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Missouri Compromise
Missouri admitted as a slave state, Maine entered union as a free state. This Compromies created a line and prohibited slavery north of latitude 36 30. -
Wilmot Proviso
This proposal was signed by David Wilmot to forbid the expansion of slavery into the new territories acquired from the united states from Mexico. The Wilmot Proviso grew the gap of the sectional rift and created new ideas as to how to deal with slavery. The purposal passed in the house twice but was defeated in the Senate. -
Mexican American War
First US armed conflict fought on foreign soil. President James K. Polk believed the US had a manifest destiny to spread across the continent to the pacific ocean. Mexico lost one-third of its territory. (California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. This brought up the problem of slavery. -
Comprise Of 1850
Henry Clay proposed a plan for the situation of Californias increasing population.
-Admit California to the Union as a free state
-Divide the remainder of Mexican Cession into Utah and New Mexico and allow settlers in the territories to decide slavery by popular sovereignty.
-Give the land in dispute between Texas and New Mexico to The New Territories
-To ban the slave trade in California but allow whites to hold slaves.
-Adopt a New Fugitive Slave Law -
Fugitive Slave Law
The Fugitive Slave Law was created to settle the differences and promote peace between the North and the South. The law called for runaway slaves to be returned to slave owners. Any Aftrican American that claimed to be free were denied the right for a trial. Citizens who helped a runaway slave hide were put under strict and harsh punishments. -
Uncle Toms Cabin
A strong significant book written by an enslaved man named Tom about his time in slavery his cruel master Simion Legree. This book touched northerners, however, southerners looked at it as a book of untruths and as an attack on the southern way of life. -
Bleeding Kansas
Also known as the Border War, was a series of violent confrontations between 1854 and 1861. Many people mark this as the beginning battles of the civil war. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas Nebraska Act allowed the Nebraska and Kansas to decide if slavery would be allowed within their states. The act looked to repeal the Missouri compromise line which angered many northerners who looked at the line to be a long-standing binding agreement. Pro-slavery and anti-slavery supporters rushed to Kansas to try and affect the outcome of the first election. Violence erupted giving kansas the nickname of bleeding Kansas. -
Lecompton Constitution
pro-slavery southerners drafted this document which permitted slavery excluded free blacks from living in Kansas and allowed male citizens in the US to vote. -
Dred Scott v. Sanford
The supreme court ruled that any American with black lineage were not American citizens and could not sue the federal court. In addition, it also ruled that Congress didn't have the power to ban slavery in the US territories.
Dred Scott tried to sue for his freedom because is master moved him to a free territory. The judge ruled against Scott.
Dred Scott Decision ruled
Slaves are the property of masters, not citizens, no right to sue and Missouri compromise is Unconstitutional -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Seven Debates between Stephen A. Douglas (Democratic Senator) and Abraham Lincoln (A Republican challenger) over the issue of slavery extension. Douglas proposed that the Missouri compromise should be repealed. In place of it, giving the states popular sovereignty to decide slavery for themselves. In Lincolns speech running against Douglas, he said that "A house divided against itself cannot stand". -
John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry
Brown and his five sons traveled to Kansas to fight against pro-slavery forces. They attacked three cabins along Pottawatomie Creek, killing 5 men with swords and triggered a summer of guerilla warfare in the territory. One of the sons was killed in the fighting. Brown returned east to begin his "army" of 22 men, 5 black men and 3 of his sons. They were defeated in Maryland and Brown was tried for treason and murder. He was found guilty and executed. -
Election of 1860
Abraham Lincoln defeated John C. Breckinridge, Stephen A. Douglas, and John Bell. Before the election, many southerners vowed to leave the union if he was elected. -
Crittenden Compromse
Proposed by John Crittenden to attempt to prevent souther states from seceding and avoid a civil war. -
South Carolina secedes from the Union
South Carolina was the first slave state in the south to declare that it had seceded from the US. The South depended on slavery for its plantation and economy. "about a quarter of all white families in the south owned slaves". The south was quickly followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas (The Confederate States of America). Both sides built their armies which resuleted in the loss of 700,000 american lives. -
Attack on Ft. Sumter
With the Confederate States of America growing, Lincoln did not want to promote conflict but refused to surrender. Lincoln resupplied Sumter and other forts when required. One resupply ship was turned away by rebel guns. This soon led to failed talks and tensions forcing Beauregard to act. confederate guns opened fire on fort Sumter. Major Robert Anderson, Garrison commander, surrendered the Fort and evacuated the next day.
