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Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin
The book was said to have sold over 300,000 copies in three mounths. The book spread to all the states and had a vast impact. Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel changed the peoples view on slavery. -
Compromise of 1850
The compromise consisted of laws admitting California as a free state, creating Utah and New Mexico territories with the question of slavery in each to be determined by popular sovereignty, settling a Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute in the former’s favor, ending the slave trade in Washington, D.C., and making it easier for southerners to recover fugitive slaves. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was an 1854 bill that mandated “popular sovereignty” allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state’s borders. -
Dredd Scott Supreme Court Decision
The United States Supreme Court issued a decision in the Dred Scott case, affirming the right of slave owners to take their slaves into the Western territories, thereby negating the doctrine of popular sovereignty and severely undermining the platform of the newly created Republican Party. -
John Brown's Raid at Happer Ferry
John Brown leads a small group on a raid against a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in an attempt to start an armed slave revolt and destroy the institution of slavery. Robert E. Lee leed troops that stoped the riots. -
Election of 1860
The election had Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln against Democratic Party nominee Senator Stephen Douglas, Southern Democratic Party nominee John Breckinridge and Constitutional Union Party nominee John Bell. The main issue during the election was slavery. Lincoln went on to win the election.
