-
Missouri Comprise
A line was drawn through the unorganized western territories along the 36°30' parallel, dividing north and south as free and slave. The Missouri Compromise prevented the break-up of the Democratic-Republican party along sectional lines. Limiting slavery in the territories limited the representative boost gained from the three-fifths clause and denied southerners two extra Senate seats thereby limiting southern political influence. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
In August of 1831, a slave named Nat Turner incited an uprising that spread through several plantations in southern Virginia. Turner and approximately seventy cohorts killed around sixty white people. Education was prohibited and the right to assemble was severely limited. -
The Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was a piece of legislation at the close of the Mexican-American War. If passed, the Proviso would have outlawed slavery in territory acquired by the United States as a result of the war, which included most of the Southwest and extended all the way to California. -
Compromise of 1850
With national relations soured by the debate over the Wilmot Proviso, Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas managed to broker a shaky accord with the Compromise of 1850. The compromise admitted California as a free state and did not regulate slavery in the remainder of the Mexican cession all while strengthening the Fugitive Slave Act, a law which compelled Northerners to seize and return escaped slaves to the South. -
Charles Sumner Attacked by Preston Brooks on the U.S. Senate Floor
Pro-slavery Congressman Preston Brooks attacked the abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner with a cane after Sumner had given a speech condemning the pro-slavery forces for the violence occurring in Kansas. -
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott was a Virginia slave who tried to sue for his freedom in court. The case eventually rose to the level of the Supreme Court, where the justices found that, as a slave, Dred Scott was a piece of property that had none of the legal rights or recognitions afforded to a human being. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
The Lincoln-Douglas debates discussed the issue of slavery. Douglas was a supremacist who believed the gov’t was made by and for white men. While Lincoln fought for equality between whites and blacks, he believed in equal opportunity and political rights. They were fighting for political power in Illinois so the debates took place int the free state. -
John Brown's Raid
Abolitionist John Brown supported violent action against the South to end slavery and played a major role in starting the Civil War. After the Pottawatomie Massacre during Bleeding Kansas, Brown returned to the North and plotted a far more threatening act. -
Abraham Lincoln's Election
Abraham Lincoln was elected by a considerable margin in 1860 despite not being included on many Southern ballots. As a Republican, his party’s anti-slavery outlook struck fear into many Southerners. -
The Battle of Fort Sumter
With secession, several federal forts, including Fort Sumter in South Carolina, suddenly became outposts in a foreign land. On April 15, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to join the Northern army. Unwilling to contribute troops, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee dissolved their ties to the federal government.
