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Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was one of the sole factors that led to the Civil War. Following the Mexican-American War, Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas came up with the compromise that established borders between new states and also said who could be a slave state and who could not. In the compromise they left a clause that would make it easier for slave owners to hunt down their runways slaves in accordance to the Fugitive Slave Act. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 allowed slave ownersto chase down their runaway slaves. Some slave owners would hire bounty hunters to track down their slaves. Sometimes these bounty hunters would take free blacks from the north. Once the captured slaves were brought to judges, the judge would be paid 5$ to say that the black person was free and they would be paid 10$ to say the black person was a fugitive slave and be brought back to the south. -
Uncle Toms Cabin
Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, depicts the struggles of a life long slave. The book was the second most popular book of its time only coming in behind the bible. Many people believed that the novel helped make a push towards the Civil War. The book was eventually banned in the south. -
Bleeding Kansas
The guerrilla warfare battles between two groups, pro-slavery and anti-slavery. One of the most famous and infamous participants of the fighting was John Brown. The South saw him as a terrorist while the North saw him as a maurdur. John Brown was known for brutally murdering slave owners. It was said he once killed a man with a broad sword and left the sword impaled in his body while leaving the slave owners body on his own front lawn. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Stephen Douglas proposed a bill to congress called the Kansas-Nebraska Act. His idea of popular sovereignty would allow the people who lived there decide whether or not they would become slave states. Citizens from the south would move into these new territories and vote for them to become slave states. The south was trying its hardest to expand slavery. Stephen Douglas worked with Franklin Pierce to pass the bill and move the 36° 30° line. -
Sumner v. Brooks
The United States Senate chamber is the last place you think you would see a fight. On May 22, 1856 that was not the case however. Preston Brooks was a pro slavery senator from South Carolina. Brooks was upset about a speech that Charles Sumner, an anti-slavery senator from Massachusetts, gave 2 days prior to this attack. Brooks beat Sumner on the Senate floor with his cane nearly killing him in the process. -
Election of Abe Lincoln
Only a few days after Abraham Lincoln won the Presidency, South Carolina resigned from the Union. In the following months 10 other states in the south also left the Union. Together they formed the Confederate States of America. The South saw the election of Lincoln as the last straw. Not very long afterward the Civil War would commence.