-
Missouri Compromise
Missouri wanted to enter the union as a slave state, but this would upset the balance between slave states and free states. Maine then tried to enter the union as a free state which would then allow missouri to enter as a slave state and Maine and the balance would be intact. -
Fugitive Slave Act
Congress passed a law stating that if a slave escaped to a Free Northern state then it was the Northerners job to return the slaves to the South. It basically said that even if slaves escaped to the North, they were not free. -
Compromise of 1850
California wanted to enter the union as a free state but this would upset the South, although declining them would upset the North. In order to please both the North and the South, congress organized New Mexico and Utah into a territory open to slavery. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher wrote a novel about slavery in the South to show the Northerners what was going on. The novel was about a Simon Legree and how his master grew angry with him so he whipped Legree to death. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
An act proposed by Stephen A. Douglas and it mandated “popular sovereignty”–allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state’s borders. -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott (a slave) had traveled to Wisconsin (where slavery is banned) with his owner, he took the case to the Supreme court stating that he should be a free man because he was in a free state. The supreme court ruled that Scott could not sue for his freedom because he was not a citizen, and that no African American was or could ever become a citizen. The Supreme Court also stated that Dred’s stay in Wisconsin did not make him a free man because the Missouri Compromise was not constitutional. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Lincoln challenged Douglas to debate the slavery issue. Douglas would argue that the Dred Scott decision had settled the slavery issue, but Lincoln stated that the slavery issue was moral not legal. Lincoln said, “The real issue in this controversy… is the sentiment of one class [group] that looks upon the institution of slavery as a wrong and of the other class that does not look upon it as wrong.“ -
Incident at Harper’s Ferry
During the time when Lincoln fought to stop the spread of slavery, John brown decided that he could not wait for Congress to act, and he decided to seize the federal arsenal. His purpose was to use the weapons to arm slaves and start a rebellion that could potentially destroy slavery. His men were all killed or captured and he was convicted of treason and sentenced to death -
Southern States form Confederacy
After hearing about how Lincoln was not going to intervene with slavery in the South yet he was not going to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law Southerners were already concerned. When there was talk about how Lincoln was not going to allow slavery to expand into the territories, delegates from South Carolina attending a state convention voted that they would leave the Union. Soon after six more states joined them in their leaving becoming the Confederate States of America. -
Election of 1860
This election showed how divided the country had become because while the Republicans all supported Lincoln, the Democrats were split between Douglas and Breckenridge. Bell was also nominated by a group called the Constitutional Union Party. Lincoln managed to gather 40 percent of the votes which ended up being the majority. Southerners were very displeased because they were now the minority in congress and soon after the election there was talk of secession.
