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Weld's "American Slavery as It Is" published
Theodore Weld's Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses is a book written by the American abolitionist Theodore Dwight Weld. "Made up of excerpts from advertisement condemning slavery" (McPherson 38) It was one of the first published articles abolishing slavery. -
Prigg v Pennsylvania
A United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 precluded a Pennsylvania state law that prohibited blacks from being taken out of the free state of Pennsylvania into slavery. "Court that decided federal law is superior to state law, but states are not required to enforce federal law."(McPherson 79) This weakened the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act by allowing states to forbid their officials from cooperating in the return of fugitive slaves. -
Free Soil Sentiment
The Free Soilers opposed slavery's expansion into any new territories or states. This movement denounced the institution of slavery and demanded the federal government relieve itself of all responsibility for the existence and continuance of slavery. Built on the saying of "free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men."(McPherson 56) A Founding influential party member was Martin Van Buren. -
Compromise(s) of 1850
Multiple of pieces of legislatures from congress presented by Henry Clay. The pieces listed discussed the issues of: California to be allowed to join the union, and when ready as slave or free-state. No slavery in Mexican cession territory, Setting Texas western boundary,Texas statehood,Slavery be abolished in DC, Abolishing slave trade in DC,Slaves that are fugitives can be returned,Congress can not ban interstate slave trade. -
Webster's March 7th speech
Daniel Webster would deliver his 7th Of March Address that urged a sectional compromise on the issue of slavery. Webster advised abolition-minded Northerners to forgo antislavery measures, cautioned Southerners that disunion inevitably would lead to war. "Generation of school children recited the famous Senate speech I wish to speak to-day, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American, and a member of the Senate of the United States." (McPherson 71) -
Harriet Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" published
One of the most important and influential inducement of Slavery. Harriet Beecher Stowe shared ideas about the injustices of slavery by using interviews from runaway slaves experience. "published to pluck heart strings of middle. class who raised children" (McPherson 38) -
Republican Party Platform of 1954-56
In 1854, the Republican Party emerged to combat the expansion of slavery into American territories after the passing of the Kansas Nebraska Act. Republican Party consisted of northern Protestants, factory workers, professionals, businessmen, prosperous farmers, and after the Civil War, former black slaves.Started to gain widespread popularity. "The metric rise of the Republican Party inspired a new wave of proslavery and propaganda." (Varon 288) -
Dred Scott Decision
In 1857, the decision made after the Scott court case that the United States Supreme Court upheld slavery in United States territories, denied the legality of black citizenship in America, and declared the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional."The Southern justices had wanted to rule on the Scott case but did not do so because they didn’t want the decision to be a sectional one. A purely sectional decision would only exacerbate tensions and would limit the decision’s power"(McPherson 168) -
The Lincoln-Douglas debates
The Lincoln-Douglas debates were a series of formal political debates between the challenger Abraham Lincoln, and Stephen A. Douglas, in a campaign for one of Illinois' two United States Senate seats." Lincoln's famous House Divided speech would be the winning point for him to gain the seats....and was the most Radical speech of his career (Varon 315) -
1860 election
While the platforms of the various parties competing for the presidency in 1860 discussed issues such as a national tariff, the Homestead Act, and a transcontinental railroad, the main issue dominating the campaign was slavery. Republican Lincoln won the Electoral College with less than 40 percent of the popular vote nationwide.