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Invention of the Cotton Gin
The Cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily sepearates cotton fibers from their seeds, allowing for much greater productivity than manual cotton seperation. Due to the invention of the Cotton gin, the economy of the Southern states depended on plantations and slavery even more because of the fact that the industry expanded and cotton was produced faster and easier. -
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Pre-Civil War
Pre-Civil War events, people, documents and ideas which caused, effected, or postponed the Civil War. -
Missouri Compromise
In the years leading up to the Missouri Compromise of 1820, tensions began to rise between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions within the U.S. Congress and across the country. Two effects took to place, one of them is the fact that it divided the Union as many thought but also the compromise postoponed the Civil War. Whether its is a good or a bad thing that the war was postoponed is another question but the compromise also led to competition between Southern,Northern states leading to tension -
Free -Soil Party of 1848
The Free-Soil party was a short-lived political party in the United States active in the 1848-1852 presidential election, which consisted of the former Liberty, Free-soil Democrats, Barnburners, and Conscience Whigs parties. The party was solely created to win the election so that slavery could be abolished or at least stopped from spreading and so that the Southern States lose and because of that, tension arose even further between Northern and Southern delegates and states. -
Fugutive Slave Act of 1850
The act was passed as a part of the Compromise of 1850 and was one of the most controversial elements of the compromise, since it required that all escaped slaves were, upon capture, to be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate in this law. This act angered abolitionists in the North and gave way to Harriet Beecher's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Many people defied the law and helped runaway slaves anyway, furthering the tension between the South and North -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five seperate bills passed by the United States Congress, which defused a four-year political confrontation between slave and free states regarding the status of territories acquired during The Mexican- American War (1846-1848). The compromise reduced conflict between the South and North, postponing the Civil War for a decade, even though some delegates drew guns on each other. -
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin is an anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe that follows the story of a slave named Tom. The book was the best-selling novel of the 19th century and second best-selling of the century after the Bible. The novel caused black stereotypes to be born and lay the groundwork for the Civil War by incorporating the idea of the Fugutive slave act of 1850 in it. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was an 1854 bill that mandated popular sovereignty allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state's borders. The act led to the bloody event known as the Bleeding Kansas and to the Civil War by creating violence and tension. -
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas was a time period or event that lasted from 1854-1861 in Kansas. The cause was the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which gave way to popular sovereignty in the state, leaving the decision of slavery to the people, and so pro-slavers came pouring in from the South to overwhelm the other voters. This caused conflict, which lasted for 7 years and largely contributed to the Civil War and John Brown's raids. -
The Election of 1860
The Election of 1860 was the 19th quadrennial election in which Abraham Lincoln won the office. Since Lincoln was for anti-slavery, the South feared that he would abolish slavery and be of trouble to their beliefs and practices and that caused the South to seperate from the Union and form the Confederacy, which later influenced the Civil War. -
The Beginning of the Civil War
The attack on Fort Sumter in South Carolina marked the beginning of the Civil War. The South attacked first with a suprise attack, starting a 4 year war, in which thousands of Americans perished. The main reason for the war was slavery and brotherhood.
