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The Three-Fifths Compromise
One of many Congressional compromises that attempted to solve the issue of Congressional representation that accounted for slaves. While the white population was still recorded as a 1:1 ratio, the slaves were now recorded at a 3:5 ratio. Every three out of five slaves were counted. -
Missouri Compromise
In the effort to keep the balance between slave states and free states in the Union, Congress signed the Missouri Compromise, allowing Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state. -
"The Liberator" Founded
William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp co-published weekly issues of this abolitionist newspaper, "The Liberator." This paper circulated from Boston for about 35 years. Using his power of the press, Garrison also helped create some of the United State's first anti-slavery groups. -
The Compromise of 1850
In an effort to decide what to do with the territory gained from the Mexican-American War, this package of five bills would have Texas relinquish some land, but were given 10 million dollars, used to pay of its debt to Mexico, the territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah were organized without any mention of slavery, the Washington D.C. slave trade was abolished, but still permitted slavery in the nation's capital, and allowed California to enter the Union as a free state. -
The Fugitive Slave Act
After the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act in Congress, it was now the duty of any law officer to detain any runaway slaves, and in failure to do so, fined $1,000, which today would amount to $30,303. The only evidence neccessary to incarcerate a runaway slave was the testimony of the owner. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin Published
Harriet Beecher Stowe, a white woman from Connecticut, had an experience with a runaway slave, where the slave had knocked on her door. She sheltered the slave, aware of the fugitive slave laws, and got the oppurtunity to hear a first hand account on just how bad the situation was in the south. She later published this information in a narative, Uncle Tom's Cabin, an anti-slavery book which soon became a record selling story, and helped lay the foundation for the Civil War. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise when is allowed the Kansas and Nebraska territories to choose via popular soverignty whether or not they wanted to be a slave or free state. This allowed for the possibility of having slaves above the 36 latitude line. -
Dred Scott v. Sandford Decision
One of the most contraversial cases in Supreme Court history, the Dred Scott decision declared that no black, free or slave, would be able to claim citizenship, and a slave was not free, even after living in free states. This heightened abolitionist activities, and increases the angst between the north and the south. -
John Brown Raid
John Brown wanted to arm the slaves in a rebellion, and raid the United States Armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia with his 5 sons. Later on, he was accompanied by other townspeople, eventually overtaking the armory. -
South Carolina's Secession
After the election of 1860, and Abraham Lincoln is sworn into office, the southern states, in fear of the abolishment of slavery and in an effort to maintain the southern way of life, they begin to secede from the union and form the Conferderate States of America. South Carolina is the first to secede, with the others following soon after.
