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The compromise of 1850 helped both the North and the South
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Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was published.
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Franklin Pierce was sworn in as president
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The Kansas-Nebraska Act signed into law. The legislation, designed to lessen the tension over slavery, actually has the opposite effect.
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John Brown and his followers perpetrate the Pottawatomie Massacre in Kansas.
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John Brown launches a raid against the U.S. arsenal at Harper's Ferry.
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John Brown is hanged for treason. His death energizes many sympathizers in the North, and makes him a martyr.
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