1. 1858
1.1. Lincoln was chosen as the run candidate for senate against senator Douglas 1858.Lincoln and Douglas were political and personal rivals (both had dated Mary Todd and she married Lincoln).Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of public debates.Thousands gathered to hear them speak.Newspaper reported what each man said throughout the naton.Douglas defened popular sovereighty and said each state had the right to decide for or against slavery.He painted Lincoln as a dangerous abolonist who wanted equality for African Americans.Lincoln took a stand against the spread of slavery.He predicted that slavery would die out on its own but in the meantime americans had an obligation to keep it out of the western territories.Douglas won the elections but lincoln was now known throughout the nation.
2. Missouri compromise
2.1. 1860
2.2. As America began moving west the issue of whether or not slavery should be allowed in the new states forming out west became an issue was Missouri. It's addition to the United States threatened to upset the balance between 11 slave state and 11 free states. In 1820 senator Henry clay persuaded congress to approve the Missouri compromise. The Missouri compromise stated Maine was admitted as a slave state,Missouri was admitted as a slave state,southern slave Louisiana territory north of Missouri's southern border was free,southern slave owners gained the right to pursue escaped fugitives into free regions.
3. Wilmot proviso
3.1. 1848
3.1.1. Since the Missouri compromise did not apply to the large territory gained from Mexico in 1848 representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania proposed congress ban slavery in all territory that might become part of the United States as a result of the Mexican American war. The proposal passed in the house but failed the senate.
4. Free soil party
4.1. 1848
4.1.1. In the election of 1848,both the anti-slavery party and Democratic Party hoped to win by not taking a stand on the issue of popular sovereignty.Antislavery Whigs and democrats joined forces to create a new political free soil party. It called for territory gained in the Mexican-American war to be free soil a place where slavery was banned.
5. Election of Zachary taylor
5.1. 1848
5.1.1. In the election of 1848 the controversy over the wilmot proviso led to development of the free soil party.Democrats nominated senator lewis of michigan the whigs nominated former democratic president martin van buen senator cass suggested that the people in each new territoryshould deade for themselves whether or not to allow slavery.Zachary taylor, a hero of the mexican-american war won the election.
6. The compromise of 1850
6.1. 1850
6.1.1. Gold was found in california and thousands moved to the area.since it was above the missouri compromise line,people felt it would be free state.this angered the south and they threatened to secede (leave tthe union). the compromise was proposed by senate henry clay of kentuckyin janurary,1850.He hoped this compromise would end this debate over slavery forever.This proposal produced one of the greatest debates in america political history.President taylor opposed the compromise but died and the new president millard fillmore supported it. congress passes five series of bills in september,1850 that became known as the compromise of 1850 that became known as a slave state.2.slave trade was banned in the nations capital.3.congress declared that it could not regulate the slave trade between slave states.4.popular sovereighty (the people would vote) would be used to determined the issue of slavery in the rest of the mexican cession.5.the south received a new fugitive slave law.
7. The fugitive salve act
7.1. 1850
7.1.1. Allowed special government officials to arrest any person accused of being a runaway slave.Suspects had no right to a trial to prove that they had been falsely accused.All it took was a slaveholder or any white winess to swear that the suspects was a slaver holders property.The law also required nothern citizens to help capture accused runaways if authorities requested asistance.
8. Uncle toms cabin
8.1. 1852
8.1.1. Written by stowe in 1852,it was a novel aboot kindly uncle toms and enslaved man who is abused by the cruel simon legree.the book became a best seller in the north it shocked thousnads of people who had been unconcerned with slavery as a human,moral problem and not just a political issue.White southerns were outraged.
9. bleeding kansas
9.1. 1855
9.1.1. both proslavery and anti-slavery settlers flooded to kansas to try and win the majority.Thousands of people from missouri entered kansas in march 1855 to vote illegally in the election of a territorial legislature.Kansas had 3,000 voters but almost 8,000 people voted.Of the 39 people (legislators) elected,all but 3 supported slavery.Anti-slavery settlers refused to accept the results and held another a second election.Kansas now had two governments .Violence broke out in april, a proslavery sheriffwas shot when he tried to arrest someantislavery settelers in the town of lawerence.He returned the next month wih 800 men and attacked the town.Three days later John Brown an anti-slavery settlers from connecticut let seven men to pro-slavery settlement near pottawatomie creek and murdered five pro-lavery men and boys.This started widespread fighting in kansas.
10. The Kansas-Nebraska Act
10.1. 1854
10.1.1. Senator Stephen pushed through the act in 1854 which led the nation closer to war .He wanted to see a railroad built in llinois through the nebraska territory to the pacific coast.He suggested creating two new terrories the kansas territory and the nebraska territory.Both were above the missouri compromise line and would become free staes wich upset the southerns states.To win southern support,he suggested that the issue of slavery be resolved by popular sovereighty.This would undo the missouri compromise.
11. Bloodshed in the senate
11.1. 1856
11.1.1. Charles summerof massachusetts was leading the abolonists senator and made fiery speeches denoucing the proslavery legislature in kansas.In one of his speeches an elderly senator from south california who was not present when he gave his speech.A few days later his nephew,congressman Preston Book, marched into the senate chamber and beat sumner with a heavy cane until he fell to the floor bloody and unconscious.Sumner never really recovered from his injuries.
12. Republican Party
12.1. 1854
12.1.1. The whigs party spilt in 1854 and many northern whigs formed a new politial party called the republican party.Thrie main goal was to stop the spread of slavery into the western territories.Their antislavery stand attracted many nothern democratics and free-soil members.The party quickly became very powerful.In the first congressional elections held just a few months after the party was created 1854 of 245 candidates were elected to the house of reprsentatives.Democrtics also lost contol of two nothern state legislature.Two years later the party ran its first candidate for president,John C. Fremont.
13. Election of 1856
13.1. 1856
13.1.1. First republican cadidate John C. Fremont (army officer who help win californias independence in the mexican american war) waged a strong antislavery campaign and won 11 of the 16 free states.Democratics James Buchanan won the election.
14. Dred Scott vs. Sanford case
14.1. 1857
14.1.1. Dred Scott was an enslaved person who had once been owned by a U.S army doctor.They had lived in Illinois and Wisconsin Territory for a short time where slavery was illegal.They settled in Mssouri.With the help of an antislavery lawyer, scott sued for his freedom because he argued hat he was free because he had lived where slavery was illegal.The case reached the supreme court.The supreme court delivered its verdict in the case on march of 1857,three days after president buchanan took office.Scott was not a free man for wo reasons 1.Scott had no right to sue federal court because African Americans were not citizens;2.merely living in free territory does not make a enslaved person free.Slave were property and property rights were protected by the United States territory constitution.The ruling also said that congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in any territory.Thus, the Missouri compromise was unconstitutional.Southerns where happy because slavery was spreading in all territories. Northerners were upset because now slavery could spread to the west.
15. The Lincoln and Douglas debates
16. John brown attacks harpers ferry
16.1. 1859
16.1.1. John Brown was driven out of Kansas after the Pottawatomie Creek Massacre and returned to New England.He began a plot to free people in the south that were enslaved.In 1859,Brown and a small group of supporters attacked the town of Harpers Ferry,Virginia.his goal was to control of the guns that the U.S army had stored there.He thought that enslaved African Amercians would support him.He would give them weapons and led a revolt.He gained control of the guns but troops commanded by colonel Robert E. Lee surrounded browns force before they could escape.Ten of Browns folowers were killed.Brown was wounded and captured.At his trial,he sat quietly as the court found him guilty of murder and treason.He was hanged in Virginia december 2,1859.Many people in the north considered him a hero.Southerns were shocked that northerns thought this about a person who tried to led a slave revolt against them.
17. Political parties divide
17.1. 1860
17.1.1. The republicans party split into two parties during the election of 1860 because nothern democrats refused to support slavery in the territories.Some southerners wanted to fix the problems between the north and the south and formed the constitutinal party.They wanted to protect slavery and keep the nation together.
18. Election of 1860
18.1. 1860
18.1.1. republicans chosse abraham to run for president in 1860 Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas as their candidate.Southern Democrats chose vice president John Breckinridge of kentucky.The constitutional union nominated John Bell of Tennessee.The election showed just had fragmented the nation had become.Lincoln won every free state and breckenridge won all slave holding states except four.Bell won kentucky tennesse,and virginia.Douglas won missouri.Lincoln received 40% of the popular vote but recieved enough electoral votes to win the electionand became president.
19. Southern states secede
19.1. 1860
19.1.1. Lincolns election made the south feel that they no longer had a voice in the national government.They believed that the president and congress were against their inerest,especially slavery.South carolina seceded (left the Untied States) first when news of lincoln election reached the state.They called for a special convention.On December 20,1860 the convention passed a declaration that the union now subsisting between south carolina and other states , under the name of the United States Of America is hereby dissolved.6 more states followed south carolina out of the union.
20. The confederate states of America
20.1. 1861
20.1.1. In February of 1861,the leaders of the seven states that left the union met in montgmery,Alabama to form a new nation that they called the Confederate States Of America.By the time lincoln took office in march,they had written a constitution and named form senator Jefferson Davis as president.
21. The cittenden plan
21.1. 1861
21.1.1. A plan developed by senator John j. Crittenden of Kentucky to compromise with the south one last time. It was presented to congress in late February,1861 while the south was forming its new government but it did not pass.