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Missouri Compromise
The U.S congress started to think about slavery. They needed to discuss about the tension between pro-slavery and anti-slavery. It started in Missouri when they asked to be a free slave state and could make main a slave state to keep the balance in the country. Congress ended up making a imaginary line across Louisiana. -
Wilmot Proviso
Representative David Wilmot from Pennsylvania proposed a ban on slavery in all Mexican Cession territories. The bill passed in the house but not in the senate. Still, it angered Southerners, who viewed the bill as an attack on slavery by the North. -
Compromise of 1850
The compromise if 1850 included five laws that addressed issues related to slavery. The five laws were congress would admit California as a free state, the people of the territory's of New Mexico and Utah would decide the slavery question by popular sovereignty, the slave trade-but not slavery- would be ended in Washington D.C. Congress would pass a strict new fugitive slave law, Texas would give up its claims to New Mexico in return of 10$ million. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive slave Act was the most controversial part of the compromise id 1850. Senator Calhoun hoped that it would force northerners to admit that slave holders had rights to their property. Instead, it convinced more northerners that slavery was evil. Northerners began to resist the law. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe, the daughter of an abolitionist minister, was deeply affected by the fugitive slave law. In 1853 Stowe published the novel uncle Tom's Cabin, about an enslaved man who is abused by his cruel owner . -
kansas Nebraska Act/ Bleeding Kansas
The debate over slavery continued with the Kansas and Nebraska territories. Southerners refused to admit the territories because they lay above the Missouri Compromise line. In 1854, Senator Stephen Douglas helped pass the Kansas- Nebraska Act. Allowed the people in the territories to decide the slavery issue by the popular sovereignty. -
Dred Scott Case
Soon after Buchanan took office, the U.S. Supreme Court made a landmark decision. In 1857, a slave named Dred Scott sued for his freedom. Scott had lived with his owner in two places where slavery was illegal. He argued that this meant he was a free man. -
Lincoln Douglas Debate
Many leaders spoke out against the ruling. Fredrick Douglass hoped the outraged against the decision would fuel the abolition movement. Abraham Lincoln, an Illinois lawyer, argued against the idea that African Americans could not be citizens. Now, his opposition to the Kansas- Nebraska Act drew him back to the world of politics. -
John Brown's Raid
In 1859, John Brown raised a group of followers to help him free slaves in the south. They attacked the town of Harpers Ferry, Virginia. They seized guns and planned to start a slave revolt. Brown was wounded and captured by colonel Robert E. Lee, ten of browns followers were killed. -
Lincoln's Election of 1860
When President Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4th, 1861, the nation faced the greatest crisis in it's history. Lincoln encouraged the Confederacy to return to the union. The Confederate states responded by taking over federal property within their borders. -
Southern Secession
On April 12, 1861, Confederates forces attacked Fort Sumter. The U.S. surrendered. The Confederate attack on Fort Sumter marked the begging of a long civil war. By 1861, many people in the North and South believed that war was unavoidable. However, Americans were unprepared for the terrible war that would last for the next four years.
