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Wilmot Proviso
To appease the North, the bill proposed making all land won from Mexican free. Southern Congressmen angrily blocked the bill from becoming a law. Lowered -
Mexican War
The war bought new land that both the North and the South wanted to influence. North saw the war as a southern conspiracy to create more slave states. -
Republican Party Forms
The raised tension. This party did not want slavery to expand west. this silver strike had similar effects on Nevada. -
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush was the largest mass migration in American history since it brought about 300,000 people to California. This raised the tension of expansion of slavery. -
Missouri Compromise
This compromise kept the number of free and slave states equal. This compromise kept sectional tension low until the Mexican-American war brought in new land. -
Fugitive Slave Law
An April 24, 1851 poster warning the "colored people of Boston" about policemen acting as slave catchers. The Fugitive Slave Law raised tension over slavery. -
Compromise of 1850
This compromise kept the number of free and slave states equal. This compromise eased sectional tension for a short time -
Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published
Harriet b. Stowe wrote uncle tom's cabin, a book about slavery. The book was graphic and made slavery look terrible. Raised tension -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´. -
“Bleeding Kansas”
Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War was a series of violent political confrontations in the United States involving anti-slavery "Free-Staters" and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian", or "southern yankees" elements in Kansas between 1854 and 1861, including "Bleeding Congress".Raised -
Charles Sumner caned in the Senate
the "world's greatest deliberative body" became a combat zone. In one of the most dramatic and deeply ominous moments in the Senate's entire history, a member of the House of Representatives entered the Senate chamber and savagely beat a senator into unconsciousness. -
Dred Scott vs. Sandford
Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 US 393, also known simply as the Dred Scott case, was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on US labor law and constitutional law -
John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was an effort by white abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia -
Abraham Lincoln elected President
In 1860, Lincoln won the party's presidential nomination. In the November 1860 election, Lincoln again faced Douglas, who represented the Northern faction of a heavily divided Democratic Party, as well as Breckinridge and Bell. Lowered -
Southern states begin to secede
South Carolina was the first to leave the Union and form a new nation called the Confederate States of America. Four months later, six other states seceded. They were Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana. Later Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee joined them. Raised -
Battle at Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter was the first battle of the American Civil War. The intense Confederate artillery bombardment of Major Robert Anderson's small Union garrison in the unfinished fort in the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina, had been preceded by months of siege-like conditions. Raised tension
