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Stephen A. Douglas
When slavery became an issue, Stephen Douglas was a major advocate for Popular Sovereignty, allowing citizens of a state to vote on whether they were to be a free or slave state.
Violence would arise from southerners as a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which Douglas happened to be the author of. His great support of anti-slavery in the north proved very unpopular with those in the South. -
Missouri Compromise
This was created to distinguish new states in the west between free and slave states.
This division of free and slave states would lead to future disputes berween the two. This compromise itself actually averted war for thirty years. -
Compromise of 1850
This compromise settled disputes over slavery in land gained from the Mexican-American War, granting California a free state and New Mexico and Utah to decide on whether or not they wish to have slavery or not.
The main thing from this compromise which led to becoming all consuming was the Fugitive Slave Act, which greatlty upset northerners. -
Fugitive Slave Act
As part of the Compromise of 1850, this act proposed that any northerner who knowingly spots a runaway slave and does not report them will be fined a great amount.
This greatly upset northerners because how could they have them reported when their state was supposed to be free? Many became all consumed in this and disputes arose. -
Unlce Tom's Cabin
This book was written by Harriett Beecher Stowe, an abolitionist living in the North. The book depicts slavery and the horrors that have been known to come along with it.
This book made northerners realize how bad slavery really was, and angered many southerners who considered it an attack on them. This rage collectively led eventually to the Civil War. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Created by Stephen Douglas, this act repealed the Missouri Compromise in order to establish the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and then allowing the people to decide whether or not to have slavery.
These citizens became violent with each other over constant disputes on making their states pro or anitslavery. This later became known as Bleeding Kansas and paved the way to the Civil War. -
Underground Railroad
This system of secret routes to the north helped thousands upon thousands of slaves to freedom and reached its peak between 1850 and 1860.
The South believed that northerners were not doing enough to stop these runaway slaves. Violence between them was imminent when they began to believe that northerners were simply just helping to bring them up. -
Charles Sumner attacking Preston Brooks
Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts had given a two-day speech on the violent actions of the event s in Kansas and bashing certain people, including Senator Andrew Butler who is a distant relative of Senator Preston Brooks of South Carolina. Brooks thought he went too far and beat Sumner heavily with a cane.
Each side was outraged by the actions of both their northern and southern senators here, which fueled the fire for conflict and soon war. -
Dredd Scott
This man had fought for 11 years in court to legally gain his freedom. This case eventually arrived in the U.S. Supreme Court, where the ruling was that slaves weren't considered American citizens .
Northerners were outraged by this and southerners were happy. Northerners continued to speak out against slavery and become increasingly violent with it. -
John Brown
John Brown was an massive abolitionist who was strongly against slavery, so much in fact that he helped hundreds of slaves on the underground railroad and even spoke of creating a free black comminity in Virginia.
One evening, him and 21 others led a raid on an armory at Harpers Ferry in the hopes of leading a slave revolt in the south. He failed and was executed. This would further anger southerners and continue to divided both sides.
