1. Unit 3: Civil War

2. Timeline 1850: The Compromise of 1850
CA enters as a free state, slavery allowed in Utah & New Mexico territories
Fugitive Slave Law: Escaped slaves must be returned to their owners
1852: Uncle Tom’s Cabin published
1854: Kansas-Nebraska Act
The people who live in the Kansas & Nebraska territories would decide if they are slave or free states
Lincoln was a lawyer in Illinios. He gives a speech denouncing the Kansas-Nebraska Act & calls slavery immoral.
Lincoln advocated against spreading slavery to the new territories in hopes that this would preserve the Union & see slavery die out over time by being confined to just the Southern states.

3. Nebraska Territory Kansas TerritoryME OR VT MN NH WI NY MA MI CT RI IA PA
Utah Territory NJ OH IL IN MD DE
Kansas Territory WV CA VA MO KY NC TN
New Mexico Territory AR SC AL GA MS TX LA FL

4. Timeline 1856: Senator Charles Sumner beaten in the Senate
1851: Sumner elected to the Senate (Free-Soiler)
He campaigned against what he saw as southern aggression on the slavery issue
As North-South tensions heightened, so did Sumner’s rhetoric. In his Crime against Kansas speech, delivered in May 1856, he lambasted southern efforts to extend slavery into Kansas and attacked his colleague, Andrew P. Butler of South Carolina
Butler’s cousin, Congressman Preston Brooks, assaulted Sumner on the Senate floor
He spent three and a half years recovering from the beating

5. Timeline 1856: The Dred Scott decision
Dred & Harriet Scott sue for their freedom b/c owners moved them to WI (a free territory)
Decision:
US govt. can’t take away a citizen’s property w/o compensation (5th Amendment)
US govt. can’t call Scott free b/c don’t have the authority to ban slavery in territories
Dred Scott is a slave & therefore not a citizen so he cannot sue
Abolitionists outraged, empowered Republican Party, & fueled violence btwn slaveowners & abolitionists

6. 1860 Presidential Election
Stephen Douglass (N. Democrats): supported popular sovereignty (states decide)
John C Breckinridge (S. Democrats): pro-slavery
John Bell (Constitutional Union): avoided the issue altogether
Abraham Lincoln (Republicans): opposed slavery
Lincoln wins with less than 40% of the popular vote (all from the North)
Lincoln had run against Douglass before – in the 1859 Senate race in Illinois – Lincoln lost