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The Missouri Compromise
Following the Louisiana Purchase, there was a need for policy regarding the expansion of slavery into new western territories. Congress reached a series of decisions that became known as the Missouri Compromise.Missouri was admitted as a slave state and Maine was admitted as a free state to preserve the balance. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
A slave, Nat Turner, incited an uprising that spread through several plantations in southern Virginia. After two days and the death of sixty white people, Nat Turner and seventy accomplices were arrested by militia infantry. Fifty-five slaves, including Turner, were tried and executed for the rebellion. Over two hundred slaves were lynched by frenzied mobs after the event. -
The Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was a piece of legislation that was proposed at the close of the Mexican-American War. It aimed to outlaw slavery in the territory acquired from the war. David Wilmot presented this idea as a rider to several bills and solo to Congress for two years without success. Prompted the first serious discussions of succession. -
The Compromise of 1850
With national relations torn by the debate over the Wilmot Proviso, senators Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas set up the Compromise of 1850. It prevented further territorial expansion of slavery while strengthening the Fugitive Slave Act, which pushed Northerners to seize and return escaped slaves. The agreement succeeded in stalling hostilities between the North and South but ultimately added to the division of the United States. -
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Bleeding Kansas
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 overturned aspects of the Missouri Compromise, allowing settlers in the two territories to determine whether or not to allow slavery through popular vote. People flocked to Kansas in the hopes of influencing the vote. The Pro- and Anti- slavery factions strugged for five years with sporadic outbreaks of bloodshed which claimed fifty-six lives. Both territories eventually ratified anti-slavery constitutions but the violence was a precursor to the Civil War. -
Dred Scott v. Sanford
Dred Scott was a Virginia slave who attempted to sue for his freedom through the court system. The case made it to the Supreme Court where the justices decided that as a slave, Scott was a piece of property that did not have the legal rights of a human being. This decision to consider slaves as property at the federal level increased tensions further. -
John Brown's Raid
In mid-October of 1859, John Brown organized a small group of white allies and free blacks and raided a government arsenal. He aimed to seize weapons, distribute them to southern slaves, and to spark slave uprisings. Despite capturing the arsenal, they were quickly surrounded by soldiers. John Brown was tried for treason and his execution made him a martyr for the abolitionist cause. This event also caused the south to militarize in preparation for future raids. -
Abraham Lincoln's Election
Abraham Lincoln was elected by a considerable margin in 1860, even though he was not on the ballot in many Southern locations.His anti-slavery outlook made many southerners fearful of what he could do as president. A month following his election, South Carolina seceded from the Union, followed by ix more states in the spring of 1861.
