-
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills which defused a four year confrontation between the slave states of the South and free states of the North regarding the status of territories aquired during the Mexican-American war. -
Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin
While living in Cincinnati, Stowe(the author) encountered fugitive slaves and the Underground Railroad. Later, she wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin in reaction to recently tightened fugitive slave laws. The book had a major influence on the way the American public viewed slavery. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, allowing slavery in the territory north of the 36° 30´ latitude.The act stipulated that the issue of slavery would be decided by the residents of each territory, a concept known as popular sovereignty. -
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas is the term used to described the period of violence during the settling of the Kansas territory. Proslavery and free-state settlers flooded into Kansas to try to influence the decision. Violence soon erupted as both factions fought for control. Abolitionist John Brown led anti-slavery fighters in Kansas before his famed raid on Harpers Ferry. -
Brooks/Summer Affair(VIolence in Congress)
In 1856, Congressman Preston Brooks beat Senator Charles Sumner severely in the chamber of the United States Senate. The attack symbolized the building animosity between the North and South and caused further polarization as newspapers and public officials on both sides alternately condemned and praised the attack. -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott was a slave whose owner, an army doctor, had spent time in Illinois, a free state, and Wisconsin, a free territory at the time of Scott's residence. The Supreme Court was stacked in favor of the slave states. The court held that Scott was not free based on his residence in either Illinois or Wisconsin because he was not considered a person under the U.S. Constitution--in the opinion of the justices, black people were not considered citizens when the Constitution was drafted in 1787. -
John Brown's Raid
John Brown, an abolitionist, led 21 men on a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpes Ferry. His plan was to arm slaves with the weapons he and his men seized from the arsenal by local farmers, militiamen, and Marines led by Robert E. Lee. Within 36 hours of the attack, most of Brown's men had been killed or captured. -
Election of 1860
The two men runnign fror president were Abraham Lincoln and Douglas The election of 1860 may have been the most significant in American history. It was certainly the only contest so far where the losing party refused to accept the results. Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican elected to the White House, securing an easy electoral majority but with just less than 40 percent of the popular vote. Within weeks, states from the Deep South, led by South Carolina, began to secede from the union.
