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The 3/5ths Compromise
The 3/5ths Compromise resolved the issue of slaves and representation for the House of Representatives with the decision that slaves would be counted as 3/5ths of a person. As a result, the North received more tax money and the South received more representation. This was a primary event leading to the Civil War because it made slavery more than just free labor, it made slavery a means of acquiring more power. -
The Invention of the Cotton Gin
In 1791, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in an attempt to make slavery more humane. The invention, however, had the opposite effect.The Cotton Gin made it much faster to separate cotton from its seeds; therefore, one slave could do the work of ten. This made plantations able to produce and export much more cotton to textile factories. The supply and demand for cotton exponentially increased, causing an economic boom as well as a drastic increase in slavery. -
2nd Great Awakening (Abolitionism Sentiment)
The 2nd Great Awakening displayed the changing of the individual in an attempt to change the country. As a result, many social reforms occurred, among them a strong abolitionist sentiment (becoming prominent around the 1830s). We see influential abolitionists, such as William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglas, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, take different approaches in convincing the population that slavery had to be abolished. -
The Mexican War
The Mexican War occurred soon after Texas was annexed as a slave state. President Polk attacked the disputed area that Mexico held, launching into a 2 year war with Mexico. The North opposed the war, as it looked like a way to expand slavery. The Compromise of 1850 was made much to the South's opposition; in return the South gets the Fugitive Slave Act. The Mexican War resulted in decisions that increased sectional tensions and political disputes. -
The Mexican War
After the annexation of Texas, also an addition of a slave state, President Polk was eager to annex more territory. The Slidell Mission was rejected, and we launched into a 2 year war with Mexico that we eventually won. This greatly increased the U.S.'s size, and brought the question of "slave or free" to the forefront. The North is very upset, as they believe the war was solely to expand slavery. This sparks huge political conflict, leading to the Compromise of 1850 and Fugitive Slave Act. -
Fugitive Slave Act
Created as a result of the Mexican War and a supplement to the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act mandated the return of runaway slaves. This angered the North because it brought bounty hunters into free states where they were actively working to help runaway slaves escape. The Fugitive Slave Act greatly increased abolitionist sentiment. -
The Kansas Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act appears as yet another power grab by the South; the Act formally nullified the MO Compromise, opening up the possibility of slavery in the North to popular sovereignty. The Act led to much violence that would increase sectional tensions. Some of these events include: Bleeding Kansas, The Crime Against Kansas, and John Brown's attack on a slave holding family (all events that foreshadow the violence of the Civil War). -
Dred Scott v. Sandford
The case involved a slave being inherited by a deceased owner's relative into a free state; the ruling was that someone cannot be denied their property, and that a slave has no right to file suit in a US court because he was not a citizen. This case as very inflammatory to the North because it revealed the government's stance on slavery, and that the country had to be unified as either slave or free, but could not continue divided.
