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Road to the Civil War
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Northwest Ordinance
This law abandoned the 1874/1875 organization of western territory, and instead created a single Northwest Territory out of the lands north of the Ohio River, which could then be divided into 3-5 territories. It required a population of 60,000 to apply for statehood, and most importantly, prohibited slavery in the territory. While bringing order to white settlement in the Northwest and defining the process for making new states, it also set the stage for issues over admitting free states. -
Missouri Compromise
The first major clash between slavery and antislavery interests was resolved through this bill, which combined the admission of Maine (a free state) and Missouri (a slave state) into a single bill, preserving the balance of states. In addition, Jesse Thomas proposed prohibiting slavery above the 36⁰30' parallel. Speaker of the House Henry Clay managed to guide the bill's passage, but even though it was seen as a good resolution, it revealed a strong sectional disagreement over slavery. -
Nat Turner Rebellion
Nat Turner, a Virginian slave who was a literate preacher, organized a slave revolt in which 40-50 slaves killed 55 white men, women, and children in Southampton County, Virginia. All blacks accused of participating were executed, and others were beaten by angry white mobs. This increased Southern fears of insurrection, caused further subjugation of slaves, and reinforced the idea that blacks were dangerous. Meanwhile, Northern sympathies for mistreated blacks rose, increasing divisions. -
The Gag Rule of 1836
James Hammond proposed this law, which tabled any petitions on the issue of slavery and violated the 1st amendment. The first of many gag rules to be put into place by the federal government, it was supported by Southern Whigs and Democrats, while opposed by most Northerners (mainly John Quincy Adams, a Whig). Instead of calming tensions, the law brought slavery to the forefront of politics, as it shut down the North's voice and angered many. Eventually, it was repealed on December 3, 1844. -
The Amistad Case
In 1836, Africans on the Spanish slave ship the Amistad mutinied and began to return to Africa, but the U.S. Navy seized the ship and held all Africans as pirates. With Abolitionist support, the case finally reached the Supreme Court, where John Q. Adams argued that, since international slave trade was illegal in the U.S., the Africans were free. The Court agreed that, because of their illegal enslavement, the Africans were indeed free. Ultimately, it displayed the growth of abolitionist power. -
Annexation of Texas
In the 1820s, Mexico encouraged American immigration to boost the economy, but tensions grew over poor American assimilation into Mexican culture and the illegal status of slavery. Rebellion broke out with the rise of dictator Santa Anna, and Texas won independence in 1836. However, Northern opposition to new slave territory and President Jackson's fear of a war with Mexico postponed annexation. After becoming a central issue in the 1844 election, the Texas annexation finally occurred in 1845. -
Mexican War
After the annexation of Texas, Mexico broke diplomatic relations with Washington. Then, after an attempt to buy disputed territory along the Texas-Mexico border failed (Slidell Mission), war began with a small border incident. Eventually, in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico ceded California and New Mexico, recognized the Rio Grade as Texas' boundary, and the U.S. paid Mexico and assumed financial claims from new citizens. This new land led to more arguments over increased slave territory. -
Wilmot Proviso
David Wilmot, an anti-slavery Democrat introduced a bill prohibiting slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico. It passed in the House of Representatives, but failed in the Senate, and was called up, debated, and voted on repeatedly for years. Meanwhile, Southerners declared that all American had equal rights in the new territories, including the right to move their property (slaves) there. The debate, which was never fully resolved, helped to widen sectional disagreements over slavery. -
California Gold Rush
After James Marshall found gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, news spread quickly and thousands flocked to California, creating a large male population and Chinese migrant population. People came from everywhere, however, and the diverse group created racial tension, putting pressure on the need to resolve the status of slavery in California and other territories, as the very populated west coast would soon want to apply for statehood. -
Compromise of 1850
Henry Clay proposed this bill in the Senate to calm tension over the western territories, and it was passed in September of 1850. It admitted California as a free state, enacted popular sovereignty in the Mexican cession territories, outlawed slave trade in the District of Columbia, and created a new fugitive slave law. It successfully created temporary peace, but ultimately only postponed the issue. -
Fugitive Slave Act
As part of the Compromise of 1850, Henry Clay created a harsher fugitive slave act, which required the return of runaway slaves, threatened the safety of free black men, and took away blacks' right to testify in court in defense of their freedom or have a trial by jury. Authorities who did not assist faced fines and jail time. When some Northern states passed nullification laws and opposed the law, tensions increased, since for Southerners, this had been an important part of the 1850 Compromise. -
Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe's book became powerful abolition propaganda, with over 300,000 copies sold within a year and countless dramatizations being made by theater companies. Her combination of the popular sentimental novel and abolitionist ideas inflamed sectional tensions, despite the vicious overseer Simon Legree being depicted as a New-Englander. Simultaneously, Stowe's portrayal of good slaves, such as trusting Uncle Tom, being victimized by a cruel slave system, made her a hero in the North. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act & Bleeding Kansas
To put a transcontinental railroad in the North, Stephan Douglas proposed organizing the Nebraska territory to push out Natives. To appeal to the South, the bill included popular sovereignty (repealed Missouri Compromise), and split it into 2 territories (Kansas was more likely to become a slave state), since the territory would otherwise upset the balance between slave and free states. As opposing sides settled in the territory, violence broke out into what is known as Bleeding Kansas. -
Ostend Manifesto
A leaked communication from U.S. diplomats in Ostend, Belgium revealed encouragement for the U.S. to seize Cuba by force if President Pierce was unable to buy Cuba from Spain (efforts to buy Cuba had already begun in 1848 under President Polk). The proposal, based on the desire to increase slave territory, displayed the extent of the American drive for expansionism. The Manifesto, however, outraged antislavery Northerners, since they viewed it as a conspiracy to create a slave state. -
Dred Scott Decision
In the court case Dred Scott vs Sandford, the Supreme Court ruled that Scott, a slave, was not free, despite having moved to a free state and his master's death. Roger Taney, the Chief Justice, claimed that African Americans were not citizens but instead property, and not free under the U.S. Constitution. This challenged the Missouri Compromise, and resulted in backlash from the North. Many states passed laws supporting African Americans, and the case became important in the election of 1860. -
John Brown & the Raid on Harpers Ferry
John Brown, seeking to destroy slavery, moved to Kansas during Bleeding Kansas. He attempted to start an armed slave revolt, in which he seized a federal arsenal in Harper Ferry, Virginia and expected local slaves to join. The revolt failed, but it convinced Southerns that this was the beginning of a series of attacks, and they could no longer live safely in the Union (had to succeed). They also blamed the Republican Party, despite there being no connection between Brown's attack and the party. -
The Crittenden Compromise
In Dec. 1860, John Crittenden proposed 6 constitutional amendments that would re-enact the Missouri Compromise and extend it west, compensate owners of fugitive slaves, enact popular sovereignty in territories, protect slavery in the District of Columbia, and forbid interference with interstate slave trade. The attempt to stall civil war was unsuccessful; despite significant support, it was strongly opposed by Republicans (such as Abraham Lincoln), because it contradicted their free soil policy.
