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Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills, passed in September 1850. Texas surrendered its claim to New Mexico, which it had threatened war over. -
Publiication of Uncle Tom's Cabin
An anti-slavery novel by American author. The novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
This legislation admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a non-slave state at the same time. It also outlawed slavery above the 36 degrees 30 minutes latitude line in the remainder of the Louisiana Territory. With the purchase of the Louisiana Territory and the application of Missouri for statehood -
Bleeding Kansas
A series of violent political confrontations involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery. At the heart of the conflict was the question of whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free state or slave state. -
Brooks/Summer Affair(Violence in Congress)
Congressman Preston Brooks beat Senator Charles Sumner severely in the chamber of the United States Senate. He was an impressive orator and had a powerful physical presence, standing six feet, four inches tall. -
Dred Scott Decision
African-American slave in the United States who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom and that of his wife and their two daughters.The United States Supreme Court decided 7–2 against Scott, finding that neither he nor any other person of African ancestry could claim citizenship in the United States, and therefore Scott could not bring suit in federal court under diversity of citizenship rules. -
John Brown's Raid
an attempt by white abolitionist John Brown to start an armed slave revolt by seizing a United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia in 1859. In 1794, George Washington selected Harpers Ferry as the best site for the second of two United States Federal Arsenals. -
Election of 1860
The United States presidential election of 1860 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. The United States had been divided during the 1850s on questions surrounding the expansion of slavery and the rights of slave owners
