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Mexican-American War
History Guy-- Mexican-American War
A war between the United States and Mexico in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered part of its territory despite the 1836 Texas Revolution. -
Wilmot Proviso
Wilmot Proviso
It would have banned slavery in any territory to be given from Mexico in the Mexican War or in the future. Congressman David Wilmot first introduced the Proviso in the United States House of Representatives as a rider for the final negotiations to resolve the Mexican–American War. It passed the House but failed in the Senate, where the South had greater representation. -
Fugitive Slave Act
Fugitive Slave Act
It was passed by the United States Congress on as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. It declared that all runaway slaves be brought back to their masters. -
Compromise of 1850
Compromise of 1860
It was a package of five bills, passed in which defused a four-year confrlict between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the status of territories we got during the Mexican-American War. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Unccle Tom's Cabin
An anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century and the second best-selling book of that century. It is credited with helping fuel the abolitionist cause in the 18The character of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave . -
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Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas
A series of violent political confrontations involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery elements that took place in the Kansas Territory and the neighboring towns of Missouri. At the heart of the conflict was the question of whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free state or slave state. -
Kansas–Nebraska Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act
It created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement. The orginially purpose of the Kansas–Nebraska Act was to open up many thousands of new farms and make a Mideastern Transcontinental Railroad. It became problematic when votes had to be taken into consideration as whether or not the new states would be pro or con slavery. -
Ostend Manifesto
Ostend Manifesto
President Pierce attempted to purchase Cuba from Spain. Pierce instructed his representatives to take whatever actions needed to accomplish this goal, even if it meant going to war. When the document in which he stated these plans (The Ostend Manifesto) was leaked to the press, Pierce refuted the policy. -
Caning of Charles Summer
Caning!An abolitionist congressman, Senator Charles Sumner, enraged over the incident known as “Bloody Kansas,” the burning and murders in the city of Lawrence, blamed South Carolina’s Senator Butler and pro-slavery Senators for the death of his abolitionist friends. Two days later, Senator Butler’s cousin, Representative Preston Brooks, marched into Congress and attacked Senator Sumner from behind with a cane. -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott
A ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that people of African descent brought into the United States and held as slaves (or their descendants, whether or not they were slaves) were not protected by the Constitution and could never be U.S. citizens. Dred Scott was a slave in the U.S. at the time who was looking for freedom for his wife and two daughters. -
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John Brown's Raid
It 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 in 1859. He was defeated by the U.S. Marines led by Colonel Robert E. Lee. -
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Underground Railroad of the Civil War
Underground Railroad
An informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause.
