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Missouri Compromise
Congress created a compromise, granting Missouri’s request but also admitting Maine as a free state. It also passed an amendment that drew an imaginary line across the former Louisiana Territory, establishing a boundary between free and slave regions that remained the law of the land until it was negated by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. This event increased tensions because if created more boundaries between north and south states and continued to create slave states which angered the north -
Nat Turner Rebellion
The only effective, sustained slave rebellion (August 1831) in U.S. history. Spreading terror throughout the white South, his action set off a new wave of oppressive legislation prohibiting the education, movement, and assembly of slaves and stiffened pro-slavery, anti abolitionist convictions that persisted in that region until the American Civil War. this event increased the tensions between the north and south because it angered the south more. -
Mexican War
War between the U.S and Mexico (April 1846–February 1848) stemming from the United States’ annexation of Texas in 1845 and from a dispute over whether Texas ended at the Nueces River (Mexican claim) or the Rio Grande (U.S. claim). The U.S. forces were consistently victorious. Tensions between N and S: Abolitionists saw the war as an attempt by the slave states to extend slavery and enhance their power with the creation of additional slave states out of the soon-to-be-acquired Mexican lands. -
Compromise of 1850
As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished. Furthermore, California entered the Union as a free state and a territorial government was created in Utah. In addition, an act was passed settling a boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico this event increased tensions between the north and south because the north was unhappy with the strengthening of the fugitive slave act -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Acts were a pair of federal laws that allowed for the capture and return of runaway slaves within the territory of the United States. This increased tensions because the north was angry slaves could no longer escape to freedom and the south was getting what they wanted and could get there run away slaves back. -
Uncle Toms Cabin
An abolitionist novel it achieved wide popularity, mainly among white readers in the North, by vividly dramatizing the experience of slavery. This increased tensions between the north and south because some southerners were angered that a book expressing the hardships of slavery was out. it made them look bad and evil that they treated people like this and abolitionist in the north were angered with slave owners in the south because they got to read about how hard it was to be a black slave -
Kansas Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act, passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´.The Kansas-Nebraska Act infuriated many in the North who considered the Missouri Compromise to be a long-standing binding agreement. In the pro-slavery South it was strongly supported. -
"Bleeding Kansas"
A "war" fought between pro slavery and antislavery advocates for control of the new territory of Kansas. Sponsors of the Kansas–Nebraska Act expected its provisions for territorial self-government to arrest the “torrent of fanaticism” that had been dividing the nation regarding the slavery issue. Instead, free-soil forces from the North formed armed emigrant associations to populate Kansas, while pro-slavery advocates poured over the border from Missouri. (Ended 1859 started 1854, battle 1856) -
Brooks Attacks Sumner
Preston Brooks (SC) beat Senator Charles Sumner (M) with a cane in the Senate Chamber. Brooks’s attacked Sumner because of a speech in which Sumner attacked slavery. Sumner’s injuries were so bad that he had to leave the Senate duties for three years. Southerners held Brooks up as a hero returning him to Congress. while anti-slavery supporters portrayed Sumner as a martyr for the cause of abolition. The event inflamed sectional tensions between northern and southern Members of Congress. -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott v. Sanford was a Supreme Court case in which a slave, Dred Scott, tried to sue for his freedom because his master moved him to a free territory. The judge ruled against Scott in what is often considered one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in American History. The Dred Scott decision deeply divided the country.The North criticized the decision.Those with a stake in the slave economy believed that the Dred Scott decision opened the door for the spread of slavery -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Series of seven debates between the Democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas and Republican challenger Abraham Lincoln. When Lincoln and Douglas debated the slavery extension issue, they were addressing the problem that had divided the nation into two hostile camps and that threatened the continued existence of the Union. Their contest, as a consequence, had repercussions far beyond determining who would win the senatorial seat at stake. -
Raid on Harper's Ferry
Abolitionist John Brown leads a small group on a raid against a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in an attempt to start an armed slave revolt and destroy the institution of slavery. Although the raid failed, it inflamed sectional tensions and raised the stakes for the 1860 presidential election. Brown’s raid helped make any further accommodation between North and South nearly impossible and thus became an important impetus of the Civil War. -
Election of 1860
Presidential election, in which (R) Abraham Lincoln defeated Southern (D) John C. Breckinridge, (D) Stephen A. Douglas, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. The electoral split between Northern and Southern Democrats was emblematic of the severe sectional split, particularly over slavery. How were tensions increased: The election was sure to expose sectional differences between those in the North who wanted to abolish slavery and those who wanted the institution.
