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Missouri Compromise of 1820
Henry Clay made the compromise in 1820 in Missouri.
Missouri wanted to be admitted as a state, but this would change the balance of power in the Senate because there were equal slave and free states. The compromise made Missouri a slave state and added Maine as a free state. Congress also drew an imaginary line across the Southern border of Missouri and made the parts of Louisiana Purchase below that line allow slavery and anything above that line banned slavery. -
Wilmot Proviso (1846)
David Wilmot made the Wilmot Proviso in 1846, and it took place in the Mexican Cession.
Wilmot was anti-slavery so he proposed the Wilmot Proviso which banned slavery in the Mexican Cession. This document did not pass the South-dominated Senate. -
Compromise of 1850
Henry Clay proposed the Compromise of 1850 in 1850, for the area of the Mexican Cession.
The Compromise of 1850 allowed for California to be admitted as a free state, which upset the balance, but then a harsher Fugitive Slave Law was enacted. The Mexican Cession was divided into New Mexico and Utah, and voters decided on whether they would allow slavery according to popular sovereignty. -
Fugitive Slave Act (1850)
Henry Clay proposed this act as a part of the Compromise of 1850 in 1850. This affected the entire country. This act made it illegal to help runaway slaves and let officials arrest runaway slaves in free states. Also, accused slave fugitives couldn't testify, faced six months of jail, and a $1000 fine. Commissioners got more money for confirming suspected fugitives then rejecting them. Repealed in 1864. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
Stephen Douglas made this compromise in 1854 for Kansas and Nebraska. Kansas and Nebraska used popular sovereignty t deal with the issue of slavery. People would vote for if they wanted slavery or not. This repealed the Missouri Compromise. It pleased Southerners, outraged Northerners. -
Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)
In 1857, a slave named Dred Scott who moved to Missouri (free state) with his owner, Dr. Emerson. His owner died leaving him with his owners wife. He sued for freedom because at one point he lived in free territory which he said freed him. The case went to the Supreme Court where they decided that slaves weren't citizens so they couldn't sue. Also they ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional and that Congress couldn't ban slavery. -
Lincoln Douglas Debates (1858)
Abraham Lincoln and Steohen Douglas were both competing for a seat in Illinois' U.S. Senate. They held seven debates throughout Illinois. Lincoln stressed that Democrats wanted to spread slavery through the nation and that African Americans had all natural rights. Douglas thought Lincoln wanted to change too much by making the nation completely free. In the end Douglas won the seat in Senate, but Lincoln was still important to the Republican Party. -
Bleeding Kansas (1856)
Due to Kansas's two opposing governments there was conflict. In 1856, a group of proslavery supporters set fire to the city of Lawrence, home of antislavery leaders. John Brown led a group of antislavery supporters, in response to this, into a violent campaign to end slavery and killed five pro skavery leaders (Pottawatomie Massacre). This resulted in a civil war within Kansas with 200 deaths.
