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The Peculiar Institution
Alongside the Spanish and English colonists of the 17th and 18th centuries, slavery arrived in North America, with an estimated 645,000 Africans imported during the institution's more than 250 years was legal. Yet, without doubt, slavery never existed without controversy. From 1735 to 1750, the British colony of Georgia abolished slavery, although it remained legal in 12 other colonies. -
The Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was a treaty that made Missouri a slave state and Maine a free state and “A line was also drawn through the unincorporated western territories along the 36°30' parallel, dividing north and south as free and slave”(American Battlefield). -
Abolition Movements
By the early 1830s, those who wished to see that institution abolished within the United States were becoming more strident and influential. They claimed obedience to “higher law” over obedience to the Constitution’s guarantee that a fugitive from one state would be considered a fugitive in all states. The fugitive slave act along with the publishing of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped expand the support for abolishing slavery nationwide. -
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Nat Turner’s Rebellion
In August of 1831, A calling from Nat Turner spread through many plantations. Around sixty white people were killed by Turner and about seventy other enslaved Blacks. After two days of terror, the deployment of military infantry and artillery suppressed the uprising. -
The Wilmot Proviso
At the end of the Mexican-American War, the Wilmot Proviso was a piece of legislation introduced by David Wilmot. If enacted, in the territories acquired by the United States as a result of the war, (which included much of the Southwest and stretched all the way to California) would have to outlaw slavery. Two years Wilmot spent fighting for his plan witch inevitably ended in failure. -
Compromise of 1850
Senator Henry Clay proposed this law/proposal to address the problem of sectional balance in Congress. As a free state, California decided to apply for statehood, but it would create an imbalance in influence in Congress by doing so. The proposal called for California to join the Utah and New Mexico territories as a free state, to enter and be ruled by common sovereignty, to abolish slave trade in Washington DC, and to make a law to help slave owners reclaim their runaway slaves. -
Slave Law of 1850
Having complied with the Compromise of 1850, under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, special federal commissioners were empowered to decide the fate of the alleged fugitives without the benefit of a jury trial or even the testimony of the accused. The legislation also forbade local officials to intervene with the capturing of slaves and required residents to help with the capture of prisoners when they were summoned by federal agents. -
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" is Published
Uncle Tom's Cabin is an anti-slavery novel that tells the stories of the horrifying struggles of slaves on the plantation's. It was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852 and helped to lay the groundwork between the North and the South for the already growing tension. Uncle Tom's Cabin, the best-selling book in the nineteenth century, is credited with helping to fuel the cause of abolitionists in the 1850's. -
The Election of Franklin Pierce
In 1852, the Democrat Franklin Pierce was elected as President. On a panel that accepted the 1850 compromise as a conclusive resolution of the question of slavery, he pushed his rival Whig, Winifield Scott. -
Formatting of the Republican party
The Republican Party emerged in 1854 to combat the Kansas-Nebraska Act: which threatened to extend slavery into the territories. In the South, there were few Republican Party members, but in the North, by 1858, its members included most former Whigs and former Free Soil Democrats to form majorities in almost every Northern state. -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
This bill allowed settlers decide whether they were Pro or Anti Slavery.”The Kansas-Nebraska Act was an 1854 bill that mandated “popular sovereignty”–allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state’s borders”(History.com). -
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The Bleeding of Kansas
A mini state war that was fought between Pro and Anti slavery activists for whether Kansas was going to be a slave or non-slave state.”1854–59; a small civil war fought between proslavery and antislavery advocates for control of the new territory of Kansas under the doctrine of popular sovereignty”(Britannica). -
Election of 1856
The Democrat, James Buchanan, was elected and became the 15th president of the United States. -
Dred Scott Case
This case was about an enslaved African American getting their freedom. “The Dred Scott case, also known as Dred Scott v. Sandford, was a decade-long fight for freedom by a Black enslaved man named Dred Scott. The case persisted through several courts and ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court, whose decision incensed abolitionists, gave momentum to the anti-slavery movement and served as a stepping stone to the Civil War”(History.com). -
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Lincoln-Douglass Debates
This was 9 Debates that mainly touched on Slavery and what will happen with it in the future.”The Lincoln-Douglas debates, a series of seven debates, take place between incumbent Democratic Sen. Stephen A. Douglas and Republican challenger Abraham Lincoln during the Illinois senatorial campaign, largely concerning the issue of slavery extension into the territories”(Britannica). -
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John Brown's Raid
The raid consisted of John Brown and 19 other abolitionists handing out Bibles to enslaved Aferican americans.“In October 1859, he and 19 supporters, armed with “Beecher’s Bibles,” led a raid on the federal armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in an effort to capture and confiscate the arms located there, distribute them among local slaves and begin armed insurrection”(American Battlefield). -
Southern Secession
That was not enough to calm the fears of delegates to an 1860 secession convention in South Carolina. To the surprise of other Southern states—and even to many South Carolinians—the convention voted to dissolve the state’s contract with the United States and strike off on its own. -
The Election of 1860
The 16th president of the our nation was the republican Abraham Lincoln. While in 10 southern states he did not receive a single vote, the population advantage of the North enabled him to win the electoral college, defeating his three rivals, Stephen Douglas, John Breckinridge, and John Bell. Lincoln was greatly supported by the split in the Democratic Party (Douglas, Breckinridge, and Bell). -
The Succession of South Carolina
Southern leaders had threatened to secede from the Union if the election was won by a Republican president prior to Lincoln's election as president. On December 20, 1860, a state convention proclaimed that South Carolina was no longer part of the Union, and had seceded. -
Works Cited
1).American Battlefield. www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/trigger-events-civil-war. 2).Britannica. www.britannica.com/topic/Remembering-the-American-Civil-War-1763580/Timeline-of-events. 3).Giulia..diguglielmo. "23. Events leading to conflict between North and South, 1850-1860." TimeToast,
www.timetoast.com/timelines/23-events-leading-to-conflict-between-north-and-south-1850-1860. 4).History.com. www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/american-civil-war-history.
