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Social Movements/ influential people
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Wilmot Proviso
In effort to limit the spread of slavery, David Wilmot from Pennsylvania, proposed to prohibit slavery in any territories acquired from Mexico. However the Senate was filled with Southerners and proslave Northerners who put an end to the proviso. -
Free-Soil Party
Due to the Wilmot Proviso not being passed, antislavery advocates joined the Free-Soil Party. They were trying to stop the expansion of slavery and argued that a free man on free soil made for a better economic and moral system as opposed to slavery. -
Underground Railroad
Harriet Tubman was a key role in the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was a series of safe houses along with directions, food, and guides. When the fugitive slaves would cross over to the North, they would get help from sympathetic Northerners until they could get to Canada or safer cities. -
Statehood of California
California was just becoming a state, but the biggest question was whether they would have slavery or not. At first congress tried to say no to slavery, but Southern states said that was unconstitutional. They later reached the Compromise of 1850. It stated that; California was a free state, resolved a boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico, in favor of New Mexico, abolished the slave trade, and lastly organized the lands gained from Mexico to have popular sovereignty. -
Fugitive Slave Act
If an African American was expected to be a runaway slave, a federal magistrate would decide whether or not they were. They were not given a jury trial or allowed to testify. This was the most contoversial element of the compromise, and many northerners started to resist it. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beacher Stowe's abolitionist novel increased northern opposition to the Fugitve Slave Act. The book showed moral principals of abolition, and made it into a sad personal story. Northerns were infuriated, and even enacted personal-liberty laws. Thes laws increased rights of their residents and accused fugitives. -
Bleeding Kansas
As soon as the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, thousands of settlers rushed into Kansas. Since the act gave popular sovereignty, proslavery people would come in to vote for slavery. Soon both sides turned to violence. 700 people for proslavery sacked the free-soil town of Lawrence; wrecking two newspaper offices, looting stores, and even burning down buildings. Then John Brown and his free-soilers murdered and mutilated five proslavery settlers. -
Dred Scott V Sanford
Dred Scott was an enslaved African American who lived with his owner in the free state of Illinois. He took the case to court and argued he should be free. However 7 of the 9 mwmbers of the court agreed that Scott was still a slave. By this ruling it made slavery legal in every state since slaves are possessions. -
Brown Raid at Harpers Ferry
John Brown led 18 heavily armed men, white and black, in a raid om the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown had hoped to gain hundreds of weapons, start a slave rebellion, and establish a seperate African American state in the South. The raid was unsucessful and Brown was convicted of treason and hanged. Tension grew even hotter between Republicans and Democrats. -
1960 Presidential Election
Abraham Lincoln won teh election of 1860 by getting 40% of the popular vote and a majority of the Electoral College. His greatest opponent was Stephen A. Douglas, who recieved 30% of the popular vote. The South saw this as the last straw, knowing that Lincoln had opposed slavery, and had also before stated that the Union "must become one thing, or all the other."
