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Mexican–American War
Mexico was torn apart by political battles that verged on civil war, even as it was united in refusing to recognize the independence of Texas. Mexico threatened war with the U.S. if it annexed Texas. Meanwhile President Polk's spirit of Manifest Destiny was focusing U.S. interest on westward expansion. -
Wilmot Proviso
After an earlier attempt to acquire Texas by treaty had failed to receive the necessary two-thirds approval of the Senate, the United States annexed the Republic of Texas by a joint resolution of Congress that required simply a majority vote in each house of Congress. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act was part of the group of laws referred to as the "Compromise of 1850." In this compromise, California was set as a free state, and the prohibition of slave-trading in the District of Columbia. The slavery party received concessions with regard to slaveholding in Texas and the passage of this law. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills, passed in September 1850, which defused a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War. -
Underground Railroad
A vast network of people who helped fugitive slaves escape to the North and to Canada, was not run by any single organization or person. Rather, it consisted of many individuals -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War" -
Bleeding Kansas
Augustus C. Dodge of Iowa introduced a bill in the Senate. The bill proposed organizing the Nebraska territory, which also included an area that would become the state of Kansas. They were debating if the state would become a slave state or not. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act, bill that became law which the U.S. Congress established the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. -
Ostend Manifesto
Communication from three U.S. diplomats to Secretary of State William L. Marcy, advocating U.S. seizure of Cuba from Spain; the incident marked the high point of the U.S. expansionist drive in the Caribbean in the 1850s -
Caning of Charles Sumner
One of the most violent episodes in congressional history took place in this chamber. . Sumner was addressing copies of the speech at his desk when Brooks began his attack, striking the northern senator repeatedly with a walking cane, which splintered with the force of the blows. -
Dred Scott's Case
Dred Scott first went to trial to sue for his freedom. Ten years later, after a decade of appeals and court reversals, his case was finally brought before the United States Supreme Court. In what is perhaps the most infamous case in its history. -
John Brown's Raid
He led 21 men on a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His plan to arm slaves with the weapons he and his men seized from the arsenal was thwarted, however, by local farmers, militiamen, and Marines led by Robert E. Lee. Within 36 hours of the attack, most of Brown's men had been killed or captured.
