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Road to Civil War
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James Polk Election
James Knox Polk was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. He previously was Speaker of the House of Representatives and governor of Tennessee. -
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Mexican American War Ends
Armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. -
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War With Mexico
President James K. Polk, overcome by manifest destiny, wanted to take California, New Mexico, and part of Texas. -
Compromise of 1850
The last compromise but was a failure (Didn't go as planned). The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress that defused a political confrontation between slave and free states on the status of territories acquired in the Mexican–American War. -
Uncle's Toms Cabin
This novel by Harriet Breecher Stowe was instrumental in portraying the atrocities of slavery and galvinized the abolitionist movement. This book forever changed the way people (the North) viewed slavery and redoubled efforts to abolish it. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
Repeals Missouri Compromise, and shatter the Whig party on the topic of slavery, leads to the formation of the Republican party. -
Republican Party formed
Began originally as the Whig party, which was created to oppose the "tyranny" of Andrew Jackson. After the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, however, the Whigs became the Republicans. This party played an important role during the Civil War (Lincoln) and came to be known as the party of the North after the war. Also important since the party was known for freeing the slaves, they got the majority of the black vote. -
Dred Scott v. Sanford Case Decision
This court case, in which a slave challenged his deceased owner's heir to his property the right for his freedom, affirmed the right for slave owners to take their slaves into the Western terrioties (which were supposed to be free). Not only did this severely undermine the new Republican Party, but it also led to more regional tensions that eventually led to the Civil War. -
Fort Sumter attacked
The attack on Fort Sumter was essentially the first battle of the Civil War. After the inauguration of Lincoln, he called for the men at Fort Sumter to be peacably released, but the South Carolinians refused. They fired on the fort, and the results of this battle convince other southern states to join the conflict. The Civil War had begun.