-
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was a compromise made by Henry Clay to address Missouri applying to be a state. The Missouri Compromise addressed the balance of power between free states and slave states by adding Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. It also settled all further disputes by creating a line at 36º30'N. All states to be founded to the North of the line would be free and states founded to the south would be slave states. This clearly divided the North and South. -
Nullification Crisis
The Nullification Crisis was a crisis that occured due to the Tariff of Abominations, which unfairly taxed the South. South Carolina's politics were dominated by the issue of nullification and the removal of the tariff. Finally, South Carolina declared the Tariff unconstitutional and stopped following it. Andrew Jackson solved the crisis with the threat of force and by offering a more reasonable tariff instaed. This event showed the central government dominating the southern states. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a compromise similar to the Missouri Compromise, and was put forth by Henry Clay when California attempted to join the Union as a free state. The compromise admitted CA as a free state and solved a border dispute between NM and TX It also increased sectional tensions by banning slave trade in the capital. creating the Fugitive Slave Act, and set the precedent of allowing states to choose whether to be slave or free, by giving that decision to NM and UT. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act was put into place by the Compromise of 1850. The Act stated that all citizens of the U.S must help to capture escaped slaves, and that it was illegal to not do so. The Act also gave judges extra money for sending escaped slaves back to the South. The Fugitive Slave Act enraged Northerners, as they believed it was forcing them to cooperate with the evils of slavery, and was unfair to free blacks as well as slaves. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin was a book about slavery written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, that was published in 1852. Uncle Tom's Cabin depiction of the horrors of slavery convinced many Northerners that slavery was not a political issue, but a moral issue facing the entire country. However, Southerners claimed that the book was not an accurate depiction of slavery. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act, following the precedent of the Compromise of 1850, gave the states of Kansas and Nebraska the change to vote whether or not to free states or slave states. This, while seeming like a good idea, offended northerners and some southerners, who saw it as a violation of the Missouri Compromise. It also set the stage for "Bleeding Kansas". -
Period: to
Bleeding Kansas
After the Kanasas-Nebraska Act was passed. The newly formed state of Kansas could vote whether to be a slave state or free state. When the voting started, in around 1855, groups of "Border Ruffians" came to Kansas to vote illegally for proslavery government. This eventually led to armed combat between proslavery and antislavery forces, and Kansas turned into a kind of warzone. -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott was a enslaved man who made a court case saying, that since he been in a free state, he was freed, and should be freed from slavery. The case came to the Supreme Court, and result was the most racist Supreme Court decision in history. The Supreme Court stated that slavery was legal in all states (making every state a free state), and that black people were not citizens, but property. Obviously, this inflamed the North and regional tensions. -
Raid on Harper's Ferry
John Brown was a radical abolitionist who led a small force into the town of Harper's Ferry and raided the federal aresnal there. Brown was plamning to start and lead a slave revolt. This scared Southerners, and increased their fears of Northerners coming to destroy them and slavery by force. -
Election of 1860
On Novemnber Sixth, 1860. Abraham Lincoln was elected as the 16th president of the United States. To many Southerners this "election of an abolitionist" spelled doom for the union. With many southern states believing they must succeed or have slavery taken from them by force, sectional tensions were never higher. The Civil War would begin on April 12, 1861.
