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Northwest Ordinance
The Northwest Ordinance was a method to admit new states to the U.S. However it prohibited slavery in the Northwest above the 36'30 line. This was a huge benefit for the North because they were anti-slavery. The fact that all these states were added to the North, made the South a little upset because they would start to be outnumbered. -
Invention of the Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin and it was suppose to reduce slavery because this one machine would do a job that originally took more slaves to do. However, the law of unexpected consequences made a debut and the invention made slavery increase. It would take a slave one whole day to produce a pound of cotton while it took the cotton gin one day to produce fifty pounds of cotton. More slaves working more cotton gins meant more textiles and more profit for Southern plantation owners. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri compromise was proposed by Clay to make a deal between the North and South after Missouri applied as a slave state and the North blocked it. The terms of this treaty were that Missouri could enter as a slave state as long as Maine was added as a free state. Also slavery was then illegal North of Missouri. This quieted the North and they became much more at ease about Missouri becoming a state. -
Compromise of 1850
With CA becoming a state, it brings another dispute between the North and the South. Free or slave state? Clay proposes another compromise that states CA becomes free state, the North follows a new Fugitive Slave Clause, DC has to end slave trade, and AZ and NM are allowed to have slavery if wanted. This settles the dispute but again makes slavery more harsh. Free black men who have never seen slavery are being kidnapped into slavery. Judges and hunters say they were a slave just to make money. -
Slave Power Conspiracy + King Cotton Argument
Slavery held one of the biggest arguments between the North and the South. The South argued that cotton was "king" in the South and was needed for economic survival because if they were paying less taxes then we would have less military. The North argued back that slavery was economically inefficient. The plantation owners just want control over money, land, politics, and the government. They want to expand slavery. This created even more tension between the North and South separating them more. -
Brooks V. Sumner
Preston Brooks a Representative Democrat from South Carolina attacked Charles Sumner a Republican Senator from Massachusetts with a cane during congress. Sumner was an abolitionist who gave a speech two days earlier harshly attacking slaveholders which happened to include a relative of Brooks. This shows how high the tensions were between the Northern and Southern congressmen. Theirs views were so different that they would even go to means of attacking people and nearly killing them. -
Election of Abraham Lincoln
Prior to election of Abraham Lincoln, he had not vowed abolishing slavery in his campaigns (because it was vital to the Southern economy) which helped him win the election. However, Lincoln still opposed expansion of slavery into new Western territories and served as one of the most influential advocates of "free soil". This was a huge threat to the South and they seceded the union. The South then began making acts of war on the North with their militia, blowing up Fort Sumter. Time for war.
