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Uncle Tom's Cabin
It was an abolitionist novel which achieved wide popularity in the north, due to how it dramatized the experience of slavery. The effect of the book was that it helped play a major role in influencing public opinion about slavery. -
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Bleeding Kansas
It was a small civil war in the United States, which fought between proslavery and antislavery advocates for control of the new territory of Kansas under the doctrine of popular sovereignty. The result of this event led to the creation of the Republican Party, which would later go onto win the 1860 election which caused the south to secede. -
Republican Party
It was created by anti-slavery Whigs, after the former Whig-Party had disintegrated. Its ideals were that it supported classical liberalism, opposed the expansion of slavery, and supported economic reform. Due to the rapid succession of the Republican Party, and the vast amounts of supporters it was getting, the South threatened to secede from the Union if the Republicans won the presidency of 1860. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
An act that was passed by Congress, which allowed the citizens of the Kansas and Nebraska territories, to decide for themselves whether or not to have slavery within their boarders. It contributed to the growing divide between the north and the south, due to it reversing the Missouri Compromise and causing an unbalance of power within the government and across the land, due to slavery being allowed in the rest of the Louisiana territory. -
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Dred Scott
Scott had sued for his freedom, stating that living in a free territory, that his residence on free soil had erased his slave status. In 1850 a Missouri court gave Scott his freedom, but two years later, the Missouri Supreme Court reversed this decision and returned Scott to slavery, which Scott then appealed to the federal courts. The result was Scott had no right to sue in a federal court, and that Congress couldn't exclude slavery from federal territories since it broke the 5th Amendment. -
Brooks-Sumner Incident
Abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts delivered a two-day speech entitled The Crime Against Kansas, where he described excesses that occurred there and the South’s complicity in them. Only some of what he said was true, and a specific target of his invective was Sen. Andrew P. Butler of South Carolina, who was not present during the speech. A few days later, Butler's nephew attacked Sumner with a cane until he was render unconscious. -
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John Brown
He was an abolitionist who was responsible for the Pottawatomie Massacre, which was a nighttime retaliatory raid where 5 men were dragged out of their tents and hacked to death, due to wanting revenge after the town of Lawrence was sacked. He is also known for the Harper's Ferry raid, which resulted in him being captured and tried for treason. He impacted the division between the north and the south due to getting rid of any hope of the two regions becoming peaceful once again. -
Election of 1856
President Pierce had hoped for reelection, while the South wanted a less controversial president. They chose James Buchanan as their nominee. In Philadelphia, the Republican Party held a convention where they elected John C. Fremont for their nominee. The election was one of the most bitter, with voting being divided along rigid sectional lines. The election was won by Buchanan. It caused the north and south to divide more since now a southern candidate was in office. -
Lecompton Constitution
It was one of four proposed constitutions for the state of Kansas, with it being drafted by pro-slavery advocates and included provisions to protect slaveholding in the state and to exclude free blacks from its bill of rights. The effect was that the constitution was rejected by Kansas and they became a free state. -
House Divided Speech
A speech in which Abraham Lincoln illustrates how bad the situation between the South and North was in America. He goes onto say how either the U.S. is going to ban slavery everywhere, or it is going to allow it. -
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Lincoln Douglas Debates
A series of 7 debates between Republican Abraham Lincoln, and Democrat Stephen Douglas. These debates were held during the 1858 Illinois senatorial campaign, and mainly focused on the issue of slavery extension into the territories. The impact from these debates was that it launched Abraham Lincoln into the spotlight as a national figure and he would later go on to win the presidency of 1860. -
Harper's Ferry
It was a raid on a military arsenal led by abolitionist John Brown, in an attempt to arm slaves, and consisted of 22 men, 5 of those being black men and three of Brown's sons. During the raid, they managed to take slave owners Lexis Washington and John Allstadt, and freed their slaves. This event is regarded as the first shots fired for the Civil War, since it got rid of any hope that the North and South could become whole again and not divided. -
Election of 1860
The Democratic Party assembled in S.C. to select a presidential nominee, with delegates insisting the party endorse a federal code to guarantee the rights of slaveholders in the territories. It was rejected and the delegates from the deep South walked out. Those who remained chose Stephen Douglas as their candidate while the ones who left chose John C. Breckinridge. The Republican Party chose Lincoln for their candidate and the Union Party chose John Bell. The election was won by Lincoln. -
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Secession
South Carolina was determined that if a republican was elected, that the administration would attempt to undermine slavery, and once Lincoln won office, South Carolina voted unanimously to succeed from the Union. Their reasoning was build off of John C. Calhoun's ideals on how states could leave as freely as they had joined. In a three week span of time, 6 more states left the Union and decided to join South Carolina, but some of the states had different ideas on succession than other states. -
Lincoln's 1st Inagurial Address
It was part of his taking of the oath of office for his first term as the sixteenth President of the United States, with the speech primarily addressed to the people of the South, and was intended to state Lincoln's intended policies and desires toward the South. Led to the South, and six other states seceding from the Union and becoming the Confederate States of America.