# data[].attributes.body
-Carisma Pereira
*The Compromise of 1850 is five laws  that dealt with the issue of slavery and territorial expansion. *The Compromise of 1850 acted as a temporary truce on the issue of slavery, primarily addressing the status of newly acquired territory after the Mexican-American War.
* California was admitted to the Union as a free state.
*A strict new Fugitive Slave Act compelled citizens of free states to assist in capturing enslaved people.
*New territories of Utah and New Mexico would permit white residents to decide whether to allow slavery.

*The Compromise did not resolve the issue of slavery’s expansion instead further polarized the North and the South.

# data[].attributes.body
-Carisma Pereira
*Uncle Tom' Cabin is a novel by  Harriet Beecher Stowe an American abolitionist.
*Novel is said to have been one of the main causes of the Civil War.
*Uncle Tom's Cabin is about the horrors of slavery in the deep South.

# data[].attributes.body
-Carisma Pereira
* The Kansas-Nebraska Act organized two new territories in the land acquired through the Louisiana Purchase, Kansas and Nebraska.
*The Act repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which drew the horizontal line of slavery across the West along the 36° 30' parallel, as both Kansas and Nebraska were north of this line.
*The South were growing resentful of the Missouri Compromise, which established the 36° 30' parallel as the geographical boundary of slavery.
*Slaveholders entrenched themselves in defense of their “way of life,” which depended on the ownership of slaves, while also claiming that prohibiting slavery’s expansion ran counter to basic American property rights.

# data[].attributes.body
Bleeding Kansas
-Taylor Kellum
Both slave holders and free soilers wanted to win Kansas,  violence between the two groups broke out became known a bleeding Kansas. Thus resulting in two legislature. The proslavery legislature in Lecompton, Kansas. An abolitionist government was developed in Topeka, Kansas. Casualties occurred on both sides, furthering sectional divide and tensions in America prior to the Civil war.

# data[].attributes.body
Emergence of Republican Party
-Taylor Kellum
The Republican Party emerged in 1854 to fight the Kansas Nebraska Act, and the expansion of slavery across the nation.

The Whig party had ended. The republican party included members of the know nothing party, former anti slavery Whigs, and nativist.

The Republican Free Soil Platform sought to protect the jobs, and competition of free wage workers in America. Slavery was a threat to available work. The republican party was not against slavery but for economic endeavors of the American people.
The Republican party was the opposition to slave holders.
This caused enslavers to fear being out of power and loosing government control.

The sectional division over the further expansion of slavery contributed to the civil war, with  pro-slavery democrats in the south and free soil republicans in the north.

# data[].attributes.body
Caning of Senator Sumner
-Taylor Kellum
Mass Senator Charles Sumner attacked democratic party for inaction during a speech.

Two days later, Preston Brooks, nephew of a Democratic South Carolina Senator was angry, and beat up Senator Sumner

This significantly contributed to the country's polarization over the issue of slavery, and violence that led to the civil war.

# data[].attributes.body
Dred Scott v. Sanford
-Hailey Thornton
Dred Scott v. Sanford was a case held in the Supreme Court to decide whether Dred and Harriet Scott should be freed from slavery. The Scotts brought the argument that the Scotts had lived in a free state, Minnesota, and therefore should be free, using the old Northwest Ordinance and Missouri Compromise to back the case.

However, the Supreme Court's decision deemed the freedom provision under the Northwest Ordinance unconstitutional, meaning the Scotts could not obtain freedom based on that. On top of that, the Court also declared that the Scotts were not a citizen of any state, and therefore did not have any rights. This translated into all African Americans in the United States having no rights, and being deemed property, because of this decision.

The result of this case was not only the loss of the Scotts, but also further division in the United States between Northern and Southern states.

# data[].attributes.body
Lincoln Douglas Debates
-Hailey Thornton
The debates between political opponents Republican Abraham Lincoln and the Democratic Stephen Douglas, were carried out during the Illinois senatorial election in 1858. These debates Lincoln and Douglas agreed to have largely revolved around the topics of the extension of slavery into territories following the Kansas Nebraska act which had been proposed by Stephen Douglas, and the intense division in the country.

Lincoln's stance was that the country could not endure being split by slavery perpetually, but Douglas would twist this view as being fully pro slavery, and a danger to the union.

An important piece that came from these debates was the Freeport Doctrine presented by Douglas when asked if slavery could still be limited in spite of the Dred Scott ruling in 1857 by Lincoln. Douglas strongly believed in popular sovereignty and said yes, stating that territories and states can create laws that defy Federal Laws. This idea led to Douglas losing trust and popularity in the South.

By the end of these debates Stephen Douglas was successful in retaining his seat in the Senate and the democratic party being further split. Lincoln however had gained popularity as a great spokesman for the Republican party and became a much more prominent National figure.

# data[].attributes.headline
1859:  John Brown's Raid at Harper's Ferry (Reina)

# data[].attributes.subject
1859:  John Brown's Raid at Harper's Ferry (Reina)

# data[].attributes.body
John Brown's Raid at Harper's Ferry was an attempt to have enslaved people raid the federal arsenal in Harper's Ferry Virginia. The attempted raid was led by John Brown who was an abolitionist.  Brown was strongly against slavery, and after years of trying to peacefully get Americans to realize that slavery should be abolished, Brown came to a conclusion that violence was the only solution. Brown planned to steal the guns from the federal arsenal and give them to the enslaved people of Virginia so that the enslaved people could start a revolt against their masters. Brown's plan was not successful however, and after only two days Robert E. Lee stopped Brown and his followers and Brown and his followers were tried for treason. The result of this trial was the hanging on John Brown and an increased division between the North and the South. Some abolitionists saw John Brown as a martyr, while some disapproved of his use of violence. Southerners saw the Brown's raid as Northerners trying to use slaves to destroy the South completely. Because the South thought the Northerners were trying to use slaves to destroy them, hostility between the North and South festered and increased.

# data[].attributes.body
During the Election of 1860 the Democratic party was divided.  Many delegates from the slave states that were apart of the Democratic party no longer supported the party and left.  The Democrats were split over the issue of slavery.  Northern Democrats thought that slavery should be abolished and the Southern Democrats wanted to expand slavery into the new territories.  Typically Northern Democrats supported a national government, while Southern Democrats supported states government and more state's rights.  Stephen Douglas and Herschel Johnson would represent the Democrats.  The Republican Party was against the expansion of slavery into the territories, and some Republicans wanted slavery abolished altogether.  The Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln.  A new political party was formed in an attempt to stop the Republicans from winning.  This party was called the Constitutional Union Party, which was made up of former Know-Nothings, Whigs, and moderate Democrats.  Their presidential candidate was John Bell.  Lincoln won the votes of every free state in the north and won the presidential election.  Lincoln however was a minority president since he only one 39.8% of the popular vote.  Lincoln's victory made Southerners fear that the Northerners would take over the federal government and abolish slavery for good.

# data[].attributes.body
-Taylor Kellum
Lincoln's victory propelled the rapid movement of states to secede in the south.

South Carolina was the first to secede prior to Lincoln's inaugural address.
Within six weeks Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas followed.

The goal of secession was to protect slavery. In order to do so they formed the Confederate States of America.

They mimicked the US government and tariff policies.

Jefferson Davis was named president of the Confederacy.

However Abraham Lincoln was not tolerating a divided country and prepared to get the south back at all cost. Thus the civil war began.

# data[].attributes.body
The Battle of Fort Sumter is known as the first shots or the start of the Civil War. Fort Sumter is located in Charleston, South Carolina. On January 9th, 1961 a ship sailed to Charleston to drop off supplies to Fort Sumter. The militia of South Carolina fired upon the ship, forcing it to turn back and never make it to Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter was a federal fort in South Carolina, one of the states that seceded from the Union. Fort Sumter was cut off by Southern control of the harbor, and Major Anderson who refused to abandon Fort Sumter. There were over 3,000 militia troops surrounding or besieging Fort Sumter by March 1861. At this time Abraham Lincoln became president, and he announced that he would send three unarmed ships to relieve Fort Sumter. Anderson refused to surrender the fort, and P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire on the fort. In response, Abner Doubleday fired back, and the Civil War began. Confederate forces captured Fort Sumter after two days of fighting, and this victory united the Confederacy. Because of this, the North was determined to unite and was patriotic in saving the Union. Multiple military facilities in the South had been seized by the Union prior to Fort Sumter, and the confederacy saw Fort Sumter as one of their major ports that they had to protect and fight for. The fight of the Confederacy and the clash with the Union sparked the Civil War at Fort Sumter.