Unit 1: A Newly Divided Nation (1820-1860)

  • 1820 - Missouri Compromise: Missouri proclaimed that any state under the latitude 36°30’ rule was a slave state.
  • 1850 - Compromise of 1850: Henry Clay neutralized the nation using his compromise of creating federal land of the Mexican Cession, later decided by popular sovereignty.
    • Federal land was gained after the Mexican American War
    • Popular sovereignty: a unanimous decision made by the people
  • 1850 - Fugitive Slave Act: outlawed the act of African-American slaves escaping from the South or accused free African-American citizens.
    • Thousands of northern African-Americans fled to Canada due to the act. The Northerners were upset and felt as if they were forced to implement such a law. The majority joined the abolitionist movement.
  • 1854 - Rise of The Republican Party: Whigs, democrats, Free-Soilers, and abolitionists joined to form the Republican Party.
    • United against the spread of slavery in the West
    • The Democrats who supported the Kansas-Nebraska debate was not re-elected
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin sought to speak out against the act of slavery in the Southern states, reaching its message to hundreds of thousands of abolitionists.
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854: Stephen Douglas introduced a bill in Congress to divide the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase into Kansas and Nebraska
    • Southern support and Northerners assisted in the bill’s passing
    • People from Missouri voted in the Kansas territorial legislature elections of 1855 in an effort to influence the act’s outcome.
  • 1855 - Bleeding Kansas: violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory
    • John Brown: an abolitionist who killed five pro-slavery men in the Pottawatomie Massacre, causing a collapse in the territory
  • 1857 - Dred Scott v. Sandford: The U.S. Supreme Court stated that all African-American slaves or free citizens are not citizens of the United States (aliens, to be exact)
    • Reaction: The ruling stumped many abolitionists and Northerners, especially Abraham Lincoln, who was then running for the U.S. Senate.
  • 1858 - Lincoln Douglas Debates: Lincoln stressed the central issue of the campaign of slavery in the West (“half slave and half free”)
    • A House Divided Speech: A reference to Matthew 12:25, Lincoln explains that different ideas to solve the slavery issue will eventually create even larger controversies that will affect the nation in a negative manner. Ironically, Stephen Douglas won the Senate debate, but that will change in the Election of 1861 when Lincoln wins presidency.
    • Rise of Lincoln:
  • 1859 - Raid on Harpers Ferry: John Brown and his men raided the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
    • Unfortunately, slaves were not able to join the uprising since federal troops captured Brown and his men. They were tried, convicted of treason, murder, and conspiracy, and executed by hanging.
  • 1860 - Election of 1860: Abraham Lincoln won the Electoral College with less than 40% of the popular vote nationwide, ticking off the Southerners