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Comprpmise Of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a series of five bills that were intended to stave off sectional strife. Its goal was to deal with the spread of slavery to territories in order to keep northern and southern interests in balance. -
Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin
An anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Split the land that was once one into Kansas and Nebraska to allow Douglas' plan of a continental railroad that went through the North. His provisions allowed popular sovereignty to decide the issue of slavery. This repealed the Missouri Compromise. Later led to Bleeding Kansas. -
Bleeding Kansas
A common term for the bloody fighting that erupted in Kansas Territory in the years after 1854 over whether slavery should be allowed or prohibited there. -
Brooks/Sumner Affair (violence in congress)
Senator Charles Sumner delivered a two-day speech entitled The Crime Against Kansas. He described excesses that occurred there. Only some of what he said was true. A specific target of his invective was Sen. Andrew P. Butler, who was not present during the speech. Several days later, Butler’s nephew, Congressman Preston Brooks, attacked Sumner with a cane while he was seated at his desk in the Senate chamber. Sumner was beaten into unconsciousness, rendering him incapable of resuming his duties. -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott v. Sandford, referred to as the Dred Scott decision, was a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that people of African descent imported into the United States and held as slaves. -
John Brown's Raid
John led 21 men on a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His plan to arm slaves with the weapons he and his men seized from the arsenal was destroyed, however, by local farmers, militiamen, and Marines led by Robert E. Lee. Within 36 hours of the attack, most of Brown's men had been killed or captured. -
Election of 1860
The 1860 election proved to be one of the most momentous in American history as it came at a time of national crisis, and brought Abraham Lincoln, with his known anti-slavery views, to the White House.
