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Underground Railroad
Harriet Tubman was the one who created the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was a railroad that runaway slaves took. Some abolitionists helped the slaves escape to the Underground Railroad. The South had lost over 100,000 slaves. The South wanted the slaves back, which was a cause of the Civil War. -
The Missouri Compromise
Additional territories gained from the U.S. and Meixcan ward raised the slavery debate. Abolitionists fought to have slavery declared as illegal. Advocates of slavery feared that if the insitution were prohibited in any states carve out of the new territories, the political power of slaveholding states would be diminished. It could possible be to the point where slavery is outlawed everywhere in the United States. -
Abolitionist Movement
By the early 1830s the people who wished to see the institution that was abolished within the United States were becoming harsh and not as important. They claimed obedience to the Constitution’s guarantee that if someone was a fugitive in a state they were a fugitive in all states. The fugitive act and the publishing of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book helped to expand the support for abolishing slavery all over the nation. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The purpose of the Fugitive Slave Act was to capture the runaway slaves that headed towards the northern states and take them back to their southern owners. The Fugitive Slave Act causes more tension between the North and the South. The North saw how cruel the evil's of slavery was and it eventually ended at Fort Sumter. -
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Harriet Beecher wrote a book called Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It was about the evils of slavery and the book was published in 1852. It offered a vision of slavery that few in the nation had seen before. The book succeeded its goal, which was to start a wave of anti-savery sentiment across the nation. President Lincoln claims that her book was the thing that started the Civil War. -
The Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott was a slave who sought citizenship through the American legal system. His case eventually went to the Supreme Court. His request was denied and it stated that no person with African blood could become a U.S. citizen. Besides denying citizenship for African-Americans, it also overturned the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which restricted slavery in certain U.S. territories. -
The Raid on Harper's Ferry
John Brown and a band of followers took possession of the federal weapons at Harpers Ferry in Virginia, which is believed to be an attempt to arm a slave uprising towards the government. When Northern abolotionists made a killer out of him, Southerners thought this was enough proof that the North intended to wage a war of extermination against white Southerners. Brown's attack became a step onto the road of war. -
State Rights
States’ Rights was the struggle between the federal government and individual states over power. During the Civil War the struggle was the institution of slavery and whether the federal government had the right to control or even get rid of slavery within the individual states. The two main sides of the fight were the Southern states and the Northern states. This made the divide that was in the Nation grow even larger. -
Abraham Lincoln
When Abraham Lincoln was elected for president, the South Carolina legislature realized a threat. The Southern states had been publicly threatening withdrawal if the Republicans took over the White House. By the time Lincoln's inauguration came, seven states had withdrawaled. -
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter was the most important fort in the start of the Civil War. The firsts shots were fired on April 12, 1861. Fort Sumter was there to protect Charleston and its harbor. For over three months the troops waited on the island that were surrounding Fort Sumter. They waited for the government in Washington to continue with their refusal to order its evacuation in order to attach on the fort. The troops attacked Sumter after 34 hours, and the fort was scene of ruin and destruction.
