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Uncle Tom's Cabin
Written as a deliberate anti-slavery argument, the book had a major influence on the way the American public viewed slavery. The growing attitudes against slavery in the north were reinforced by the content of Stowe's novel. -
Republican Party
Opposed the expansion of slavery into Western territories. This expansion they feared would lead to the domination of slave-holding interests in national politics. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
Allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. Repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of the 36 30 latitude. -
Brooks-Sumner Incident
Congressman Preston S. Brooks walks into Senate chamber to Sumner's desk and strikes him repeatedly with his cane to the point of brain damage. Sumner was an abolitionist and leader of the Republican Party who had given the speech "The Crime Against Kansas" which called for abolishing slavery in the United States. -
Election of 1856
Democrat Buchanan v. Republican John Fremont that results in Buchanan as a victor, a weak President in a divided nation. -
Dred Scott v. Sanford
An attempt of Scott to sue for his freedom. Because of his extended stay in Illinois, a free state he believed he had a right to claim his freedom. Because Scott was black he was not a citizen and therefore didn't have the right to sue. All Americans of African descent did not have this right. -
Le Compton Constitution
Written by pro-slavery advocates of Kansas statehood. It contained clauses protecting slave holding and a bill of rights excluding free blacks, and it added to the frictions leading up to the U.S. Civil War. -
House Divided Speech
Lincoln states: "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. Thus speech created an image of the danger of slavery-based disunion and it rallied Republicans across the North. -
Lincoln Douglas Debates
Seven debates between Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln and Democrat candidate Stephen Douglas. Douglas was a supporter of popular sovereignty on the subject of slavery. Debates over popular sovereignty, the Le Compton Constitution, and the Dred Scott decision. Free people can stop the spread of slavery by not passing laws that support slavery. As a result Douglas becomes senator and the Free Port Doctrine. Free Port Doctrine splits the Democratic party loses Douglas the Election of 1860. -
John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry
Brown leads a small army of men into the town of Harper's Ferry, Virginia in an attempt to start a slave rebellion in the South. They tried to steal weapons from the federal arsenal. He wanted to arm the slaves, but he got caught. Local citizens and militia exchanged gunfire killing two citizens and eight of Brown's men. He and his group were tried for treason. The North had an admiration towards brown and applauded him. The South saw him as a mad man. -
John Brown
Known for Pottawatomie massacre in May of 1856, one of the many violent confrontations of Bloody Kansas. Five settlers killed by a band of abolitionist settlers. He first gained attention from his raids during the Bleeding Kansas crisis of 1856. Spoken of favorably by the North as a man of great courage. South saw him as a mad man. Brown was a determined abolitionist on a mission to end slavery. -
Election of 1860
Revealed how divided the country had become. Consisted of two separate sectional campaigns. One in the North which was Lincoln against and Douglas; and one in the South, between Breckenridge and Bell. -
Secession
Eleven states in the South split from the Union because the people were convinced that their way of life based on slavery was threatened by the election of President Abraham Lincoln. -
Bloody Kansas
Series of violent confrontations between the anti-slavery and pro-slavery forces. Conflict occurred due to the debate over whether or not slavery should be legal in Kansas. -
Lincoln's 1st Inaugural Address
When Lincoln gave his inaugural address the South was ready to split from the rest of the country. Lincoln used this speech partially as an attempt to calm leaders of the seceding Southern states. He saw succession as a very immoral concept and was highly against it.
