Decade of Crisis

  • Compromise of 1850

    California is admitted as a free state. Rest of the Mexican Cession divided into Utah and New Mexico territories. Popular Sovereignty used to decide if they would have slavery.
  • Fugitive Slave Law/Act

    Part of Compromise of 1850. Force Northerners to help return runaway slaves.
  • Personal Liberty Laws

    Individual states passed these to counter the Fugitive Slave Act. These were technically against the law since it was going against the government.
  • Uncle Tom's Cabin

    Book written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Told about the life of a slave and the cruelties he went through. It made the South mad but made the North even more against slavery.
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act

    Bill proposed by Stephen Douglas which created territories Kansas and Nebraska. Popular Sovereignty would decide if they were slave states or not. It replaced the Missouri Compromise.
  • Period: to

    Bleeding Kansas

    Described the period of time when different groups (anti-slavery and pro-slavery) fought against each other. "Mini Civil War"
  • Sacking of Lawrence

    Lawrence was center of Kansas's anti-slavery movement. Over 800 men rode into Lawrence to arrest members of the Free State Government. They didn't resist, but mob destroyed 2 news paper offices and burned/looted homes and shops. As final message, they aimed cannons at the Free State Hotel and smashed it.
  • Election of 1856

    President Pierce was going for 2nd term, but Democrats wanted less controversial candidate. Selected James Buchanan. Buchanan won.
  • Dred Scott v. Sanford

    Dred Scott was a slave, taken to a free state, then he sued for his freedom. He was ruled against.
  • Minnesota Enters Union

    Minnesota enters Union as a free state
  • Period: to

    Lincoln-Douglas Debates

    7 debates between Republican candidate Lincoln and Democratic candidate Douglas.
  • Free Port Doctrine

    Douglas's doctrine that said slavery could be excluded from territories by local legislation, despite Dred Scott v. Sanford case.
  • Douglas Senate

    Douglas gets seat in senate because he found a loophole about slavery.
  • Harper's Ferry Raid

    John Brown and his men captured federal armory and arsenal. Brown hoped that slaves would help, but that didn't work. He was the captured and brought to court for treason where he was sentenced.
  • South Carolina Secedes

    When the ordinance was adopted South Carolina became the first slave state in the south to declare that it had seceded from the United States.
  • Florida Seceds

    Florida secedes from the Union.
  • Fort Sumter Attack

    General P.G.T. Beauregard, in command of the Confederate forces around Charleston Harbor, opened fire on the Union garrison holding Fort Sumter. At 2:30pm on April 13 Major Robert Anderson, garrison commander, surrendered the fort and was evacuated the next day.
  • Brooks Sumner Event

  • Le Compton Constitution

  • Lincoln's Inaugural Adress

  • House Divided Speech

  • John Brown's Execution