-
Fugitive Slave Act
This act was passed by the United States as part of the Compromise of 1850. It required that all escaped slaves, upon capture, be returned to their masters. -
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It showed the reality of slavery and is usually regarded as one of the major causes of the Civil War. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders (popular sovereignty). It served to repeal the Missouri Compromise, which banned slavery north of the 36°30´ line. -
Dred Scott v. Sanford
Dred Scott was a slave who lived in a free state before returning to Missouri. Scott argued that since he was free before, that allowed him to be free in Missouri too. But the court decided that no African American, free or slave, could petition the court for their freedom. The Dred Scott decision outraged abolitionists and heightened North-South tensions. -
Election of 1860
This election was when Abraham Lincoln became president. He defeated Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. -
Sherman’s March to the Sea
This was a military campaign of the American Civil War. Sherman's troops left Atlanta and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21, destroying military targets, industry, infrastructure, and civilian property and disrupting the Confederacy's economy and its transportation networks. -
Poll Tax
This was a tax of a fixed amount per person and payable as a requirement for the right to vote
