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Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 temporarily quieted the difference between the north and south. However, new territory added as a result of America's victory in the Mexican American war. -
Wilmot Proviso
the Wilmot Proviso was meant to eliminate slavery within the land gained because of the Mexican American war. After the war began, president James Polk sought 2 million dollars to negotiate a treaty. -
Compromise of 1850
during Clay's Compromise of 1850, congress passed a series of 5 laws meant to solve the controversy over slavery. These laws included; Congress declared congress as a free state, the people of the territories of New Mexico and Utah decided the slavery question by popular sovereignty, the slave trade was ended in Washington DC but not slavery itself, congress past strict new fugitive slave laws, and Texas gave up its claims to New mexico in return for $10 million. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act was put in place to force northerners to admit that slave owners had the right to own slaves as property. However, it ended up convincing more of the north that slavery was evil and should be abolished. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin was a book written about a slave who was abused by his owner. many people in the north were shocked and began to view slavery as a problem that needed to be stopped. However, many southern slave owners said that it was just propaganda meant to further a cause. -
Kansas Nebraska Act/ Bleeding Kansas
the Kansas and Nebraska territories debate over slavery continued. Southern farmers refused to admit the territories because they lay above the Missouri compromise line. Stephen Douglas passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 to allow the people in the territories to decide the slavery issue. -
Dread Scott Case
the Dread Scott case involve a slave who sued his owner for freedom. Scott lived with his owner in 2 places where slavery was illegal which he argued meant he was a free man. It was later decided that Scott could not sue because he was a slave and not a US citizen, living in a free state did not make Scott free, and slaves were property meaning his owner could take his "property" wherever he wanted to. -
Lincoln Douglas Debate
the Lincoln Douglas Debate engaged in a series of debates which were followed throughout the country. Lincoln thought that slavery was wrong and it should not spread to the western territories, and that African Americans are entitled to the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Douglas believed that Individual states should decide whether or not to continue slavery and that Lincoln wants equality for African Americans. -
John Brown's Raid
In 1859 john brown raised a group of followers to help him free slaves in the south. They attacked the town of Harper's ferry Virginia. They took guns and planned to start a slave revolt. Brown was captured by Colonel Robert E. Lee and 10 of his followers were killed. -
Lincolns election of 1860
IN 1860 Lincoln was elected president. Southerners felt they no longer had a voice in national government so some states seceded. Lincoln was against slavery and he wanted to stop it from spreading while the southern states believed that it should spread everywhere in the country because it helped them out so much and they refused to give them up. -
Southern secession
At Fort Sumter, the confederacy tried to starve the troops into surrendering but the commander refused. Lincoln did not send any more troops because he did not want any more states to secede. Instead of troops he planned to send food on ships with no guns.
