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The Missouri compromise
Congress reached a series of agreements that became known as the Missouri Compromise. Missouri was admitted as a slave state and Maine was admitted as a free state, preserving the Congressional balance. A line was also drawn through the unincorporated western territories along the 36 30 parallel dividing north and south as free and slave -
Nat turners rebellion
In August of 1831 a slave named Nat Turner incited an uprising that spread through several plantations in southern Virginia. turner and approximately seventy cohorts killed around sixty white people the deployment of militia infantry and artillery suppressed the rebellion after two days of terror fifty five slaves including Turner, were tried and executed for their role in the insurrection nearly two hundred more were lynched by frenzied mobs -
the compromise of 1850
With national relations soured by the debate over the Wilmot Proviso senators Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas managed to broker a shaky accord with the Compromise of 1850 the compromise admitted California as a free state and did not regulate slavery in the remainder of the Mexican cession all while strengthening the Fugitive Slave Act a law which compelled Northerners to seize and return escaped slaves to the South -
uncle toms cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe's fictional exploration of slave life was a cultural sensation Northerners felt as if their eyes had been opened to the horrors of slavery while Southerners protested that Stowe’s work was slanderous Uncle Toms Cabin was the second bestselling book in America in the 19th century second only to the Bible Its popularity brought the issue of slavery to life for those few who remained unmoved after decades of legislative conflict and widened the division between North and South -
bleeding Kansas
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 established Kansas and Nebraska as territories and set the stage for Bleeding Kansas by its adoption of popular sovereignty. Under popular sovereignty it is the residents of the territories who decide by popular referendum if the state is to be a free or enslaved. Settlers from the North and the South poured into Kansas, hoping to swell the numbers on their side of the debate Passions were enflamed and violence raged -
Dred Scott vs Sanford
Dred Scott was a Virginia slave who tried to sue for his freedom in court the case eventually rose to the level of the Supreme Court where the justices found that, as a slave Dred Scott was a piece of property that had none of the legal rights or recognitions afforded to a human being he Dred Scott Decision threatened to entirely recast the political landscape that had thus far managed to prevent civil war the classification of slaves as mere property -
Lincoln Douglas debates
In 1858 Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas faced a challenge for his seat from a relatively unknown one term former congressmen and prairie lawyer Abraham Lincoln In the campaign that followed Lincoln and Douglas engaged in seven public debates across the state of Illinois where they debated the most controversial issue of the antebellum era slavery Although Douglas won the senate race these debates propelled Lincoln to the national spotlight and enabled his nomination for president in 1860 -
john browns raid
Abolitionist John Brown supported violent action against the South to end slavery and played a major role in starting the Civil War. After the Pottawatomie Massacre during Bleeding Kansas Brown returned to the North and plotted a far more threatening act In October 1859 he and 19 supporters armed with Beecher’s Bibles led a raid on the federal armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry Virginia in an effort to capture and confiscate the arms located there distribute them among local slaves -
Abraham Lincoln's election
Abraham Lincoln was elected by a considerable margin in 1860 despite not being included on many Southern ballots As a Republican, his party’s anti-slavery outlook struck fear into many Southerners on December 20 1860 a little over a month after the polls closed, South Carolina seceded from the Union Six more states followed by the spring of 1861 -
the battle of fort sumter
With secession several federal forts including Fort Sumter in South Carolina suddenly became outposts in a foreign land. Abraham Lincoln made the decision to send fresh supplies to the beleaguered garrisons On April 12 1861 Confederate warships turned back the supply convoy to Fort Sumter and opened a 34 hour bombardment on the stronghold the garrison surrendered on April 14 the Civil War was now underway On April 15 Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to join the Northern army unwillingly