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The Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise forbade slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of Missouri's southern border. Missouri itself entered the Union as a slave state while Maine entered as a free state for "balance" because of the Missouri Compromise. (The actual date(s) is unknown, but the Missouri Compromise was enacted in 1820.)
https://www.history.com/topics/missouri-compromise -
Compromise of 1850
Because of this Compromise, California is admitted as a free state. And as a compromise, a Fugitive slave law requires runaway slaves to be returned to their owners.
https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/compromise1850.html -
The Kansas- Nebraska Act
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.
https://www.history.com/topics/kansas-nebraska-act -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott who was a slave taken to a free state by his owner, sued for his rights. The United States Supreme Court issues a decision affirming the right of slave owners to take their slaves into the Western territories, thereby negating the doctrine of popular sovereignty and severely undermining the platform of the newly created Republican Party.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dred-scott-decision -
Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation is issued during the Civil War by President Abraham Lincoln. It freed slaves in southern states still in rebellion, led to 3 million slaves declaring free. -
Plessy v Ferguson - Segregation
The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality – a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal".
