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Compromise of 1850
The compromise of 1850 consists of five laws that passed in September and dealt with the issues of slavery. In 1849, California requested permission to enter the union as a free state, potentially upsetting the balance between the free and the slave states in the U.S. -
Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin
An Anti-slavery novel written by an American author by the name of Harriet Beecher Stowe.The novel helped lay the "underground work for the Civil War." It was the best selling novel of the 19th century. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, allowing slavery in the territory north of the 36-30 latitude. Kansas-Nebraska act stipulated that the issue of slavery would be decided by the residents of each territory; also known as popular sovereignty. -
Bleeding Kansas
Series of violent, political confrontations involving anti-slavery Free States and pro slavery "Border Ruffian" elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the neighboring towns of Missouri between 1854 and 1861. Bleeding Kansas was a proxy war between northerners and southerners over the issue of slavery in the United States -
Brooks/Sumner Affair (Violence in Congress)
Preston Brooks beat Sumner savagely with a gold tip wooden cane, leaving Sumner bloody and unconscious. What caused this was an intense debate over the future of slavery-a debate which would soon lead to the Civil War. -
Dred Scott Decision
A "landmark decision" made by the Supreme Court that people of African Descent brought into the United States and held as slaves, were not protected by the Constitution, and were not U.S. Citizens. -
John Brown's Raid
An attempt by white abolitionist John Brown to start an armed slave revolt by seizing a United States arsenal at Harper Ferry in Virginia in 1859. Brown's raid was defeat by a detachment of U.S.led by Col. Robert E. Lee. -
Election of 1860
It was a quadrennial election held on November 6, 1860, for the office of President of the United States and the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the American Civil War.
