-
Period: to
Slavery in the south
-
Gag rule accepted by House of Representatives
The U.S. House of Representatives instituted "gag rule." This was the first instance of forbidding the House from considering anti-slavery partitions. This act of resisting the anti-slavery movements became a regular practice. The "gage rule" passes with a vote of 117 to 68. Representative John Quincy Adams raised the first and strongest objection. By 1844, he mustered enough votes to repeal it. -
Underground Railroad was organised
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of free slaves, both white and black, that assisted fugitives to escape to the north and Canada where they could no longer be sold into slavery. The act of running away from the slave owner was very dangerous. If you got caught there were harsh punishments. The underground railroad was run by many free whites and blacks from the north. One popular participant was Harriet Tubman. She made 19 trips to the south and rescued more than 300 slaves. -
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass published his first copy of his auto biography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Douglass is a slave who escaped from his owner on his third try. After becoming free, he attended abolitionist meetings. He started telling his story at these meetings and not after long became a regular anti-slavery lecturer. Throuhout his life, he became an advocate for the anti-slavery movement in the United States. -
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman was a slave who ran away from her owner in 1849. Although safe in the north, she decided not to stay in the north but to help other slaves escape from their owners. She was one of the main conductors of the underground railroad. After the Fugitive Slave Law was established in 1850, she redirected the railroad's path to Canada where slavery is not allowed. -
Chattel Slavery
Slavery was at an uprise in 1850 with the uprising of cotton. Chattel Slavery was split into two groups, gang systems and task systems. The gang system was where slaves were strictly watched by white overseers or black drivers and pushed at an even pace with the rest of the slaves throughout the whole day. This was most productive because things were done at a even fast pace. The task system give slaves tasks throughout the day and slaves are able to be done after they finish the tasks. -
Compromise of 1850
A comprimise written primarily by Henry Clay. The passage of five laws dealing with disputes of new territory gained in the Mexican American War. The laws stated that: California be entered as a free state, created Utah and New Mexico territories where voters decided whether to permit slavery, settles a boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico in favor of New Mexico, abolished the slave trade in Washington D.C., and a new Fugitive Slave Act that gave federal support to slve catchers. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is a book that changed how Americans viewed slavery. This book explored slavery in ways that most people did not see. It was a run-away best seller that sold 10,000 copies in the United States in the first week after its release. The book sparked controversies over slavery, race, wormen's rights, and many other concerns . -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Organized by Senator Stephan A. Douglas of Illinois. To win the support of Southern politicians, the Act explicitly repealed the Missouri Compromise and organized the trans-Mississippi west region on the basis of popular sovereignty. The act also formed two new territories in the region, Nebraska and Kansas. The formation of two territories raised the prospect that the southern territory, Kansas, would choose slavery. Helped pave the way to the Civil War. -
Dred Scott decision
Dred Scott was an African American slave who lived in territory that the Missouri Comprimise declared slave free with his owner for many years. Scott chose to sue for his freedom and claimed that his residence in free territory had made him free. His case raised the controversial issue of Congress's authority over slavery. Two justicies sided with Scott but 7 declared that Scott was still a slave and that he didn't have the authority to sue because he was African American. -
Abraham Lincoln gets elected president
Abraham Lincoln was adamently against slavery. Due to this, not many southerners liked him. Before his presidency, Lincoln introduced the emancipation of slaves in DC and favored the colonization of freed blacks in Africa and South America. Although Lincoln did not get most popular vote, he got majority of electoral votes and an absolute majority in the electoral college. Throughout his presidency, he saved the Union through all the speeches and acts he did for the slaves.
