-
Wilmot Proviso
Wilmot Proviso was designed to eliminate slavery within the land acquired as a result of the Mexican War.
The intensity of the debate surrounding the Proviso prompted the first serious discussions of secession -
Free Soil Movement
The main purpose was to oppose the expansion of slavery into the western territories, arguing that free men on free soil comprised a morally and economically superior system to slavery.
Helped create the tension between the North and South, which brought the U.S closer to the Civil War -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 consists of five laws passed in September of 1850 that dealt with the issue of slavery. The compromise prevented further territorial expansion of slavery while strengthening the Fugitive Slave Act.
This led to polarization among centrist citizens which brought the U.S closer to the Civil War -
Uncle Tom's Cabin Publishing
Harriet Beecher Stowe's fictional exploration of slave life was a cultural sensation. Northerners felt as if their eyes had been opened to the horrors of slavery, while Southerners protested that Stowe's work was slanderous.
Its popularity brought the issue of slavery to life for those few who remained unmoved after decades of legislative conflict and widened the division between North and South -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1858, allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders.
Although both territories eventually ratified anti-slavery constitutions, the violence shocked and troubled the nation. -
Republican Party Formed
With the successful introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854, an act that dissolved the terms of the Missouri Compromise and allowed slave or free status to be decided in the territories by popular sovereignty, the Whigs disintegrated. By February 1954, anti-slavery Whigs had begun meeting in the upper midwestern states to discuss the formations of a new party. One such meeting, in Wisconsin, on March 20, 1854, was the founding meeting of the Republican Party. -
"Bleeding Kansas" Incidents
Bleeding Kansas was a series of violent political confrontations in the US involving anti-slavery "Free-Staters" and pro-slavery "southern" elements in Kansas.
Pro-Slavery "border ruffians" poured into Kansas to attempt to establish that territory as a slave state... leading to the Civil War -
Caning of Charles Summer
Preston Brooks came into the Senate with his cane and started beating Charles Sumner until he was unconscience. This was the first type of violence shown about sectionalism.
The beating nearly killed Sumner and it drew a response from the American public on the subject of the expansion of slavery in the U.S. It was considered the "breakdown of reasoned discourse" that led to the Civil War -
Dred Scott v. Sanford decision
Dred Scott was an enslaved African American who has lived for a while in Illinois both of which banned slavery. Scott sued for his freedom. arguing that since he had lived in a free state and a free territory, he was a free man.
It helped bring the issue of abolition to the forefront leading to the civil war -
Lincoln Douglass Debates
Senator Lincoln asked to have multiple debates with Douglass. Certain. topics of these debates were slavery, how to deal with slavery, and where slavery should be allowed. Lincoln lost the election to Douglass, he was known throughout the country because of his debates.
Lincoln -Douglass debates caused a drastic split in the democratic party, leading to the civil war -
John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry
Brown was an abolitionist who advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery for good. He lead the Pottawatomie Creek massacre in 1856. He was trialed to death and was hung. He wanted slaves to fight for their freedom
Brown's raid helped make any further accommodations between North and South nearly impossible and which was a cause of the Civil War -
Election of Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was elected by a considerable margin in 1860 despite not being included on many southern ballots. As a Republican, his party's anti-slavery outlook struck fear into many Southerners.
He was the first Republican president ever, Lincoln led the Union to victory in the Civil War and ended slavery in America