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Period: to
19th Century
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Missouri Compromise
Date ; 1820
Author ; Henry Clay
Key points ; Missouri will be admitted as a slave state 2. Maine will be admitted as a free state 3. Any territory within the Louisiana Purchase above the Missouri Compromise
Illustration ; Henry Clay arranged the Missouri Compromise to maintain the balance between slave and free states -
Wilmot Proviso
Date ; August 8 , 1846
Authur ; David Wilmot
Key Points ;The Wilmot Proviso would have banned slavery in any territory to be acquired from the Mexican War
Illustration ;The Wilmot Proviso illustrated northerners' great concern about the potential of adding slave territory to the Union -
Compromise of 1850
Date ; January 29, 1850
Authur ;Henry Clay
Key Points ; The immediate pressure point was California, whose population mushroomed during the Gold Rush
Illustration; One of the legislative bills that were passed as part of the Compromise of 1850 was a new version of the Fugitive Slave Act. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Date ; May 30, 1854
Author ; Stephen A. Douglas
Key Points ; It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders.
Illustration ; While the agreement incorporated in The Missouri Compromise of 1820 maintained the balance of slave and pro-slave states in the territories added to the Union in The Louisiana Purchase, the issue over slavery's extension into new territories came up again following the Mexican War -
"Bleeding Kansas "
Date ; 1854
Explanation : Bleeding Kansas is the term used to described the period of violence during the settling of the Kansas territory.
Participants ; Abolitionist John Brown led anti-slavery fighters in Kansas before his famed raid on Harpers Ferry
Illustration ;During Bleeding Kansas, murder, mayhem, destruction and psychological warfare became a code of conduct in Eastern Kansas and Western Missouri. -
Dred Scott Case
Date ; March 6, 1857
Explanation ; the United States Supreme Court issues a decision in the Dred Scott case, affirming the right of slave owners to take their slaves into the Western territories,
Decision ; Dred Scott first went to trial to sue for his freedom in 1847. Ten years later, after a decade of appeals and court reversals, his case was finally brought before
Illustration ; The Supreme Court wanted to throw out the case, on grounds that Dred Scott was a slave and not a citizen. -
John Brown’s Raid
Date ; October 16, 1859
Location ; Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
Explanation ;John Brown, a staunch abolitionist, and a group of his supporters left their farmhouse hide-out en route to Harpers Ferry.
Illustration ; , John Brown led a raid on the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry (Jefferson County) in October 1859
