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Wilmot Proviso
David Wilmot of Pennsylvania proposed to Congress that they should all ban slavery in all of the United States territory and all the territory becoming of the United States due to the American-Mexican War. His proposal passed in the House of Representatives but failed in the Senate. -
Compromise of 1850
Congress passed five bills based on Henry Clay’s proposal. The Compromise was all about whether to let California be a free or slave state, either way, it would upset the balance of anti and pro-slavery states. To please the North, California became a free state when it was admitted, and to please the South, they would now have sovereignty to where the most popular vote on whether whatever state that was joining their union would be a free or slave state would win. -
Lincoln - Douglas Debate "A House Divided Against itself can not stand."
In June 1858, Abraham Lincoln made the “A House Divided” speech, during the Senate debate of 1850 -
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" is first published
Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a novel about a man, Uncle Tom, who is a slave in the 1850s is beaten by his owner, Simon Legree. The North read it and they were shocked on what it was like, the South claimed that it was all false accusations on their part, and it was a “propaganda, misleading information that is to further the cause.” -
Kansas - Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was apart of Manifest Destiny. Senator Stephan Douglas was eager to develop land west of his home state, Illinois. He wanted to have a railroad put in from Illinois all the way to Nebraska territory and to the Pacific Coast. Then he suggested forming two different territories, the Kansas territory, and the Nebraska territory, the southerners objected, but then hopped on the boat with him, and the northerners thought they were violating them by reopening slavery -
John Brown's Massacre at Pottawatomie Creek
The Massacre at Pottawatomie Creek was the result of the death of five men from the proslavery settlement by antislavery party ran by John Brown. It was apart of Bleeding Kansas. -
John Brown's Raid at Harpers Ferry, Virginia
John Brown’s raid was led by himself, it was an armed slave revolt in 1859, lasting two days. He had a party of twenty-two men, they were defeated by the US marines. -
The Confederate States of America is formed
The Confederate States of America is the forming of eleven new states from the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. It was led by Jefferson Davis, and it existed from 1861-1865. -
Abraham Lincoln is elected as a Republican President
Abraham Lincoln was elected leader of the new Republican Party and also gained national attention in 1858 for debating and losing to Democratic leader, Stephan Douglas. -
South Carolina Secedes from the Union
A convention adjourned to Charleston to draft an ordinance of secession. When the ordinance was adopted on December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first slave state in the south to declare that it had seceded from the United States. -
Confederate Troops Fire at Fort Sumter, South Carolina
In 1861 South Carolina and other southern states withdrew from the union and made their own nation, the Confederate States of America. Abraham Lincoln said that the Southern states did not have the right to secede, and he would not allow the removal of US soldiers in South Carolina, so those troops all defended a base in Charleston Harbor called Fort Sumter. Confederate troops planned to attack, on April 12, 1861, the first shell exploded.
