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Free Soil Movement
Northern Democrats made the party ‘Free Soil Party’ to still forbid slavery and prevent the extension of slavery. Southerners saw the free soldiers and abolitionists as intent on the ultimate destruction of slavery. -
Wilmot Proviso
David Wilmot proposed this bill, and that it will forbid slavery in any new territories acquired from Mexico, was passed into the house twice but then defeated by the senate. It created tensions between north and south and raised the sectional debates about slavery. -
Compromise of 1850
Resolutions attempted by Stephen Douglas, and California got to enter the US as a free state, divided the rest of Mexican cession into Utah and New Mexico, gave land to Texas, bans slave trade in District of Columbia, but permit whites to hold slaves, and adopt a new fugitive law. This causes arguments between Daniel Webster and John Calhoun. -
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Avery influential book, it was about the conflict between an enslaved man named Tom and the brutal slave owner named Simon Legree. Northerners and Europeans saw slave owners cruel and inhuman, while Southerners were condemning the ‘untruths’ in the novel. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Stephen Douglas introduced a bill to divide the Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory and allow settlers to decide whether or not they want slavery in the territory. This act repealed the Missouri Compromise and caused the anti slavery and proslavery to start fighting in Kansas. -
Republican Party
This party was found in Wisconsin in 1854. Composed of a coalition of the Free Soilers and Democrats and antislavery whigs. Purpose was to oppose the spread slavery in territories. The success of this party alienated and threatened the South. -
Caning of Charles Sumner
In 1856, Massachusetts Senator, Charles Summer verbally attacked the Democratic administration in a vitriolic speech, “The Crime Against Kansas.” Summer included personal charges again South Carolina senator Andrew Butler. His nephew, Preston Brooks, congressman, defended his uncle by walking into the senate chamber and beating Summer over the head with a cane. Brooks actions outraged the North, and the house voted to ensure him. -
Bleeding Kansas
The antislavery and proslavery groups started fighting in the Kansas territory and the territory was now known as Bleeding Kansas. John Brown and his sons went and attacked a proslavery farm settlement in Pottawatomie Creek, killing five settlers. -
Dred Scott v. Sanford
Dred Scott, a slave, was arguing that his residence was on free soil, which made him a free citizen. Presiding over the court was chief justice, Roger Taney, a southern Democrat. The court decided these reasons for Scott, he had no right to sue in a federal court because the framers of the constitution did not intend African Americans to be US citizens. The Missouri compromise was unconstitutional because it excluded slavery from Wisconsin and other northern territories. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
In a debate in Freeport, Illinois, Lincoln challenged Douglas to reconcile popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott decision. Douglas won the debate and won re-election to US senate, but Lincoln later on won Presidential election in 1860. -
John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry
John Brown confirmed the South’s worst fears of radical abolitionism when he tried to start an uprising of slavery in Virginia. October 1859, he led a small band of followers, including his four sons and some former slaves, in an attack on Harper’s Ferry. His impractical plan was to get guns to arm Virginia’s slaves, which he expected to rise up in revolt. Robert E Lee captured Brown after his two day siege. Brown and his six followers were tried for treason and hanged by the state of Virginia. -
Election of Lincoln
After Brown’s raid, the country was starting to move toward disintegration. This election would be a test to see if US could survive. The Democratic Party was breaking apart. When republicans met in Chicago, they enjoyed the prospect of an easy win divided of the Democrats. New party was formed (Union Party). Lincoln carried every one of the free states of the North, which represented 59% of electoral votes, leaving Douglas with a few electoral votes and more popular votes than Lincoln.
