southern immigrants began to attack northerners to discourage them from moving to Kansas. This caused a lot of anti southern sentiment from the north because of the senseless attacks. -
Sumner v Brooks
This was an event involving senator Sumner and senator Brooks. Brooks heard that Sumner was giving a speech about Bloody Kansas. Brooks must've been insulted with the things that Sumner was saying. Sumner must've annoyed very badly because Brooks walked right up to Sumner and began to beat him with a cane. He was so brutal that he put Sumner in a coma. The south saw this as standing up for their pride, but the north saw this as another example of how brutal and savage the south really is. -
Dred Scott vs. Sandford
Dred Scott was a slave owned by Dr. Emerson. Emerson moved to Wisconsin and brought Scott with him. After he died, Scott sued his widow for his freedom on the grounds that he had been living in a free state. As his new master, J.F.A Sanford, lived in New York. Scott appealed his case to a federal court who decided against Scott. He then appealed to the Supreme Court, who also decided that Scott had no right to sue for freedom because he was a slave. This decision angered the north even more. -
The Election of 1860
This was very important in being the biggest reason for why the civil war began. South Carolina threatened to secede if Abraham Lincoln, was elected president. They feared that if he was elected then he might ban slavery throughout the entire United States. When he was elected, South Carolina officially seceded from the US. SC was the first to take that major step. After that, almost all of the other slave states seceded as well. Lincoln saw this as more of a mass rebellion than anything else.