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Missouri Compromise
Missouri wanted to join the Union as a slave state, but because that would mean that there were more slave states than free states Congress made a compromise. They added Missouri as a slave state and added Maine as a free state to keep it even. The compromise also established that the 36th parallel would be the dividing line between slave states and free states. -
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was when David Wilmot proposed a bill that proclaimed that there would be no slavery in the area acquired by the Mexican-American war. He did this to keep out the competition for work not out of the goodness of his heart. Wilmot and many northerners were especially angered by how the Cabinet and national agenda were overpowered by southern minds and principles. -
Compromise of 1850
California wanted to join the Union as a free state, but that would disrupt the balance between free states and slave states, so Congress created a compromise. The compromise admitted California as a free state, left the decision of whether to have slavery in Utah and New Mexico up to the people who lived there, settled the boundary between Texas and New Mexico, ended slave trade in Washington DC, but let the people who had slaves keep them, and passed the Fugitive Slave Act. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act was part of the Missouri Compromise. It authorized local governments to help catch runaway slaves and return them to their owners, even if the slaves had escaped to the northern free states. It was sometimes called the "Bloodhound Law" because dogs were used to catch runaway slaves. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin was a book written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The book was very influential to the American people. It was an anti-slavery book and it showed many people the struggles and got them to help the movement. -
Creation of the Republican Party
The Whigs, who were against slavery, met outside of Jackson Michigan, and decided to form a new party. Thus the Republican Party was created. -
Kansas Nebraska Act/Bleeding Kansas
The Kansas Nebraska Act was a bill that stated that the decision of slavery would be determined by the people and decision to use the 36th parallel as a dividing line between free states and slave states was overturned. Abolitionists and pro slavery people flooded into the two states to try and sway the vote in their favour. This lead to Bleeding Kansas which was a period of great violence between the two sides. -
Sumner Caning
Senator Charles Sumner was giving a speech, in Congress, against slavery. He was an abolitionist and called out South Carolina Congressman Andrew Butler and verbally bashed him, so three days later Andrew Butler's fellow South Carolinian physically bashed Sumner with a cane and left him permanently injured. -
The Dred Scott Case
Dred Scott was a slave who sued for his freedom. His case was taken to the Supreme Court ad they decided that a slave is property and therefore doesn't have basic rights. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debate
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates are a series of debates between Lincoln and Douglas even before Lincoln decided to run for President. In the debates, Lincoln expressed his disapprovements for slavery very plainly. This affected him in the future when he decided to run for President. He tried to say that he would let the South keep their slaves but not let slavery expand, but the southerners didn't believe him after the opinions he expressed at the debates. He won by a little. -
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Lincoln-Douglas Debates
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates are a series of debates between Lincoln and Douglas even before Lincoln decided to run for President. In the debates, Lincoln expressed his disapprovements for slavery very plainly. This affected him in the future when he decided to run for President. He tried to say that he would let the South keep their slaves but not let slavery expand, but the southerners didn't believe him after the opinions he expressed at the debates. He won by a little. -
Harper's Ferry
October 16, 1859 – October 18, 1859 John Brown, an abolitionist who thought God was speaking to him, and a group of his followers raided the US military arsenal Harper's Ferry. John Brown was expecting slaves to run out from the forest and join the raid, but none did and John Brown was convicted of treason and hanged. -
Lincoln's Election of 1860
The Democrats were split between the north and the south, leaving the Republicans to realize that if they had a candidate that could carry the North and win the majority of the electoral college. They also needed someone who could swing the four undecided northern states. After awhile they picked Abraham Lincoln, a charismatic young man, who after his debates with Douglas, had become quite famous. He won the election with 40% of the popular vote and 180 electoral votes. -
Southern Secession
In Lincoln's Election, he only won 40% of the Popular vote. That means 60% of people didn't want him. Soon after he was elected, and he hadn't even been inaugurated, South Carolina was the first state to secede on December 6, 1860. Then Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas all left the Union by February 1.
