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War with mexico
Starting from the United States’ annexation of Texas in 1845 and from a dispute over whether Texas ended at the Nueces River, which was a Mexican claim or the Rio Grande, which was a US claim. The war—in which U.S. forces were consistently victorious—resulted in the United States’ acquisition of more than 500,000 square miles of Mexican territory extending westward from the Rio Grande to the Pacific Ocean. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850, which defused a four-year political plan between slave and free states on the status of territories acquired during the Mexican–American War. The compromise claimed California as a free state and didn't regulate slavery in the remainder of the Mexican cession all while building the Fugitive Slave Act, a law which pushed Northerners to seize and return escaped slaves to the South. -
Fugitive slave law
Following increased pressure from Southern politicians, Congress passed a revised Fugitive Slave Act in 1850. Part of Henry Clay's famed Compromise of 1850—a group of bills that helped quiet early calls for Southern secession—this new law forcibly compelled citizens to assist in the capture of runaway slaves.he act also made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves. -
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Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas or the Border War was a series of violent civil confrontations in the United States between 1854 and 1861 which emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas. Bleeding Kansas can mainly be said to have led to the Civil War because it led to the establishment of the Republican Party. -
Republican party est.
The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, a major ideology of the American Revolution. -
KS-NE Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´. -
Sumner Brooks Incident
Preston Brooks beats Charles Sumner with a cane. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was an avowed Abolitionist and leader of the Republican Party. After the sack of Lawrence, on May 21, 1856, he gave a bitter speech in the Senate called "The Crime Against Kansas.". The speech went on for two days. The increasingly destructive debate over the future of slavery helped lead to the civil war. -
Panic of 1857
financial panic in the United States caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy. The national economic depression, caused by the Panic of 1857, engulfed the country for nearly three years further increasing tension in the United States which was on the verge of American Civil war over the issue of slavery. -
Lecompton Constitution
The Lecompton Constitution was the second of four proposed constitutions for the state of Kansas. The document was written in response to the anti-slavery position of the 1855 Topeka Constitution of James H. Lane and other free-state advocates. Lecompton Constitution was created allowing for Kansas to be a slave state. -
Dred Scott v Stanford
In Dred Scott v. Sandford, the Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. The Court also ruled that Congress lacked power to ban slavery in the U.S. territories. It was argued in 1856 and decided in 1857. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debated
Lincoln-Douglas debates were a 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. -
John Brown's Raid
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was an effort by abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown's party of 22 was defeated by a company of U.S. Marines, led by First Lieutenant Israel Greene -
Underground railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States and used by African-American slaves to escape into free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. -
Election of 1860
United States presidential election of 1860, American presidential election held on Nov. 6, 1860, in which Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. Lincoln, from Illinois, ran in the Republican Party, whose platform stated that slavery would not spread any farther than it already had.
