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The Missouri Compromise of 1820
Henry Clay had drawn up a plan to have a middle ground between those that were for and against slavery. It would even out the states. -
The Fugitive Slave Act
This law won't allow citizens to help runaway slaves escape and every slave captured was to be sent back to their masters. Everyone had to follow this law even the Northern states. This angered the slaves because it wouldn't give them any chance of freedom thus wanting to fight back. -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
The new states of Kansas and Nebraska were meant for farming and starting new communities but since it was above the line drawn for the Missouri Compromise, the government allowed the people living there to chose whether or not Kansas was going to be a slave state. This caused many people to move there to help their own cause and fueled the fire between the opposing teams. -
Popular Sovereignty
This was when the people had the last vote on what the government was going to decide. This caused conflicts that fueled the fires of the civil war because many people moved to Kansas to take a vote. The people living there would get to decide if Kansas as a free state or not and the people there would disagree with each other. -
Dred Scott vs. Sanford
Dred Scott had moved with his masters to a free state and sued for his freedom. When he took his case to the court he was denied because was still in "possession" of his masters. Even if slaves were in free states they were still denied their freedom. -
Lincoln and Douglas
Lincoln and Douglas has a series of seven debates, all about slavery. This issues would later be what Lincoln would have to find solutions to later in his presidency. He went to every length to stop slavery, even a civil war. -
John Brown's Raid
Brown wanted slavery to end so he got more people to his cause and runaway slaves to attack a town, Harpers Ferry. He killed a the person running the train and refused to surrender so they killed him. This caused many to keep fighting for there cause and showed people that this was something important. -
Election Of Abraham
Abraham Lincoln had won the 1860 election against three other candidates. He was an advocate of anti-slavery and worked hard to fight for their freedom. -
The Pro-Slavery Argument
John C. Calhoun had argued that ending slavery would mess up everything in the economy. As well as unemployment and chaos. This would have angered a lot of people and would have upset all the slaves. -
Manifest Destiny Beginning in 1820
Americans believed it was destiny and sent by God to move westward. This meant more land but land that did not belong to them. They wanted to have all the land but also make them into their own image. For many that was to make them slave states and once again that cause problems.
