Pre-Civil War Notes

Pre-Civil War Notes NAME______

Missouri Compromise

Event: Congress’ first attempt to balance the spread of slavery. This political compromise had Missouri admitted as a slave state and Maine was allowed in as a free state.

Effect: An imaginary east-west line was drawn in which no further slave states could cross.

The Compromise of 1850

Event: Congress’ second attempt to balance the spread of slavery. This political compromise said that the people living in the territories would vote slave or free when they were ready to become a state.

Effect: Called popular sovereignty (voting free or slave), it was first used in Kansas, resulting in violence, bloodshed, and Kansas being admitted as a free state.

Fugitive Slave Law

Event: Included in the Compromise of 1850, it stated that all citizens in the US had to assist in the identification and location of runaway slaves regardless of what each citizen believed.

Effect: This law meant that no one had a right to their own opinion about slavery if they were to follow the law. If they did not follow it, then it was a fine or imprisonment.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Dredd Scott Case

Event: Was a Supreme Court decision that stated that Dredd Scott, a runaway slave, had no rights or freedom even though he had lived as a freeman for many years.

Effect: Any slaves could be brought to the territories regardless of any compromises or popular sovereignty John Brown’s attack on Harpers Ferry

Event: John Brown tried to start a rebellion at Harper’s Ferry in Virginia. It did not work. He was hung for treason. Some thought he was a hero, others a traitor.

Effect: It created more fear in southerners about radical northerners trying to start violent slave revolts. They became serious about training their local armies (militias) to counter this threat.

Stephen Douglas / Lincoln Debates

Event: These two men debated about the future of slavery in the territories during the 1858 Senate election. Douglas agreed with slavery and thought that the people in the territory should vote for slave or free state (popular sovereignty). Lincoln argued that slavery was an evil and that our country could not “stand” divided. HE DID NOT DEMAND ABOLITION OF SLAVERY, he wanted to only stop slavery spreading in the territories.

Effect: Lincoln lost the Senate election but became famous for his ideas. Southerners believed that he was an abolitionist, despite what he said.

The presidential election of 1860

Event: Lincoln was the only candidate that year that wanted to limit slavery. He won even though he was not on the voting ballot in 10 states in the south and did not win a southern state.

Effect: Many southerners felt that they had no power in the federal government. They feared that Lincoln would use the power of the presidency to take away the states rights of the south. South Carolina makes plans to leave the USA. 11 southern states secede 1860-1861

Event: One month after Lincoln’s election, South Carolina votes to secede (leave) the US. By the time Lincoln takes the oath of office in March, 6 other states have followed South Carolina. After the Confederate’s attack on fort Sumter in April of 1861, four more states join to form the now 11 state Confederate States of America.

Effect: The US is now officially split apart. War will begin.