1. Compromise of 1850
Compromise that made California a free state. Allowed for popular sovereignty in Utah and New Mexico Territories. Also added the fugitive slave laws. No one was completely happy with the compromise but it held the country together for about a decade.

2. Fugitive Slave Act
Law that required northerners to return escaped slaves to the south. Angered northern abolitionists who were against slavery.
Southerners used it as an excuse to collect any African Americans and bring them back south (even free blacks).

3. Uncle Tom’s Cabin
This novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe was a best seller in the north. It gave readers a glimpse into slave life. Northern readers were horrified to learn how slaves were treated. This convinced many to become abolitionists.
Southerners claimed the novel greatly exaggerated the facts and was nothing more than propaganda against the plantation system. The book was banned throughout the south. Even so, the book was the 2nd most popular book of the 19th century following only the Bible.
Harriet Beecher Stowe

4. Kansas – Nebraska Act
This was a compromise created by Stephen Douglass. It called for popular sovereignty to decide the issue of slavery.
This meant the people in the territories would get to vote to decide whether to be free or slave states.
Stephen Douglass

5. “Bleeding Kansas”
Southerners began moving into the Kansas Territory to vote to make slavery legal in Kansas. This angered the large abolitionist population of Kansas. It resulted in a great deal of violence between the two sides. Some of the most noteworthy acts were commited by John Brown and his followers.
John Brown

6. Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott was a slave who sued for his freedom. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court.
The court not only ruled that he was not free. It went on to claim that slaves were not protected by the constitution and could never be citizens.
It further stated that the federal government had no right to regulate slavery which meant states and territories were free to engage in slavery.
The south was elated about the decision but the north was outraged.
Dred Scott
Chief Justice Roger Taney

7. Raid on Harper’s Ferry, VA
John Brown planned to raid the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, VA. After seizing the weapons, he planned to arm as many slaves as he could to raise a slave army to fight and free the slaves.
The slaves never came and President Buchanan sent in the Marines to put down the attack. Brown and his followers were captured. John Brown was put on trial and later hanged.
Brown’s death upset Northern abolitionists and increased the divide between the north and south.

8. Election of Lincoln
Lincoln ran as a Republican candidate for president. Lincoln was against the expansion of slavery into the territories. Southern states threatened to secede if Lincoln was elected because they believed he would try to take away their right to own slaves.

9. Firing on Fort Sumter