-
Missouri Compromise
In an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, the Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
a rebellion of enslaved Virginians that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831, led by Nat Turner. -
Period: to
Gag Rule
a rule saying that people are not allowed to speak freely or express their opinions about a particular subject The law prohibits insurance companies from imposing gag rules that limit communication between doctors and their patients. -
Wilmot Proviso
Wilmot Proviso, in U.S. history, important congressional proposal in the 1840s to prohibit the extension of slavery into the territories, a basic plank upon which the Republican Party was subsequently built. -
Harreit Tubman escapes slavery
Harriet Tubman is perhaps the most well-known of all the Underground Railroad's "conductors." During a ten-year span she made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom. -
Compromise of 1850
As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished. Furthermore, California entered the Union as a free state and a territorial government was created in Utah. -
Uncle Tom’s Cabin published
Washington, D.C. Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery story was published in forty installments over the next ten months. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
It became law on May 30, 1854. The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, created two new territories, and allowed for popular sovereignty. It also produced a violent uprising known as “Bleeding Kansas,” as proslavery and antislavery activists flooded into the territories to sway the vote. -
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas describes the period of repeated outbreaks of violent guerrilla warfare between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces following the creation of the new territory of Kansas in 1854 -
Dred Scott Decision
The Dred Scott decision was the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on March 6, 1857, that having lived in a free state and territory did not entitle an enslaved person, Dred Scott, to his freedom. In essence, the decision argued that, as someone's property, Scott was not a citizen and could not sue in a federal court. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
lincoln douglas debate
In the long term, the Lincoln-Douglas debates propelled Lincoln's political career into the national spotlight -
John Brown raids Harpers Ferry
Brown's raid helped make any further accommodation between North and South nearly impossible and thus became an important impetus of the Civil War. -
Abraham Lincoln elected
The Election of 1860 demonstrated the divisions within the United States just before the Civil War. ... The Constitutional Union Party was also new; 1860 was the first and only time the party ran a candidate for president. The results of the 1860 election pushed the nation into war.