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Where plantation farmers bought and sold African Americans, or slaves to do their hard work with no pay and poor living quality.

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A Missouri slave sued for his freedom, claiming that his four year stay in the northern portion of the Louisiana Territory made free land by the Missouri Compromise had made him a free man. The U.S. supreme Court decided he could not sue in federal court because he was property, not a citizen.

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American Presidential Election held on Nov. 6, 1860, in which Abe Lincoln defeated southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas and Constitutional union candidate John Bell.

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The force of events moved very quickly upon the election of Lincoln. South Carolina acted first, calling for a convection to secede from the union. State by state convection were held, and the confederacy was formed. Within 3 months of Lincoln's election, 7 states had seceded from the union.

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A series of debates between Republican Abe Lincoln and Democrat Stephen Douglas during the 1858 U.S. Senate campaign in Illinois.

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Sound Smart: The Lincoln-Douglass Debates | History

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Henry Clay allowed California to enter the union as a free state and divided the rest of the Mexican cession into 2 territories where slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty.

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Was am effort by abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arson.

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We went to Harpers Ferry to find out what abolitionist John Brown was thinking when he attacked the Federal Arsenal in October of 1859. He was trying to liberate an arsenal of 100,000 rifles stored here. He hoped ot incite a slave rebellion and arm the resistance. He failed and was hanged.

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An agreement proposed by Henry Clay that allowed Missouri to enter the union as a slave and outlawed slavery in any territories or States North of 36 30' Latitude.

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Murder of 5 men from a pro-slavery settlement on Pottawatomie Creek, Franklin County, Kan., U.S by an antislavery party led by the abolitionist John Brown and composed largely of men of his family.

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The nation formed by the southern states when they seceded from the union, also known as the Confederacy.

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The boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania taken as the northern limit of the slave-owning states before the abolition of slavery.

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A law that allowed voters in Kansas and Nebraska to choose whether to allow slavery.

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A network of secret routes and safe houses to helped enslaved people escape to the north.

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Skip to Main Content

Underground Railroad: The William Still Story

Special | 55m 28s | Video has closed captioning.

Underground Railroad: The Williams Still Story is the story of a humble Philadelphia clerk who risked his life shepherding runaway slaves to freedom in the tumultuous years leading up to America’s Civil War. William Still was the director of a complex network of abolitionists, sympathizers and safe houses that stretched from Philadelphia to what is now Southern Ontario.

Aired: 02/05/12

Rating: TV-PG

Funding provided by CN Railway, Rogers Cable Network, Canada Media Fund, and Rogers Documentary Fund. Additional support from David W. Pretty, Vernon Achber & Phil Lind, and CPB.

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Underground Railroad: The William Still Story

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Underground Railroad: The William Still Story Underground Railroad: The Williams Still Story is the story of a humble Philadelphia clerk who risked his life shepherding runaway slaves to freedom in the tumultuous years leading up to America's Civil War.

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Made it a crime to help runaway slaves and allowed officials to arrest those slaves in the free areas.

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The idea that political power belongs to the people who should decide on banning or allowing slavery.