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Period: to
Events
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Compromise of 1850
The compromise consisted of 5 laws that dealt with slavery. It was an act was passed settling a boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico that also established a territorial government in New Mexico -
Pub. Of Uncle TOm's Cabin
This was an anti-slavery novel written by an American author, Harriet Beecher Stowe. -
Kansas-Nebrasaka Act
It stipulated that the issue of slavery would be decided by the residents of each territory, a concept known as popular sovereignty. After it was passed, violence erupted in Kansas between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers, a prelude to the Civil War -
Bleeding Kansas
"Bleeding Kansas" refers to the time between 1854-58 when the Kansas territory was the site of much violence over whether the territory would be free or slave -
Brooks/Sumner Affair
- Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner sat as his desk in the nearly empty Chamber of the United States Senate on May 22, 1856.
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Dred Scott Decision
An African-American slave who was taken by his master, an officer in the U.S. Army, from the slave state of Missouri to the free state of Illinois and then to the free territory of Wisconsin -
John Brown's Raid
John Brown led a group of 21 men (16 white and 5 black) across the Potomac River from Maryland to Virginia. Brown's ultimate goal was to destroy the slave system of the South. -
Election of 1860
The United States presidential election of 1860 was a quadrennial election held on November 6, 1860, for the office of President of the United States and the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the American Civil War.