-
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri compromise started in 1818 when Missouri applied to be a part of the US, The Northern states were outraged and wouldn't allow another slave state to be a part of the union. The North thought 'Slavery must be abolished.' Then in 1819 Maine put in its application for statehood. A compromise was developed. -
Period: to
Abolitionist Movement
The abolitionist movement
in the United States was an effort to end slavery
once and for all. All sorts of propaganda was used
to try and achieve this goal; newspapers, poetry,
books, etc. Abolitionist became increasingly prominent in Churches in the North and politics in the beginning of the 1830's. The path to ending slavery and segregation
was long and tough, but it eventually led up to
the Civil War. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner and a small band of slaves organized a mass killing of all white slave owners and their families. His plan went swiftly on the night of August 21, 1831. At each stop, more slaves joined until his goal: Jerusalem. The next morning as he and his group were only 3 miles from Jerusalem they stopped to rest, thinking they have made it. Nope. A mass of whites with guns tried to shoot down him and his men. He ran and was forced into hiding for two months until the bark of a dog gave him up. -
Fugitive Slave Act/Undergorund Railroad
The fugitive slave acts were a set of
federal laws that allowed for the capture
and return of runaway slaves to their masters.
The Fugitive Slave Acts were
created to appease Southern Democrats
and pro-slavery advocates. Many Northern states
passed special legislation in order to
circumvent them, but was unfortunately rejected. These acts were inspired by the Undergournd railroad which was the term to describe people who helped slaves escape to freedom (the Northern states or Canada). -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe's book took partial influence on the Civil war due to its personalization of the experiences of slavery. It shows how dehumanizing the times of slavery were to those enslaved. Stowe's writing touched those that in a away that political speeches and newspapers could not. According to legend Abraham Lincoln once walked up to Harriet Beecher Stowe and said "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war" -
Dred Scott Decision
Dredd Scott was a
slave who sought his freedom through
the American Legal System. He argued to
the US Supreme Court that he was free
once he crossed over to free soil in Illinois, but
the judges ruled that anyone with even
the smallest amount of American blood
would be denied American citizenship, therefore he
wasn’t and could never be free. Northern
abolitionists were outraged. This
decision was the start of a rocky road to the Civil war. -
John Brown and Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas is the term used to describe the period of violence during the settling of the Kansas territory. The violence was over whether or not Kansas would be a slave state or a free state. Conflicts arose from this decision. During this, John Brown and his sons led attacks on pro-slavery residents. And then in 1859, Brown and his followers attacked Harpers Ferry. He tried to arm a slave rebellion, and eventually got caught and was hanged, but not before becoming an anti-slavery icon. -
The Election of 1860
By 1860, the divisions of the union had reached a breaking point. The election of 1860 was the last straw. The Democratic party split into 3 groups and had different ideas of how to deal with slavery in the West. They were all against Lincoln that stated the West free of slavery. Lincoln's opponents were so deeply divided that he won the election. Unfortunately, Lincoln's victory was the signal for the secession of South Carolina and six other states after. -
Southern Seccession
The Seccession of the South was the removal of Southern States from the United States to create their own country. South Carolina started the seccession, and then 10 other lower and upper Southern states soon joined. The union was thus divided on the geographic lines. The North kept their title of the United States of America while the South called themseleves the Confederate States of America.
