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Wilmot Proviso/Popular Sovereignty
A man named David Wilmot proposed a law to ban slavery in all the territories that were taken from Mexico. However, his proviso was blocked by southern senators who were afraid that as soon as the northerners gained control of the Senate, that slavery would be abolished along with their way of life. This also brought up the issue of popular sovereignty by letting the people vote against slavery or for it. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive slave act was an act that allowed southern slave owners to recapture their run-away slaves in the North and fine people who hid their fugitive slave. -
Compromise of 1850
This compromise put the disputes over slavery in certain areas to rest. It had laws that stated that California was a free state, leaving the Utah and New Mexico territories with the question of slavery to be determined by popular sovereignty. It ended the slave trade in Washington D.C. and settling a Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute in the former’s favor. -
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Pre Civil War Timeline
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Uncle Tom's Cabin
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" was a novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was an anti-slavery novel that revealed the true horrors and evils of slavery to the North. The South was angry and claimed that it was an untrue depiction of slavery but that did not stop the growing number of abolitionists within the North. -
Underground Railroad/Harriet Tubman
This was a vast network of people who helped fugitives slaves to escape to the North and to Canada where the slaves could be free. The south lost 100,000 slaves between 1810 and 1850. Harriet Tubman was a former slave who created the Underground Railroad. -
Gadsden Purchase
The United states purchased a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico for $10 million dollars in order to expand the Transcontinental railroad south. This also caused a border dispute between the North and the South. -
Caning of Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner senator of Massachusetts was given an opportunity in 1856 after Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed to debate on the slavery act. He gave a two-day speech and had blasted 3 of his colleagues by name. One of Butler's cousins, representative Preston Brooks (who had a record of violence) took it upon himself to defend the honor of his kin. Wielding the cane he used the injuries he incurred in a duel over political debate in 1840. Brook entered the senate chamber and attacked Sumner. -
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas was only a term used to describe the times when there was a lot of violent action taken against the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This was because when the Kansas-Nebraska act was put into place it took away the Missouri Compromise’s use of lattitude as the boundry line between slave and free territory and instead used popular sovereignty to let the residents decide whether or not the area became a free or slave state. -
Dred Scott Decision
In 1857 Dred Scott v. Sanford making rising tension between the South and North, that the courts and the states ratified the, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. All which directly overturned the Dred Scott decision. Now today all people born or naturalized in the U.S are American citizens, and may bring suit in federal courts. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
These were a series of campaign debates between Abraham Lincoln and Steven Douglas for one of Illinois' two United States Senate seats. Though Lincoln lost, these debates launched him into national prominence which eventually led to his election of President of the United States. -
John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry
Harpers Ferry was the target of an assault by an armed band of abolitionists led by John Brown. This raid was intended to be the first stage in an elaborate plan to establish an independent stronghold of freed slaves in the mountains of Maryland and Virginia. Brown was captured during the raid, later convicted of treason and hanged. The raid still going inflames white Southern fears of slave rebellions and increased the mounting tension between North and South. -
Presidential Election of 1860
Lincoln was elected president over Douglas, Breckinridge, Bell. He won by only 44% of the votes. In about 10 states, his name wasn't even on the ballot. -
Seceeding States
In december 20, 1860 and extended through June 8 1861 11 states in the Lower and Upper south severed their ties with the union. First 7 seceding states of the Lower South set at Fort Sumter in Charleston HArbor on April 12, 1861. THe border states of Virginia, Arkansas, tennessee, and North Carolina joined the new government. Which then moved its capital to Richmond, virginia. The Union then divided. -
Battle of Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter is most famous for being the site of the first shots of the Civil War U.S. Major Robert Anderson occupied the unfinished fort in December 1860 following South Carolina's secession from the union, initiating a standoff with the state’s militia forces. There was a 34 hour exchange of artillery fire. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
This started as an agreement to divide the Nebraska region into 2 territories that are today's Nebraska and Kansas. From this spurred the idea of popular sovereignty to vote against or for this act. Also, the decision to repeal the Missouri Act caused a divided the democrat and whig parties forming the republican party. -
Kansas's Lecompton Constitution
Another blow to the Free-Staters soon followed when in 1856, Charles L. Robinson, who had been elected Territorial Governor at the Topeka convention, was arrested for treason for his role in undermining the Lecompton legislature.Seizing the moment, a group of predominantly slaveholding legislators quickly called for another convention to meet in Lecompton in order to draw up a new constitution that would anderson and 86 soldiers surrendered the fort on April 13. -
Transcontinental Railroad
1,776 miles long. served for the Atlantic railroad oasts of the United States to be connected by rail for the first time in history. It was also known as the Pacific Railroad for a while. Later on as the Overland Route.
