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Missouri Compromise of 1820
An agreement proposed by Henry Clay that allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state and outlawed slavery in any territory or state above 36°30' line with the exception of Missouri. This act was made to keep the balance of free and slave states in the United States. -
Wilmot Proviso
A document stating that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of the territory. Some Northerners wanted to outlaw slavery in all parts of the Mexican Cession and this spurred a debate that showed growing sectionalism. -
Fugitive Slave Act
An act that made it a crime to help runaway slaves and allowed officials to arrest those slaves in free areas. The Compromise of 1850 outlawed the slave trade in the District of Columbia. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
A plan that would divide the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase into 2 territories:Kansas and Nebraska and allow the people in each territory to decide on the question of slavery. This act would eliminate the Missouri Compromise's restriction on slavery North of 36°30' line. -
Compromise of 1850
A compromise proposed by Henry Clay to allow California in the Union as a free state while the rest of the Mexican Cession was divided into Utah and New Mexico where allowing slavery would be decide by popular sovereignty. This was to settle the Missouri crisis of 1819-20 and Nullification Crisis of 1832-33 and help the nation maintain peace. -
Bleeding Kansas
Abolitionists and pro-slavery forces clashed in Kansas, killing many forces. Kansas collapsed into civil war and 200 people were killed. Kansas has opposing government and population was angry. Settlers had originally moved to Kansas homestead in peace but controversy over slavery began to affect everyone. -
Dred Scott v. Sanford
A famous Supreme Court case of a slave that sued for his freedom returning to the South from the North with his slaveowner. It was seen as a setback to abolitionist ideas against slavery. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debate
A series of debates between Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Stephen Douglas during 1858 U.S. Senate campaign in Illinois. They were trying for their parties to win control of the Illinois legislature.
