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U.S. Constitution – 3/5th Compromise
This was the agreement that settled the issue of how slaves would be counted when determining a state's population and stated that all whites plus 3/5ths of the slave population would be counted for both representation and taxes. The compromise set up a large imbalance of power in the House of Representatives. -
Northwest Ordinance
The Northwest Ordinance helped organize the territories and set up steps each territory needed to take in order to become a state. It outlawed slavery in the Northwest Territory, even though slavery was allowed by the US Constitution at that time. -
Fugitive Slave Act
It was a law made it a crime to help runaway slaves and ensure that any slaves who escaped would be caught and returned to their owners, but it provided no government aid to do so. Northerners insisted that the federal government should not help to enforce slavery, and the South believed that slaves were their property and their way of life was being threatened. -
Invention of cotton gin
Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin to remove seeds from cotton fibers which resulted in cotton being processed quicker and easier. The invention caused a spike in cotton production which resulted in more slaves being needed to tend to the cotton fields. -
Ban on Slave Importation
The international slave trade was abolished after Thomas Jefferson signed a bill that prohibited the importation of slaves to the United States. There was a difference of opinions about slaves between the North and the South where the Southern states considered the slave trade to be essential to the economy. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery in the Louisiana territory north of 36°30', and allowed Maine to enter as a free state and Missouri to enter as a slave state. The agreement was made to keep the balance of slave and free states equal. -
Nat Turner Rebellion
Nat Turner was a Virginian slave who believed he was receiving a message from God to lead his people to freedom.and started the largest black resistance to slavery in America. The government responded by censoring abolitionists, making it illegal for teaching slaves to read or gather in groups, and passing stricter slave laws. -
South Carolina Nullification Crisis
The Nullification Crisis was a crisis during the presidency of Andrew Jackson when South Carolina declared the federal tariff of 1832 unconstitutional and threatened secession if the federal government tried to collect taxes. Southern states started questioning whether democrats represented southern interests, and the Nullification Crisis caused South Carolina to unite but also to isolate themselves from the rest of the country. -
Organization of Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a secret network of places and people who helped thousands of slaves escape to free states in the north and Canada by providing transportation and hiding places along the way. The South demanded stricter fugitive slave laws because of the number of slave lost to the Underground Railroad. -
Wilmot Proviso
Congressman David Wilmot proposed to Congress that slavery should be banned in all of the territory gained from Mexico during the Mexican American War. Many Southerns argued that the government should not have the power to deny citizens the right to own slaves. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War and stated that Mexico would give up all claims to land from Texas to California in exchange for $15 million. Even thought the treaty increased the size of the United States by about 1/3, some people, including President Polk, resented the treaty because they felt they should have gotten more land out of the deal. -
Compromise of 1850
The compromise proposed that California is admitted as a free state, the slave trade become outlawed in Washington D.C., Utah and New Mexico will determine whether slavery is allowed through popular sovereignty, Texas will give up their claim on New Mexico for $10 million, and the Fugitive Slave Law said citizens could be fined or imprisoned if they assist a fugitive slave is passed. The Compromise of 1850 overturned the Missouri Compromise. -
Uncle Tom’s Cabin published
Harriet Beecher Stowe's story about a slave owner in Kentucky that is forced to sell his gentle and kind slave named Tom to a cruel new Master. The book made readers think of slaves as people rather than as objects for the first time, and infuriated people in the South because it portrayed slavery in a negative way. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed the territories in that state to decide whether or not they were to be free or slave territories based on popular sovereignty. The bill overturned the Missouri Compromise causing a bigger division between the North and the South and led to the Republican party being created. -
Bleeding Kansas
A sequence of violent raids and counter raids involving abolitionists and pro-Slavery groups that took place in the Kansas Territory in an attempt to influence whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free or slave state.The dispute further strained the relations of the North and South. -
Charles Sumner Attacked
Senator Preston Brooks beat Senator Charles Sumner with a cane after Sumner gave an speech about Bleeding Kansas in which he insulted proslavery legislators and Brook's uncle, Senator Andrew Butler. The attack intensified tension between the South who saw Brooks as a hero, and the North who saw the South becoming violently unstable. -
Dred Scott Decision
The Supreme Court ruled against the slave Dred Scott who argued that since he was a slave taken north of the Missouri Compromise line where slavery was banned and lived several years in a free state that he should be free. The court stated that temporary residence in a free territory did not make Scott free and resulted in Congress no longer having the authorization to ban slavery since it would go against the decision of the Supreme Court. -
John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry
John Brown was an abolitionist who attacked a Federal Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia hoping to seize the arsenal, take the weapons, arm slaves, and start a rebellion. Many Northerners were sympathetic of John Brown, but his action angered Southerners who saw it as a northern invasion and led them to begin to create the Confederate Army. -
Lincoln’s election
Abraham Lincoln defeated Stephen Douglas by gaining the most electoral votes, even though no southern states voted for him. The North supported Lincoln's opposition to slavery expansion into new territories, but Southerners were concerned about the anti-slavery nature of his party and resulted in South Carolina seceding from the Union. -
South Carolina Secedes from Union
South Carolina feared that Lincoln would free their slaves and held a secession convention to discuss seceding from the Union, and resulted in them signing the Ordinances of Secession. Eventually, seven other states would secede from the Union and join South Carolina to form a new country, the Confederate States of America.
