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uncle toms cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site commemorates the life of Rev. Josiah Henson (1796-1883). Recognized for his contributions to the abolition movement and his work in the Underground Railroad, Henson rose to international fame after Harriet Beecher Stowe acknowledged his memoirs as a source for her anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. -
underground railroad
The Underground Railroad, a vast network of people who helped fugitive slaves escape to the North and to Canada, was not run by any single organization or person. Rather, it consisted of many individuals -- many whites but predominently black -- who knew only of the local efforts to aid fugitives and not of the overall operation. Still, it effectively moved hundreds of slaves northward each year -- according to one estimate, the South lost 100,000 slaves between 1810 and 1850 -
Missouri compromise
In an attempt to preseve the balance of power in 1820 the Missouri compromise admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. -
Tariff of Abominations
In 1828 Congress passed the first import tariff, a protective tax. The tariff increased the cost of imported goods, and thus protected some of the new industries of the North. -
Wilmot Proviso
Amendment to the bill stipulating that none of the territory acquired in the Mexican War should be open to slavery. -
Free-soil party
A minor but influential political party in the pre-Civil War period of American history that opposed the extension of slavery into the western territories. Fearful of expanding slave power within the national government, Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania in 1846 introduced into Congress his famous Wilmot Proviso, calling for the prohibition of slavery in the vast southwestern lands that had been newly acquired from Mexico. -
differing economies
The North had mainly manufacturing plants and the South was mainly agriculture based. -
fugitive slave act
The Fugitive Slave Act was part of the group of laws referred to as the "Compromise of 1850." In this compromise, the antislavery advocates gained the admission of California as a free state, and the prohibition of slave-trading in the District of Columbia. The slavery party received concessions with regard to slaveholding in Texas and the passage of this law. -
compromise of 1850
The compromise of 1850 consisted of five laws passed in September of 1850. -
Kansas Nebraska act
The Kansas Nebraska act repealed the Missouri Compromise, allowing slavery in the territory north of the 36° 30´ latitude. Introduced by Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois, the Kansas-Nebraska Act stipulated that the issue of slavery would be decided by the residents of each territory, a concept known as popular sovereignty. After the bill passed on May 30, 1854, violence erupted in Kansas between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers, a prelude to the Civil War. -
Republican Party
The Republican Party or informally the GOP (short for Grand Old Party), is one of the two major political parties in the United States. The Republican Party is pro-life , while the Democratic Party is pro-abortion. -
Pottawatomie massacre
Bleeding Kansas refers to the time between 1854-58 when the 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, a situation known as popular sovereignty. -
Know-nothing party
U.S. political party that flourished in the 1850s. The Know-Nothing party was an outgrowth of the strong anti-immigrant and especially anti-Roman Catholic sentiment that started to manifest itself during the 1840s. A rising tide of immigrants, primarily Germans in the Midwest and Irish in the East, seemed to pose a threat to the economic and political security of native-born Protestant Americans -
Sack of Lawrence
On the morning of May 21, 1856 an armed force of as many as 800 men descended upon the newly formed town of Lawrence in the Territory of Kansas and proceeded to systematically destroy it. With this act, the town of Lawrence became the first casualty in America's Civil War that would officially be declared five years later. -
Brooks/Sumner senate caning
Brooks slammed his metal-topped cane onto the unsuspecting Sumner's head. As Brooks struck again and again, Sumner rose and lurched blindly about the chamber, futilely attempting to protect himself. After a very long minute, it ended. -
Election of 1856
The 1856 presidential contest was a three-way affair involving Democrat James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, Republican John Fremont, the famed western explorer, and American or Know Nothing candidate Millard Fillmore, the former president. The exciting contest marked a new, more openly sectional era in American politics but resulted in victory for Buchanan, who aspired to forge a national consensus for compromise on the difficult issue of slavery -
Dred Scottt decision
On March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the Supreme Court's decision against Dred Scott, a slave who maintained he had been emancipated as a result of having lived with his master in the free state of Illinois and in federal territory where slavery was forbidden by the Missouri Compromise. The decision did much more than resolve the fate of an elderly black man and his family: Dred Scott v. Sanford was the first instance in which the Supreme Court invalidated a major piece of f -
Freeport Doctrine
In a close contest for the Senate seat in Illinois, and although Lincoln won the popular vote, Douglas was elected 54 to 46 by the legislature. In the debates, Douglas enunciated his famous “Freeport Doctrine,” which stated that the territories could still determine the existence of slavery through unfriendly legislation and the use of police power, in spite of the Supreme Court. -
Harpers Ferry incident
On October 16, 1859, abolitionist John Brown and several followers seized the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. The actions of Brown's men brought national attention to the emotional divisions concerning slavery. -
Election of 1860
The central issue of the presidential election of 1860 was bound to be slavery. Battles over the spread of slavery to new territories and states had gripped the United States throughout the 1850s, and were especially intensified by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. -
South Carolina Secession
Meeting in Charleston on December 20, that convention passed unanimously the first ordinance of secession, which stated, "We, the people of the State of South Carolina in convention assembled, do declare and ordain... that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of 'the United States of America,' is hereby dissolved," making South Carolina a free and independent country. The people of Charleston went wild with joy amid fireworks, booming cannon, and ringi -
Fort Sumter
Decades of growing strife between North and South erupted in civil war on April 12, 1861, when Confederate artillery opened fire on this Federal fort in Charleston Harbor. Fort Sumter surrendered 34 hours later. Union forces would try for nearly four years to take it back.