• ​​The Wilmot Proviso was suposed to eliminate slavery in the new lands received in the Mexican War.  Many disliked the idea very much.

 

• The Missouri Compromise evenly divided Missouri so that the amount of free and slave states were equal.  The South believed that the Northerners were secretly trying to bring back the Federalist Party and strengthen the central government 

 

• The Kansas-Nebraska Act dissolved the Missouri Compromise and allowed the free and slave status to be determined by popular sovereignty. 

 

• The birth of the republican party gave Southerners a voice.  It gave them the power to secede. 

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• After the Kansas Nebraska Act both proslavery and free settlers came running into Kansas, causing much commotion. This is an act done by John Brown.  It was one of the events that helped bring on the Civil War because of its great tensions and brutal atmosphere. See Acts Against Slavery for more details.  It is also known as Bleeding Kansas.

 

• The Ostend Manifesto was a document that planned to get Cuba from Spain. There were many blacks living in Cuba at the time and the Sotuherners wanted to take advantage of it and get it as another slave state.  The North was furious as they had just been hit with the Fugitive Slave Act too and were not going to allow this. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• On May 19, 1856, Charles Sumner delivered a speech that enraged those who suported slavery in the Kansas territory.  It was aimed to senators from the south, suhc as Andrew Butler.  A couple days later, one of Butler's representative attacked Sumner and hit him on the head and shoulders. The North hailed Sumner as a martyr, while the South announced Butler's senator a hero.

 

• The Dred Scott Decision was one of the most controversial events preceding the American Civil War. "The case had been brought before the court by Dred Scott, a slave who had lived with his owner in a free state before returning to the slave state of Missouri. Scott argued that his time spent in these locations entitled him to emancipation. In his decision, Chief Justice Roger Taney, a staunch supporter of slavery, disagreed: The court found that no black, free or slave, could claim U.S. citizenship, and therefore blacks were unable to petition the court for their freedom. The Dred Scott decision incensed abolitionists and heightened North-South tensions."

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• The Freeport Doctrine states that people of a territory can, by lawful means, exclude slavery from their limits prior to the formation of a state constitution, for the reason slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere unless it is supported by local police regulations. Douglas made an effort to revive the doctrine of popular sovereignty, which had been imperiled by the Dred Scott decision.  He had lost the little support he had from the South.

 

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