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Mexican American War
The United States and Mexico could not agree on the border
between them. The U.S claimed that the Mexican soldiers crossed over the border line, and they attacked some of the American soldiers. -
Compromse of 1850
The Compromise was to keep the U.S balanced, and when the U.S gained a slave state, and it has to gain a free state. This was done everytime to keep a balance. -
Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin
It was a publication of his book, and it was about how run away slaves. They ran away from the slave states, and were headin to the free states to find freedom. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Act of Congress that repealed the Missouri Compromise and introduced as the guiding principle behind the incorporation of the Kansas and Nebraska Territories the idea of popular sovereignty--the idea that citizens of newly formed territories could decide when they applied for statehood whether slavery would be allowed in their new state. -
Bleeding Kansas
Kansas territory was the site of much violence over whether the territory would be free or slave. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 set the scene by allowing the territory of Kansas to decide for itself whether it would be free or slave state. -
Brooks/Sumner Affair (violence in congress)
In May 1856, ardent abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts delivered a two-day speech entitled The Crime Against Kansas. He described excesses that occurred there and the South’s complicity in them. -
Dred Scott Division
Scott, sued his new owner, John Sanford of New York, for damages, alleging physical abuse. A federal court ruled that Scott was a citizen. But the Supreme Court ruled otherwise. Chief Justice Roger Taney, in an 1857 plurality opinion, said that African-Americans could never become United States citizens and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. -
John Brown's Raid
John Brown dedicated his life to the abolishment of slavery. He was convicted of treason and hung after an attempt to take over an arsenal in Virginia in order to arm slaves with weapons was thwarted. -
Election of 1860
The presidential election of 1860 was one of the most pivotal in U.S. history. The nation was in the grips of a national schism over the issue of slavery, and the results of this election accelerated that schism.