-
Missouri Compromise
When Missouri was ready to become a state, the decision between making Missouri a slave state or a free state was a very difficult and controversial one. Due to that, a very strong national debate was made over that, and Congress knew that they had to do something about it. So in March of 1820, Congress enacts the Missouri Compromise, omitting Missouri as a slave state, and omitting Maine as a free state to keep the balance between free and slaves states. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
In August of 1831, Nat Turner and about 70 other people revolted on multiple plantations and killed about 60 white people for the fight of slavery. 55 slaves including Nat Turner were tried and executed for the rebellion. Due to this Virginia went into a sort of panic and heavily restricted the rights of slaves even more. -
Compromise of 1850
This compromise prevented further expansion of slavery and strengthened the Fugitive Slave act, which was made to made escaped slaves become slaves again. The decision over the slave act outraged many and only worsened the bonds within the U.S. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher wrote the book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to give a realistic representation of slavery to the public masses. To the Northerners, it truly opened their eyes as to how horrible slavery was, while the South was enraged and protested that the book was slanderous.
It was the second best-selling book in America in the 19th century. -
Period: to
Bleeding Kansas
Due to the Kansas-Nebraska act ignoring the Missouri Compromise with the ideal of Popular Sovereignty, people were becoming quite agitated. Both pro-slavery people and anti-slavery people went to Kansas and battled over the span of multiple years, resulting in a lot of bloodshed due to many battles between both groups. All of this violence was yet another spark of the nation's unease and general loss of control over its own people. -
Abraham Lincoln's Election
Once the votes were in, Abraham Lincoln was made the President of the U.S in November of 1860. The South was outraged, with South Carolina seceding from the nation first, with six other nations following suit the next spring, forming the confederate states. -
Period: to
Battle of Fort Sumter
On April 12th, 1861, South Carolina bombarded and attacked Fort Sumter for about 34 hours, forcing the garrison to surrender on April 14th, 1861.
Due to this, the Civil War was now beginning, with Lincoln calling upwards of 70,000 troops from the North to help him fight.
