Tesla Miller - 1850s Events

Compromise of 1850

Jan 29, 1850

• Consists of 5 laws that dealt with slavery
• The Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished.
• California entered the Union as a free state and a territorial government was created in Utah.

- An act was passed settling a boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico that also established a territorial government in New Mexico

Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin

Mar 20, 1852

• Anti-slavery novel
• Written by an American author, Harriet Beecher Stowe
• The sentimental novel depicts the reality of slavery while also asserting that Christian love can overcome something as destructive as enslavement of fellow human beings

- Best-selling novel of the 19th century and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

May 30, 1854

• Repealed the Missouri Compromise, allowing slavery in the territory north of the 36° 30´ latitude.
• Introduced by Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois
• It stipulated that the issue of slavery would be decided by the residents of each territory, a concept known as popular sovereignty
• After it was passed, violence erupted in Kansas between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers, a prelude to the Civil War.

Bleeding Kansas

May 21, 1856

• "Bleeding Kansas" refers to the time between 1854-58 when the Kansas territory was the site of much violence over whether the territory would be free or slave
• Violent clashes soon occurred, especially once "border ruffians" crossed over from the South to sway the vote to the pro-slavery side.
• ne of the most publicized events that occurred in Bleeding Kansas was when on May 21, 1856 Border Ruffians ransacked Lawrence, Kansas which was known to be a staunch free-state area

Brooks/Sumner Affair (Violence in Congress)

May 22, 1856

• Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner sat as his desk in the nearly empty Chamber of the United States Senate on May 22, 1856.
• The 1856 attack shed light on the amount of passion in the debate about slavery n the United States during the 1850s. It was common for physical altercations to occur on the frontier in the Kansas area between anti-slavery and pro-slavery settlers, but a physical exchange in the Senate Chamber did not happen often.

Dred Scott Decision

Mar 6, 1857

• Dred Scott was the name of an African-American slave. He was taken by his master, an officer in the U.S. Army, from the slave state of Missouri to the free state of Illinois and then to the free territory of Wisconsin. He lived on free soil for a long period of time.
• n March of 1857, Scott lost the decision as seven out of nine Justices on the Supreme Court declared no slave or descendant of a slave could be a U.S. citizen, or ever had been a U.S. citizen.

John Brown's Raid

Oct 16, 1859

• John Brown led a group of 21 men (16 white and 5 black) across the Potomac River from Maryland to Virginia.
• Brown's ultimate goal was to destroy the slave system of the South.
• He was tried and convicted of treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia. Just before his hanging on December 2, 1859, Brown uttered a prophetic forewarning of the coming Civil War: "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood."

Election of 1860

Nov 6, 1860

• The United States had been divided during the 1850s on questions surrounding the expansion of slavery and the rights of slave owners. In 1860, these issues broke the Democratic Party into Northern and Southern factions, and a new Constitutional Union Party appeared.
• The United States presidential election of 1860 was a quadrennial election held on November 6, 1860, for the office of President of the United States and the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the American Civil War.