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Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the story Uncle Tom's Cabin. The plot revolved around the life of an enslaved African American. Except that the North and South perceived Stowe's novel as a distortion of slavery, Uncle Tom's Cabin was a huge success. The south, in especially, despised it because it made them appear to be the evil guy. Because slavery was a contentious issue at the time, the story heightened tensions between the North and the South. -
Republican Party
The Republican Party developed in the 1850s when antislavery activists teamed together to oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act's intended spread of slavery into Kansas and Nebraska territories. The fundamental cause of escalating tensions between the North and South was their differing viewpoints on the institution of slavery. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act established popular sovereignty, repealed the Missouri Compromise, and created two new territories. The pro- and anti-slavery activists who went to the territories to influence the vote contributed to a violent insurrection known as "Bleeding Kansas." Its adoption heightened the heated debate over slavery in the United States, which would later erupt into the Civil War. -
Bloody Kansas
The events of Bleeding Kansas proved that armed confrontation over slavery was unavoidable. Its gravity generated national headlines, implying to the American people that the sectional disagreements were unlikely to be addressed without bloodshed, and so served as a prelude to the American Civil War. -
Brooks-Sumner Incident
The assault was in punishment for Sumner's speech a few days earlier in which he harshly denounced slaveholders, especially South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, family member of Brooks. The attack nearly killed Sumner as well as contributed considerably to the country's division over the subject of slavery -
Election of 1856
The election of 1856 pitted James Buchanan against John C. Fremont and Millard Fillmore. This was to be the final election in which a Democrat was elected president. Because the Democratic Party did not wish to abolish slavery, and a Democrat was elected to the government, it increased tensions between the South and North owing to the ongoing issue of slavery. -
Dred Scott
Fred Scott was an African American who lived in a free state, but he, his daughter, and his wife moved to a different state after his owner died. The problem was that, under the Missouri compromise, a slave was free in the northern states but not in the South. Scott believed he was a free citizen because he had previously lived in a free state/territory, but the lower courts agreed with Scott but the Missouri Supreme Court did not. This meant that Scott could never become a citizen. -
LeCompton Constitution
The Lecompton Constitution is a legal document that advocates for slavery. If passed, it would legalize slavery within Kansas. Both the pro-slavery constitutional convention as well as the free-state legislature claimed the authority to arrange a vote on the Lecompton Constitution. -
House Divided Speech
In the "house divided" speech, Lincoln argued that the previous year's Dred Scott decision already had made slavery legal within the north, along with all territories in which the United States had extended. He claimed that if the United States wished to be a free nation, it must act immediately before it became too late. -
Lincoln Douglas Debates
The Lincoln-Douglas debates were a series of official political debates among Abraham Lincoln, the opposition, and Stephen A. Douglas, the incumbent, in a battle for one of Illinois' two U.S. Senate seats. Tensions between the North and South escalated as a result of the Lincoln-Douglas debates and John Brown's raid because both regions' opinions on slavery were not met. Tensions rose as a result of Brown's cold-blooded killing of pro-slavery citizens during the raid. -
Harper's Ferry
An armed abolitionist gang led by John Brown stormed the American military armory at Harpers Ferry. The attack was supposed to be the start of a sophisticated plot to build an independent freed slave citadel in Maryland as well as Virginia hills. Despite the fact that the raid resulted in Brown's capture, treason conviction, and hanging, it heightened white Southerners' fears of slave uprisings and heightened tensions between Northern and Southern states before the American Civil War. -
John Brown
John Brown was a major member of the abolishment of slavery prior to the American Civil War. He was not a peaceful anti-slavery crusader but instead advocated for violent action against slaveholders and any government officials who supported them. Despite its failure, the attack heightened tensions between various segments of society. Brown's invasion made future discussions between the North and South nearly difficult, and it was a major cause of the Civil War. -
Election of 1860
The 1860 election pitted Abraham Lincoln against John Breckenridge, John Bell, and Stephen Douglas. The election triggered a number of concerns, including the secession of 1861, which increased tensions between the union and the states, as well as the argument over whether or not slavery should be abolished. -
Lincoln's 1st Inaugural Address
This address was 3,627 words long. Which in whole stated how Lincoln wanted to not have a civil war as well as wanting to keep the Union together. Lincoln also committed not to meddle with the slavery system where it exists and to temporarily suspend federal government activity in areas of resistance. He did, however, take a strong stand against secession and the seizure of government property. -
Secession
In 1861, 11 slave states seceded from the Union. This was owing to southern states' fears that the Republicans would abolish slavery. The southern states were successful in preserving their states' rights within the Union. This was after Abraham Lincoln was elected President. Because of tensions over slavery between the north and south, secession precipitated the civil war.