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Compromise of 1850
This compromise created by Henry Clay settled land/law disputes for the new territory acquired by the US from Mexico. Texas was no longer the "lone start state" and officially became part of the US, California was admitted as a free state, slavery in the New Mexico and Utah territories were to be decided by popular sovergeinty, and slave trade was banned in Washington D.C. -
Fugitive Slave Law
Decided by the United States Congress, runaway slaves were to be returned to their owners and white accomplicese to runaway slaves could recieve punishment. This upset many Northern, White abolitionists because anti-abolitionists ways were being forced on the them by this new law. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin Publication
This novel depicts the life and hardships endured by the slaves in America during the 1800's. It helped Northerners who had never seen a slave before get a better idea of how awful slavery was and why the should be abolitionists. -
Birth of the Republican Party
The first Republican Party was established by Northern abolitionists. The creation of a second political party reassured Americans that a civil dispute would immerge within the next several years between pro and anti slavery political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
This act opened Kansas and Nebraska as the newest states during that period of time in America. It also repealed the Missiouri Compromise and utilised the method of popular sovergeinty to decide on whether the state was to be a slave or free state. This instilled fear in abolitionists who wanted to end slavery before it had the chance to move westward. -
Brooks attacks Sumner in Senate
Anti-abolitionist and Southern representative, Preston Brooks, attacks Abolitionist and Northern respresentative, Charles Sumner in Senate. This attack convinced many Americans that a civil war was inevitable if they wanted to ban slavery completely in America. -
Dred Scott V. Sandford
This Supreme Court ruling concluded that slaves were merely the property of their owners, therefore were not able to "become free". This decision meant that slaves were not people which helped encourage abolitionists to take a stand against anti-abolitionists. -
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
John Brown along with other abolitionists attempted to start an armed slave revolt by first raiding the arsenal fort, Harpers Ferry, in Virginia. This event helped jump-start the civil war by showing the South that the North was ready to use war to settle the dispute over slavery. -
Election of 1860
The inauguration of president Abraham Lincoln helped convince certain Southern states to declare secession from the Union, or Northern states. This made the divide between abolitionists and anti-abolitionists even more evident which also added to fuel to the fire, which was at the time, the Civil War. -
Shots fired at Fort Sumter, SC
The Confederate Army were the first to fire in the Civil War at the Union who were in and around Fort Sumter. This event was the official start to the war which would determine if America in her entiretry would keep or abolish slavery.
