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Missouri compromise
Henry Clay proposed an idea that would please the north, the goal was to please have the same amount of free states as slave states.Maine applied to become a state but if Maine was admitted as a free state then the balance would break, so Missouri came to the rescue and they decided to make Missouri a slave state and Maine a free state.The impact was that the balance stayed, but it was a contributor to the civil war. the balance was restored and the free and slave states were equal. -
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was a proviso written in Congress and was proposed by David Wilmot to try and end slavery and ban slavery in the states acquired by the Mexican-American war. But the Proviso caused conflict within the country because the Southerners wanted to be able to own slaves in the new territories, it was one of the major events leading up to the Civil War. The president at the time was James K. Polk. -
Compromise of 1850
As part of the Compromise of the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and California entered the Union as a free state, this was all the doing of Senator Henry Clay.California wanted to enter the union and the northerners were all wanting California to be a free state as most of it was above the line of compromise.Congress agreed and allowed California to enter as a free state but to make the south happy they passed the Fugitive slave act which infuriated many people as it was completely unfair -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act was a law that was passed on September 9th, 1850. It was passed by Congress and heightened the Northerners fear of the souths "Slave Power Conspiracy".The law or act stated any slaves that escaped or ran away from their plantation could be arrested and brought back to their farms, but sometimes African-American people who weren't runaways were arrested and brought back to farms. It made the people in the North mad because they had already escaped so why should they go back -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
The book Uncle Tom's Cabin was written by an Abolitionist named Harriet Beecher Stowe. The book was mainly published to expose the problems with slavery and all the horrible things that slave owners were doing to their slaves. This made everybody in the South mad because it made people not like slavery, it was then banned in the south. When this book was published it was very controversial because it exposed everything that was wrong with slavery, mostly what the slave owners were doing. -
Kansas Nebraska act/ Bleeding Kansas
Stephen Douglas who was a senator at that time proposed an idea that split the country in half, the north and the south had completely different views.The idea was to split the land west of Missouri into two territories, and he urged that the people that live there get to vote on free or slave state. People just flooded in from every where to vote, but with people came the violence, some people like John Brown killed so many people that it turned from a voting place to a blood bath almost 50-60. -
Dred Scott Case
The Dred Scott case was a case about a slave that moved with his owner to a free state, Dred Scott had a case and tried for his freedom, but the court said no and basically said that African-Americans can never have rights. This caused all the slave states to not technically be free states because slave owners were allowed to bring their slaves into free states and they would still have to be slaves. This made the Northerner people hate plantation owners even more and made everybody mad. -
Lincoln Douglas Debate
Lincoln and Douglas had opposite ideas on how to run the nation and how to address the issue of slavery. at that time Lincoln and Douglas were running for Senator, many people liked slavery and sided with Douglas for that one, but he might have won the battle but Lincoln was about to win the war, it was held in Illinois. Lincoln's views were know to everyone and the south was totally against him but to the north he was their hero. -
John Brown's raid
John brown was an abolitionist and raided the Virginia arsenal which had a lot of guns and ammunition and he was helped by his 5 sons, and he also hoped to help the slaves and thought that if he attacked the arsenal they would follow and revolt with him against the law and ban slavery. But sadly the slaves did not know about this and when the public found out the south was scared that the north would plan more of such attacks.The military caught him and then he was sentenced to death. -
Lincoln's Election of 1860
The Election of 1860 was the Election in which President Lincoln was elected. In this election, he was going against Stephen Douglas, Douglas was a Democratic and Lincoln was a Republican.The difference between Lincoln and Douglas was that Lincoln wanted Congress to ban slavery in the West and Douglas thought that states should vote for themselves if they should be free states or not.Pretty much everybody in the North voted for Lincoln causing him to become president.This made the south secede. -
Southern secession
Right after Lincoln got elected for president Alabama,Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas all knew that Lincoln was going to ban slavery so they just seceded from the union.The south was mad that Lincoln was elected and knew that Lincoln would ban slavery and if that happened then it would be a big blow to the south it so they threatened to and did secede. Seceding for real this time was a big step which was now going only one way, which was the Civil War.
