-
Wilmot Proviso
Bill proposed after the Mexican War that stated that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any territory gained from Mexico. It was never passed through both houses. It helped widen the growing sectional rift, and it inspired such politicians of the time as James Buchanan, Lewis Cass, and John C. Calhoun to formulate their own plans for dealing with slavery as the nation expanded its territory causing it to be one of the major causes of the civil war. -
Free Soil Movement
Antislavery party (Whigs and former supporters of the Liberty Party) founded to keep slavery out of the western territories. Later merged with the Republican party. Mostly northerners. Helped create tension between Northern and southern territories over the expansion of slavery helping the U.S. get closer to the civil war. -
Compromise of 1850
Attempted to resolve the territorial and slavery controversies arising from the Mexican War. California was admitted as a free state; the territories in the west determined the issue of slavery based on popular sovereignty; the slave trade was abolished in Washington, D.C.; and The new Fugitive Slave Law was passed The U.S. Congress intended to achieve a sustainable solution for the conflict over slavery policy in the North and South leading to the civil war. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin Published
Novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe that conveyed the agonies faced by slave families and the evils of slavery. Highly influenced the north's view of the Deep South and slavery; promoted abolition. Intensified sectional conflict causing the U.S. to come closer to the civil war. -
Republican Party Formed
Formed because of the party member's anti-slavery views. It was briefly known as the Know Nothing party before becoming the Republican party.
The Republican Party formed in 1854 to oppose the extension of slavery. Many of the people who joined the new party were "Conscience Whigs," northern Whigs dissatisfied with their party's attempts to restrain slavery's growth. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Repealed the Missouri Compromise and stated that the issue of slavery in Kansas and Nebraska would be settled by Popular sovereignty. This bill could allow states to have slavery even though it had been prohibited for thirty-four years. Written by Stephen Douglas.
The Kansas Nebraska act lead up to the civil war as a result of the anti-slavery settlers being more than the pro-slavery settlers. -
"Bleeding Kansas" Incidents
A sequence of violent events involving abolitionists and pro-Slavery elements that took place in KansasTerritory where new proslavery and antislavery constitutions competed.
The dispute further strained the relations of the North and South, making civil war imminent. -
Caning Of Charles Sumner
May 22, 1856: 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 caning of Senator Sumner signalled the end of an era of compromise and sectional accommodation in the Senate, further heightening the discord that culminated in war after eleven southern states seceded from the Union during the winter of 1860-1861. -
Dred Scott v. Sanford Decision
Supreme Court case that decided US Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in federal territories and slaves, as private property, could not be taken away without due process; slaves would remain slaves in non-slave states and slaves could not sue because they were not citizens
Inflamed the public opinion in the North, the case led to a hardening of antislavery attitudes and a surge in popularity for the new antislavery Republican Party. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
In the 1858 Illinois Senate race, Republican Abraham Lincoln asked Democrat Stephen Douglas how he could reconcile the idea of popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott decision. Douglas offered the "Freeport Doctrine," a suggestion that territories could dissuade slaveholders from moving in by providing a none supportive legislation for slavery.
Douglas debate further split the democratic party which would then lead to the election of Lincoln in 1860. -
John Brown's Raid On Harpers Ferry
An attempt by the white abolitionist John Brown to start an armed slave revolt in 1859 by seizing a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
Increased northern anti-slave attitudes and southern paranoia. -
Election of Lincoln
Northern Democrats wanted to nominate Stephen Douglas for his popular sovereignty concept, but the Southern Democrats wanted John C. Breckinridge who had a pro-slavery concept. With Lincolns election, the South finally seceded from the nation and created the Confederate States of America.
Lincoln tried to preserve the Union, even if it meant letting slavery stay, but not letting it spread. From this, war is then declared causing the Civil War in the US.
