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Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills, which defused a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War. The compromise, drafted by Whig Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky and brokered by Clay and Democrat Stephen Douglas, avoided secession or civil war and reduced sectional conflict for four years. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. This was one of the most controversial acts of the 1850 compromise and heightened Northern fears of a "slave power conspiracy". It declared that all runaway slaves were, upon capture, to be returned to their masters. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel helped increase tension which eventually led to the Civil War. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act/ Bleeding Kansas
It was passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´. -
Sumner-Brooks Incident
Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was an avowed Abolitionist and leader of the Republican Party. After the sack of Lawrence, on May 21, 1856, he gave a bitter speech in the Senate called "The Crime Against Kansas." Part of this oratory was a bitter, personal tirade against South Carolina's Senator Andrew Butler. Representative Preston Brooks of SC thought Sumner went too far. A distant cousin of Senator Butler, Brooks decided to teach Charles Sumner. And caned him to almost death. -
Elections
Democrat James Buchanan defeated Republican John C. Frémont with 174 electoral votes to Frémont's 114. -
Dred Scott Decision
The United States Supreme Court issued a decision in the Dred Scott case, affirming the right of slave owners to take their slaves into the Western territories, thereby contradicting the doctrine of popular sovereignty and severely undermining the platform of the newly created Republican Party. -
Lincoln Douglass Debates
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Harpers Ferry Incident
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John Brown Raids
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Election of 1860
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Crittenden Compromise
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Fall of Fort Sumter