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Sectionalism
Each region believed that their own section, or region, of the country, is more important than the whole nation -
Underground Railroad
Network of people who helped slaves escape to the northern US and Canada -
Free Soilers Party
- Opposed the extension of slavery into the Western territories
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Compromise of 1850
With the acquisition of the Mexican territory, the extension of slavery once again becomes an issue -
Fugitive Slave Law
Required that Northern states return escaped slaves to their slave-owners in the South -
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Fictional book that showed the horrors and evil side of slavery to the public
- Motivated abolitionists -
Kansas Nebraska Act
Allowed free and previously unorganized territories of Kansas and Nebraska to vote on the issue of slavery - popular sovereignty -
Debate from the Kansas Nebraska Act
- Charles Sumner opposed the Kansas Nebraska Act – gave a 2-day speech attacking senators who wrote the act
- Tension grew
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Birth of the Republican Party
- Group of Democrats, Whigs, and Free Soilers formed the Republican Party
- Opposed the extension of slavery into new territories
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Know Nothing Party
- Practiced Nativism – opposed immigration in order to protect native U.S. citizens
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Dred Scott v. Sanford
- Supreme Court ruled he could not sue because he was a slave and not a citizen
- Struck down the Missouri Compromise
- Can not declare slaves free from their owners without due process of law
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Lincoln Douglas Debates
- Public debates
- Lincoln opposed slavery
- Douglas believed slavery could not be implemented without laws to govern it
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Freeport Doctrine
If a territory does not pass slave laws, no slavery can exist -
John Brown’s Raid
- John Brown was an abolitionist – hated slavery
- Attacked federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry
- Attempted to seize weapons to arm slaves for an uprising
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Election of 1860
- Lincoln wins the election with no southern electoral votes
- Pledges to stop the spread of slavery but to not interfere in the south
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Secession
As a result of Lincoln’s victory in the Election of 1860, southern states begin to secede from the union.