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Norhtwest Ordinance
It outlawed slavery in Northwest areas and set up the process of adding additional states.This ordinance was one of the few positive impacts that the Articles of Confederation employed. -
Kentucky and Virginia Resolution
The documents argued for states rights and also called for the nullification of federal laws that the states deemed unconstitutional, which supported the idea of strict constructionism. Years later, the resolutions were used to justify the South’s secession from the Union. -
Hartford Convention
When news of this reached DC, news of the American victory in New Orleans had just arrived. Because of this, the Federalist Party was utterly humiliated. In all, this Convention served as the Party’s ultimate downfall, which led to the emergence of a one-party system and ushered in the Era of Good Feelings. -
Missouri Compromise
Americans were beginning to inhabit our newly acquired territories out west. As this occurred, the question of whether or not slavery should be allowed came to the forefront of political matters. The Missouri Compromise eased tensions over slavery for the time being because it allowed two states, Missouri and Maine, to enter the union as slave and free, respectively. -
Nat Turners Rebellion
The infuriated slaves in the rebellion killed 57 white men, women, and children. This uprising terrified the whites, and it directly led to the institution of Black Codes, which restricted education, freedom of movement, and freedom in general for slaves and freed blacks. -
Texas Annexation Debate
After it gained its independence from Mexico, Texas was seen as a threat with its new foreign allies. The United States sought to annex the little “lone star” republic. However, many Americans vehemently disagreed with this idea. On the contrary, the South was excited to gain more slave territory. -
Wilmot Proviso
A repercussion of the Mexican-American War, the Wilmot Proviso was introduced by the free-soilers in 1846 directly after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed. The bill proposed to ban slavery in all territories taken from Mexico, pleasing the North, which wanted to abolish or at least limit slavery. This bill was passed in the House yet shot down in the Senate, which was controlled by the pro-slavery South -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Southerners felt very threatened by the overwhelming voice of radical anti-slavery abolitionists in the North, but this bill ironically motivated abolitionists even further with their open rejection of the Act. The Northern abolitionists still continued to use the underground railroad as a tool to save slaves from the Southerners which only server to further infuriate the South. -
Gadsden Purchase
James Gadsden and Jefferson Davis agreed upon a negotiation with Mexico concerning the annexation of the southern portion of modern day New Mexico this southern route was chosen because of topographical advantages that couldn’t be found elsewhere. Despite this practical reasoning, it seriously angered the North. The Purchase eventually led to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which played a direct role in the destruction of the Union -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was by far the most significant piece of legislation regarding slavery. It repealed the Missouri Compromise by allowing slavery to be determined by popular sovereignty in the new Kansas and Nebraska territories. -
Ostend Manifesto
Americans truly believed that they were entitled to expand; the rejection of the purchase was the necessary means for war. This outraged anti-slavery Northerners because they saw it as the expansion of slavery by the “Southern Slave Power.” -
Presidential Election of 1856
The campaign period was full of scandal and mudslinging that severely hurt Fremont when he was accused of being a Catholic. In the end Buchanan won, but his presidency was already set to doom because of the Dred Scott decision, trouble in Kansas with the Lecompton Constitution, and the Panic of 1857. -
Sumner-Brooks Affair
After striking Sumner 35 times with the cane on the Senate floor, Brooks was seen as a hero in the South. Sumner, the victim, was seen as a martyr in the North. People that had been previously uncertain about the slavery controversy jumped to the abolitionist side, and the South took extreme offense at the rude things that Sumner had said in his speech, which further solidified the North versus South mentality. -
Dred Scott vs. Sanford
This translated that Congress didn’t have the authority to ban slavery anywhere because it is unconstitutional to take property. In accordance with this ruling, the Northwest Ordinance, Missouri Compromise, Wilmot Proviso, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act were all deemed unconstitutional. -
Battle of Fort Sumter
After seven states declared secession from the Union, South Carolina demanded that the U.S. army would abandon its facilities in Charleston Harbor. After a many-month siege, shots were fired in April, and Lincoln called for 75,000 Union volunteers to suppress the South's Confederate rebellion, which started the Civil War. This signifies the breaking point of sectional tension in the U.S.