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The wilmot proviso was an amendment to an 1846 military appropriations bill, proposing that none of the territory acquired in the war with Mexico would be open to slavery. It divided Congress along regionals lines. Northerners feared that adding slave territory would give slave states more members in Congress and deny economic opportunity to free workers. Southerners as expected opposed the proviso and feared that if the wilmot proviso became law, the inevitable addition of new free states to the Union would shift the balance of power.

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This was a series of congressional measures intended to settle the major disagreements between free states an slave states. Henry Clay’s compromise contained provisions to appease both the northerners and southerners. For the North, the compromise provided that California be admitted to the union as a Free State. For the South, the compromise proposed a new and more effective fugitive slave law.

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- this was a system in which the residents from within formed to address an issue
-appealed to both north and south
-northerners were pleased because it limited slavery in Texas to within its current borders
-southerners were pleased because the money would help delay Texas’s expenses and debts from the war with Mexico

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- main component of the compromise of 1850
-it was a law that enacted as part of the Compromise of 1850, designed to ensure that escaped
-alleged fugitives were not entitled to a trial by jury
-Nor could fugitives testify on their own behalf
-a statement by a slave owner was all that was requiered to have a slave returned

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Free African Americans and white abolitionists developed a secret network of people who would aid fugitive slaves in their escape. This network became known as the Underground Railroad that were secret tunnels leading them to safe territories or Canada. One of the most famous conductors was Harriet Tubman born a slave in 1820 who suffered a severe head injury when a plantation overseer hit her with a lead weight. In 1849, Tubman’s owner died and decided to maje a break for freedom reaching Philadelphia. She made 19 trips back to the south and helped 300 slaves flee to freedom. Neither Tubman nor the slaves she helped were ever captured.

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On January 23, 1854, Douglas introduced a bill in congress to divide the area into two territories: Nebraska in the north and Kansas in the south. It would repeal the Missouri Compromise and establish popular sovereignty for both territories.After months of struggle the Kansas-Nebraska Act became law in May 1854. All eyes turned westward as the fate of the new territories hung in the balance.

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John Brown an abolitionist who believed that God had called on him to fight slavery received the news from Lawrence and was set for revenge. On May 24th him and his followers pulled five men from Pottawatomie Creek and brutally killed them. It became the bloody shirt that pro slavery Kansas settlers waved in summoning attacks of free-soilers. This triggered dozens of incidents throughout Kansas and began calling the territory Bleeding Kansas

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Dred Scott and Dred Scott Decision (Supreme Court Case)

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Dred Scott and Dred Scott Decision (Supreme Court Case)

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Dred Scott a slave from Missouri who’s owner had taken him to the north of the Missouri Compromise line in 1834. For four years they had lived in free territory in Illinois and Wisconsin. After his owner died he began a lawsuit to gain his freedom claiming that he had become a free person by living in free territory for several years. On march 6, 1857 Supreme Coyrt Chief Justice handed down the decision ruling that slaves did not have the rights of citizens and had no claim to freedom. The court ruled that the Missouri compromise was unconstitutional.

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In 1858 people witnessed the start of Illinois’s greatest political contests, the race for the U.S. senate between Douglas and challenger Lincoln. Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of seven open-air debates to be held throughout Illinois on the issue of slavery. Douglas believed in popular sovereignty where as Lincoln believed that slavery was immoral. Lincoln tried to make Douglas look like a defender of slavery and of the Dred Scott decision.

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-while politicians debated the slavery issue, John Brown was studying the slave uprising that had occurred in Ancient Rome and Haiti
- On the night of October 16, 1859, he led a band of 21 men, into Harpers Ferry, Virginia
-Sixty of the town’s prominent citizens were held hostage by Brown who hoped that their slaves would join the insurrection
- Brown hated slavery with all his heart

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In addition to Lincoln the Democratic Party split over the issues of slavery. Northern democrats backed Stephen Douglas and his doctrine of popular sovereignty. Southern Democrats backed John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. Others which ignored the issue of slavery together nominated John Bell. Lincoln emerged as the winner, carrying every free state but not even appearing on the ballot in most of the slave states.

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- it was an island in Charleston harbor
-one of the only two southern forts that remained in the Union hands
-confederate soldiers immediately began taking over federal installations in their states, especially forts