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Missouri Compromise
Kept the number of free and slave states equal. Tensions were low until the American-Mexican War brought in new land. -
Wilmot Proviso
All land won from Mexico is free. Designed to eliminate slavery from land gained. Tensions raised, upsetting the Northerners. -
Compromise of 1850
This determined the status of the land from the Mexican Cession, including California. The Compromise of 1850 eased tension because it gave both the North and South benefits. -
Fugitive Slave Law
Most controversial part of the Compromise of 1850. It forced Northerners to aid slave catchers and blacks were falsely identified as runaways, denied jury trials, and kidnapped, then sent to the South as slaves. This caused tension to increase because the North and South became more divided. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin is published
Harriet B. Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book about slavery. The book was graphic and made slavery look terrible. Northerners who had been indifferent toward slavery began to hate slavery. Southerners banned the book, calling it propaganda and full of lies. Tension raised between the North and South, becoming more divided over slavery. -
Republican Party Forms
By February 1854, anti-slavery Whigs had begun meeting in the upper mid-western states to discuss the formation of a new party. One such meeting is generally remembered as the founding meeting of the Republican Party. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. Tension raised because the act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude. -
Charles Sumner caned in the Senate
Preston Brooks came into the Senate with his cane and started beating Charles Sumner until he was unconscious. This was the first type of violence shown about sectionalism. This increased tension because other people felt that they would be able to do the same. -
Dred Scott v. Sandford
The Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. The court also ruled that Congress lacked power to ban slavery in the United States territories. This angered northerners, increasing tension. -
Abraham Lincoln elected President
Lincoln won the party's presidential nomination. In the Novermber 1860 election, Lincoln faced Douglas, who represented the Northern part of a heavily divided Democratic Party, as well as Breckinridge and Bell.
