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Raid on Harpers Ferry (John Brown)
Abolitionist John Brown leads a small group on a raid against a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in an attempt to start an armed slave revolt and destroy the institution of slavery.
Born in Connecticut in 1800 and raised in Ohio, Brown came from a staunchly Calvinist and antislavery family. He spent much of his life failing at a variety of businesses–he declared bankruptcy at age 42 and had more than 20 lawsuits filed against him. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise temporarily resolved the issue of whether new states would be slave states or free states. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 addressed several issues, including slavery in the territories. -
“Bleeding Kansas”-Sacking of Lawrence
The First Sack of Lawrence occurred on May 21, 1856, when proslavery men attacked and looted the antislavery town of Lawrence, Kansas. The assault escalated the violence over slavery in Kansas Territory during a period that became known as “Bleeding Kansas.” -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act resulted from another dispute over slavery in congress. -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott decision, formally Dred Scott v. John F.A. Sandford, legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court on March 6, 1857, ruled (7–2) that a slave (Dred Scott) who had resided in a free state and territory (where slavery was prohibited) was not thereby entitled to his freedom; that African Americans were not and could never be citizens of the United States; and that the Missouri Compromise (1820). -
Lincoln Douglas Debates
Lincoln-Douglas debates, series of seven debates between the Democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas and Republican challenger Abraham Lincoln during the 1858 Illinois senatorial campaign, largely concerning the issue of slavery extension into the territories. -
Attack on Fort Sumter
The election of Abraham Lincoln in November, 1860 brought to a head the issue of slavery in the United States. Seven southern states seceeded from the Union rather than continue negotiation and compromise with a government they felt would be hostile to their rights as states. The first to secede was South Carolina on December 20, 1860. By February 1861, six more states had joined the new Confederate States of America. -
Election of Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States over a deeply divided Democratic Party, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency. Lincoln received only 40 percent of the popular vote but handily defeated the three other candidates: Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Constitutional Union candidate John Bell, and Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas, a U.S. senator for Illinois. -
Lincoln Inaugural Address
Lincoln became president in 1861 as the southern states were leaving the Union. Four years later, Lincoln was preparing to unify the nation after the Civil War, but he would be killed within a month.