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Cotton Gin
The cotton gin was a machine that increased the productivity of the cotton industry. Southern plantation owners were now able to process more cotton than ever before. Therefore, they increased the number of slaves they held in order to support their higher production capacity. This increased the divide between northern and southern states. -
Nat Turner
Nat Turner was a rogue slave who went on a rampage and massacred plantation owners and their families with machetes. On his final rampage he murdered over 50 whites in one evening. The increased anxiety over the actions of freed slaves increased the south's commitment to maintaining slavery. This again, bolstered the divide between the north and the south. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 admitted California as a free state, compensated Texas for relinquishing the territory of New Mexico, slavery was not prohibited in the new state of New Mexico, the slave trade was outlawed in the District of Columbia, and instituted the Fugitive Slave Clause. This compromise delayed the secession crisis and dimininished sectionalism. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
This revolutionary novel was written by Harriett Beecher Stowe. It was nationally revered and was the second best selling book of the 19th century. This novel revealed and personified the horrors of slavery, which cultivated support for the anti-slavery movement. This lead to an increase in sectionalism. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement, and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing settlers in those territories to determine through Popular Sovereignty whether they would allow slavery within each territory -
Dred Scott
Dred Scott was a black slave, who's owner died, that was inherited by a relative in a free state. Since he currently resided in a free state- Scott sued for his freedom. The Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scott could not sue for his freedom because he was not a citizen, because he was african american. -
John Brown at Harper's Ferry
John Brown was a caucasion abolitionist who gathered twenty men and seized Harper's Ferry. Brown intended to seize the arsenal at Harper's ferry and distribute it to the slaves in the southern states, and instigate a slave revolt. However John Brown was forced to surrender to Robert E Lee before he could ever retreat from Harper's Ferry. This violent and presumptuous behavior increased sectionalism within the country.
