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The compromise of 1850, the fugitive slave act
There were 5 laws passed in September of 1850 dealing with the issue of slavery and territory expansion which was called The Compromise of 1850 or the fugitive slave act. This eventually lead to the civil war because the northerners hated it, while the southerns wanted to keep them as their slaves. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas Nebraska act made it possible so that slavery could be extended into territories that had previously banned it. Which obviously caused a lot of anger in everyone, and at eachother. This was also the lead up to ”Bleeding Kansas”. -
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas was when three very different political groups were all in Kansas at once; pro-slavery, free-staters, and abolitionists. Violence broke out between the groups until 1861 where Kansas was declared a free state. -
Preston Brooks vs. Charles Sumner
Representative Preston Brooks attacked Senator Charles Sumner with his walking cane after giving a speech strongly criticizing slaveholders. The beating almost killed Sumner and contributed heavily to the country’s polarization over the issue of slavery -
Dred Scott v. Stanford
The Supreme Court said that former slaves didn’t have standing in the federal courts because they lacked U.S citizenship, which was later fulfilled by the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
The debates going on between Lincoln and Douglas, all though it was for their parties and not them individually, for one of the Illinois state senates seats. The main debates were over slavery and the influence it had on American politics and society. -
John browns raid on harpers ferry
An effort by an abolitionist (John brown). His plan was to initiate a slave revolt in southern states by taking over the arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia. Even though the raid failed it made it impossible for any accommodations between the north and south, raising tension for the presidential election. -
Election of Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln won the popular vote with less than 40 percent of the popular vote nationwide by carrying states above the mason Dixon line and north of the Ohio river plus California and Oregon in the far west. This caused uproar because he was against slavery, so because he won this was almost immediate cause for the civil war.