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The Missouri Compromise was an agreement that admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state to maintain balance in Congress. It also drew a line across the Louisiana Territory, prohibiting slavery north of the 36°30' latitude.

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The Wilmot Proviso was a proposal to ban slavery in any new territories acquired from Mexico after the Mexican-American War. Although it failed to pass, it intensified debates over the expansion of slavery.

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This series of laws admitted California as a free state, included a stricter Fugitive Slave Act, and allowed popular sovereignty in new territories. It aimed to resolve disputes over slavery’s expansion.

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Part of the Compromise of 1850, this law required citizens to assist in capturing runaway slaves and denied alleged fugitives a right to a jury trial.

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Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel depicted the brutal realities of slavery and galvanized abolitionist sentiments in the North.

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Henry Clay died from tuberculosis. He passed away on June 29, 1852, in Washington, D.C.  His death marked a turning point, symbolizing the decline of a spirit of compromise in American politics leading up to the Civil War.

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This act allowed settlers in Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery through popular sovereignty, effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise.

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A series of violent confrontations between pro- and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas, as both sides fought over the status of slavery in the territory.

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James Buchanan was elected president on a platform opposing abolitionist efforts, amid rising sectional tensions.

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The Supreme Court ruled that African Americans were not citizens and that Congress could not prohibit slavery in territories, effectively protecting slavery’s expansion.

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Abolitionist John Brown led a raid on Harper’s Ferry to incite a slave uprising, but was captured and executed.

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Abraham Lincoln was elected president without any support from the South, leading Southern states to fear abolition and secede from the Union.

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The Creation of the Confederate States of America (1861)

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The Creation of the Confederate States of America (1861)

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Following Lincoln’s election, eleven Southern states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederacy, leading to the outbreak of Civil War.

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The Trial of John Brown was the court case where abolitionist John Brown was tried for his role in leading an attack on a federal armory at Harpers Ferry in 1859, aiming to start a slave uprising. He was found guilty of treason, murder, and inciting a slave revolt, and was sentenced to death.