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Compromise of 1850
Was a series of bills that wanted to resolve the territorial and slavery controversies arising from the Mexican-American War. -
Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin
Is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. The novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War". -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement. Had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing settlers in those territories to determine through Popular Sovereignty whether they would allow slavery within each territory. -
Bleeding Kansas
Was a series of violent political confrontations involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements. Took place in the Kansas Territory and the neighboring towns of Missouri between 1854 and 1861 -
Brooks/Sumner Affair (Violence in Congress)
Was an incident that took place in the senate. Preston S. Brooks beat Charles Sumners with a cane repeatedly on the head and shoulders. -
Dred Scott Decision
The United States Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, declared that all blacks -- slaves as well as free -- were not and could never become citizens of the United States. The court also declared the 1820 Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, thus permiting slavery in all of the country's territories. -
John Brown's Raid
Was an attempt by white abolitionist John Brown to start an armed slave revolt by seizing a United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia. John Brown had originally asked Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass to join him when he attacked the armory, but illness prevented Tubman from joining him, and Douglass believed that his plan would fail and did not join. Brown's raid was defeated by a detachment of U.S. Marines led by Col. Robert E. Lee. -
Election of 1860
The election of 1860 included the candidates: Abraham Lincoln, John Bell, John Breckenrige and Stephen Douglas. The election was to choose a new U.S. president and Abraham Lincoln won the election. The unsettlement between the southern and northern states came to a head and the American Civil War started not long after this election.
