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Underground Railroad
a system of routes along which runaway slaves were helped to escape to Canada or to safe areas in the free states. -
The Missouri Compromise 1820-1821
a series of agreements passed by Congress in 1820-1821 to maintain the balance of power between slave states and free states. -
The Compromise of 1850
a package of five bills passed in the United States which diffused a four year confrontation between the slave states and the free states regarding the status of territories. -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement, and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing white male settlers in those territories to determine through popular sovereignty whether they would allow slavery within each territory. -
Dread Scott v. Sanford
was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court held that African Americans, whether slave or free, could not be American citizens and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court,[2][3] and that the federal government had no power to regulate slavery in the federal territories acquired after the creation of the United States. Dred Scott, an African American slave who had been taken by his owners to free states and territories, attempted to sue for his freedom -
Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln Douglas debates
were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the Senate in Illinois, and Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. -
John Browns Raid on Harpers Ferry