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Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin
The invention of the cotton gin unintendedly worsened the lives of slaves. This invention is an example of an unexpected consequence in history. Slavery was on the decline until the invention of the cotton gin made it easy to mass produce cotton. Eli Whitney originally made it in order to make the lives of slaves easier by making the cotton production easier, but ended up accidentally increasing the use of the slave labor system. -
The Missouri Compromise
Following the Louisiana Purchase, congress needed a policy to guide the expansion of slavery. The decision was made that Missouri would be entered as a slave state, and Maine would be created as a free state in order to keep the congressional balance of free and slave states. The 36 30 line was created, prohibiting slavery in states past Missouri. -
Compromise of 1850
The compromise of 1850 admitted California as a free state and did not regulate slavery in the rest of the area from the Mexican cession. The border between the US and Mexico was established, and the trading of slaves was abolished in Washington DC. One of the arguably biggest factors of the compromise is the Fugitive Slave Act. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave act required that slaves are returned to their owners, regardless of if they are in a free state. It made the government responsible for bringing slaves back to the South. Anyone could declare a person of color a runaway slave, and there was an economical benefit for a judge to declare someone a runaway. The Fugitive Slave Act caused many free blacks to be kidnapped and forced into slavery. This act caused a lot of tension between the North and South. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
The novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe showed the harsh reality of what slavery was truly like. Northerners felt as if their eyes had been opened to how brutal slavery actually was. At the same time, many Southern states went as far as banning the book because it was "slanderous". The popularity of the book brought to light the reality of slavery, and widened the divide in between Northerners and Southerners. -
Dred Scott v. Sanford
Dred Scott was a Virginia slave who tried to sue for his freedom in front of the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Roger Taney claimed that blacks were "so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." Claiming slaves as property took away any humanity they had left in the eyes of some Southerners. It made the government's authority over the institution of slavery much more complicated. It also increased the tension yet again between the North and South. -
Election of 1860
Abraham Lincoln won the election of 1860. He was a republican, and his anti-slavery views frightened the Southern states. Despite his promises to allow the South to continue slavery, but not spread it in any new states, many states seceded from the country. The physical division of the country proved that what many Americans knew was inevitable, was finally here.