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Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin was a book written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, an abolitionist who wanted to represent slavery as evil and wrong. This caused tensions between the North and the South because white southern charged that the book did not portray slavery accurately. -
Republican Party
Anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats, free soldiers and reformers from the Northwest met and formed the "Republican Party" in order to keep slavery out of the territories. It became the first antislavery party and a sectional party which sought to protect the interests of the North. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
The Kansas Nebraska Act allowed these states to determine whether they would be slave states or not. They did this through voting. Because of this, the “Border Ruffians” terrorized anti-slavery settlers, to intimidate them into voting to be a slave state. These battles over the slavery debate eventually led to the Civil War. -
Bloody Kansas
Referred to as the Kansas Border War, Bleeding Kansas involved pro-slavery forces terrorizing the anti-slavery settlers. This lasted for four years before the anti-slavery forces ultimately won. Unfortunately, these skirmishes led to the Civil War.
The "Kansas Bleeding" was a Civil War in Kansas due to Popular Sovereignty to determine the issue of slavery. This forecasted the beginning of a much bigger Civil War. Effects: John Brown's attack, Charles Sumner Attack, and Lecompton Constitution -
John Brown
John Brown was an abolitionist who believed God had called upon him to abolish Slavery. John Brown attempted to lead a slave revolt by capturing armories in the Southern territory and giving weapons to slaves. He was hung for treason against the an of
Virginia after an unsuccessful raid at Harper's Ferry. Southerners were enraged by Brown's actions and horrified by Northern reactions to his death. -
Election of 1856
The Election of 1856 was the first presidential election that the newly formed Republican party was participating in with the Democrats and know-nothing party. This created tensions between the North and South because it showed that the Republican Party was a major force in the North and that the slavery was dividing the nation along sectional lines. -
Brooks-Sumner incident
Charles Sumner gave a speech in May 1856 called "the Crime Against Kansas" militant opponent of slavery. Sumners was beaten with a cane by Preston Brooks (pro-slavery) after the speech, collapsed unconscious and couldn't return to Senate for 4 years, a symbol throughout the north. This event leads to the Civil War because it became rallying cries for antislavery Northerners. In their anger over events, antislavery forces united to create the Republican Party. -
Le Compton Constitution
The pro-slavery constitution suggested for Kansas' admission to the union. It was rejected. A document written up by proslavery forces in 1857 when Kansas applied for statehood. The abolitionist denomination had boycotted the convention as a protest but it had gone through and was now submitted to Congress. Buchanan supported the document under the influence of Southerners, but Douglas strongly opposed it, bringing about a division within the Democratic Party. -
Dred Scott
Dred Scott was a slave who lived in the free state of Illinois and the free territory of Wisconsin before moving back to the slave state of Missouri. The Supreme court's decision created a rise in tensions between the North and the South. The decision appeared to validate the Southern version of national power, but antislavery forces were outraged by the decision which helped fuel violence between slave owners and abolitionists on the frontier. -
House Divided Speech
The Republicans were gathering strength and Lincoln was giving a speech about what to do with the Africans. Lincoln said that the US could not continue to be a country with slaves in some areas and without slaves in other areas. He said that he didn't think the union could continue like this, but he didn't think the union would fall.
Instead, they would either have to become a country with slaves or eradicate slavery. Many of his followers disliked the speech because it could be misinterpreted. -
Lincoln Douglas Debates
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois, and incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. -
Harpers Ferry
Harper's Ferry raid on October 16-18,1859 was an assault by an armed band of abolitionist led by John Brown on the Federal armory located at Harper's Ferry. John Brown attacked an arsenal (weapons storage warehouse). Wanted to give guns to slaves to help them start a rebellion. Brown was arrested and hanged. Southern slave-holders were furious and became terrified of a slave rebellion. Northerners admired Brown's courage. -
Secession
Secession, in U.S. history, the withdrawal of 11 slave states (states in which slaveholding was legal) from the Union during 1860–61 following the election of Abraham Lincoln as president. Secession precipitated the American Civil War. -
Election of 1860
The presidential election was between Abraham Lincoln, John Bell, Stephen Douglass, John Breckenridge. Lincoln wanted to stop the spread of slavery, but not end it completely. South Carolina threatened to secede if Lincoln was elected. Lincoln, the Republican candidate, won because the Democratic party, Stephen Douglas and John Breckenridge, was split over slavery. As a result, the South no longer felt like it has a voice in politics and a number of states seceded from the Union. -
Lincoln's 1" inaugural Address
The election of Lincoln causes SC to secede, with other states following. Lincoln's last-ditch effort to prevent secession by the South. Promises that he will not abolish slavery where it currently exists and emphasizes the illegality of secession.
