How did mounting tensions threaten the Union in the 1850s? (What contributed to the American Civil War?)

By NCF1
  • Period: to

    William Lloyd Garrison

    Publishes anti-slavery newspaper

  • Texas admitted as a slave state

  • Wilmot Proviso

    *Said -all territories acquired in war with Mexico would be closed to slavery forever.
    (CA, UT, NM)
    *(Never passed congress)

  • Compromise of 1850

    *CA enters as free state
    *Popular sovereignty – territories have right to vote for or against slavery

  • Harriet Tubman

    *Becomes conductor on the Underground Railroad
    *“Moses of her people”

  • Fugitive Slave Laws passed

    *Threat to both slaves and those who helped them

  • Franklin Pierce elected President

  • Harriet Beecher Stowe

    *publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin
    *Mil. + copies sold in yr.
    *Highlighted moral, not political struggle of slavery

  • Kansas-Nebraska Act

    *Congress repealed Comp. of 1820, claiming it as a violation of 10th Amend. (States’ rights)
    *Allowed popular sovereignty in deciding slavery
    *”Bleeding Kansas” = set of bloody/violent fighting b/w pro and anti slavery forces in K&N
    Sen. Brooks attacks Sen. Sumner on Capitol Hill

  • James Buchanan elected President

  • Dred Scott decision

    *Chief Justice Roger B. Taney
    *decision: Slaves are NOT citizens, they are inferior and property, so can’t sue
    *Missouri Comp. = Illegal, invalid
    *Outraged N. abolitionists
    *Thrilled S. slaveholders

  • John Brown leads raid on Harper’s Ferry

    *Abolitionist, attempts to lead a slave revolt in VA.
    *Caught, executed for treason
    *Shocked, sent fear through south. Fearful of more slave revolts

  • Abraham Lincoln elected President