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Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin was a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The novel was to show the issue with slavery and why it is bad. Many Southerners say that the book was a misrepresentation of how slavery actually was. The novel strengthen how Northerners felt about slavery and angered the Southerners. -
John Brown
John Brown was an anti-slavery, religious activist who believed that everything he did was for God. He was in charge of the Potawatomie Massacre which brutally murdered people who were proslavery. Southerners painted Brown as crazy and Northerners painted him as a good person. Brown ended up being hanged for treason against the state. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act made Kansas and Nebraska both territories. Slavery in these two territories was up to popular sovereignty. This means that the people could decide if they wanted slavery in that territory or not. The Northern and Southern activists were fighting for what they wanted which increased the tension in starting a Civil War. -
Republican Party
The purpose of forming the Republican Party was to attempt to go against western slavery or the expansion of slavery in general. The party consisted of Northern factory workers, businessmen, farmers, and more. They wanted government control, so they can get rid of slavery. Obviously, this angered the Southerners which increased the hostility leading to the Civil War. -
Bleeding Kansas
Northerners and Southerners had several violent confrontations and would fight a lot in Kansas. In total, 55 people were killed. The violence obviously increased the tension that started the Civil War. Bleeding Kansas ended in 1859. -
Brooks-Sumner Incident
Southern Preston Brooks attacked Northern Charles Sumner with his walking cane inside of the US Senate Chamber. Brooks did this because of Sumner's anti-slavery speech. Sumner didn't fully recover from the assault. Southerners were very happy and sent Brooks walking canes in the mail, but Northerners were very upset. This furthered the divide between them. -
Election of 1856
The candidates for the 1856 election were Buchanan, Fremont, and Fillmore. The Democratic Party won (Buchanan) the election. This was the last time that a Democrat succeeded after another Democrat. -
Dred Scott
The Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court case was very unpopular for the Northerners. The decisions of this court case got rid of the Missouri Compromise which limited popular sovereignty. The Supreme Court decided that they didn't have the right to say that some territories couldn't have slavery in them. This basically said that free states don't really exist. Southerners were overjoyed and Northerners absolutely not causing more tension between them. -
House Divided Speech
This speech was by Abraham Lincoln. The purpose of this speech was to let the people know that the US will eventually fall apart if they continue to be as divided as they are now. They had to decide to be free as a whole or fully slaves. -
Lincoln Douglas Debates
These were 7 debates and slavery and Dred Scott case were the main topics. The debates occurred because Douglas attacked Lincoln for his House Divided Speech, so Lincoln challenged him to a few debates. Douglas tried to paint Lincoln as a "dangerous radical" while Lincoln said how unjust slavery is and talked about how popular sovereignty led to Bleeding Kansas. Lincoln gained a lot of support from the Republicans/Northerners. Freeport doctrine-if doesn't pass slavery laws, it doesn't exist -
LeCompton Constitution
The LeCompton Constitution was the 2nd out of 4 choices for a Kansas Constitution. The laws and clauses protected owning slaves and also had a bill of rights that didn't include black people. This made the tensions even higher between the North and the South. -
Harper's Ferry
John Brown was the head of a raid that was against slavery. Brown believed that he did nothing wrong. He believed that he was doing everything right by God and that the pro-slavery people are defying God. 16 people were killed during the raid. This obviously increased tension in the Civil War because what he did was anti-slavery which made pro-slavery people angry. South started building militia. -
Election of 1860
The candidates were Lincoln, Breckenridge, Bell, and Douglas. Lincoln won the election. Lincoln wasn't well-liked by a lot of the Southerners because they thought he was going to abolish slavery as president. Southerners knew they lost a lot of power. The anger and panic in the Southerners made the Civil War start quicker than it would've. -
Lincoln's 1st Inaugural Address
In his Inaugural Address, he promised not to interfere with slavery at the moment, but he clearly stated that he did not want secession. This made the southerners more okay with him being the president. -
Secession
Secession was also the Civil War that Lincoln did not want. This was a fight between the US and the Confederacy. The Confederacy is the group of states that seceded from the US. it ended on April 9, 1865.
