The Road to Disunion by Sierra Turner

Josiah C & Morgan-Compromise of 1850

2025-04-03 17:25:28 UTC

In 1850 Henry Clay, a senator from Kentucky, caused a group of laws to be passed in Congress. The goal was to ease the tension between the Northern and Southern states over slavery. There were 5 parts to the compromise.

California would be added to the Union as a free state.
The territories of New Mexico and Utah could vote on slavery.
The Boundary between Texas and New Mexico would be finalized.
A stricter fugitive slaw law would be enacted.
The slave trade would be illegal in Washington, DC.

Caleb and Austin - The gag rule

CalebFelker — 2025-04-03 17:27:05 UTC

A gag rule is a law or rule that prohibits people from discussing a particular event. It is called a gag rule because it acts like a real gag would. The 1834 gag rule prohibited the discussion of slavery. This did not prevent the American Anti-Slavery Society from continuing to speak out against slavery. Hundreds of thousands of petitions were made to end slavery.

Sam H - 8 - The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

2025-04-03 17:29:39 UTC

1858 Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln running for the U.S. Senate. Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of debates, one of which was slavery. Newspapers covered the debates and people everywhere read the arguments. Lincoln lost the election for senator, but newspaper coverage made him famous. Two years later Lincoln runs for president.

Eliot and Elle: The Missouri Compromise - 1820

2025-04-03 17:30:22 UTC

Proposed by Henry Clay, the Missouri Compromise solved the problem of Missouri and Maine being a free or slave state. When Maine applied for statehood as a free state, Congress argued because it would upset the balance of free and slave states. Not long after, Missouri also applied to be a state, so the Missouri Compromise made Missouri a slave state and Maine a free state to solve the problem.

Josiah C & Morgan

2025-04-03 17:30:54 UTC

The Kansas-Nebraska Act was proposed by Senator Stephen Douglas on May 30, 1854, as a way to decide whether slavery would be legal in Kansas and Nebraska. The law was passed, and popular sovereignty was decided. This meant that both territories would vote to determine whether slavery was legal or not. Many antislavery and proslavery settlers migrated to these areas to vote.

Narek and Josiah: The election of 1860

2025-04-03 17:33:34 UTC

The Democratic party divided. While the southerns wanted slavery to go into all territories, the Democratic party refused. With some of the delegates from the south leaving, they divided to Stephen Douglas, was supported popular sovereignty. The Republican party easily chose Abraham Lincoln. He was the only man who wanted the end slavery. Before the election even happened, Southern leaders threatened to leave the states if Lincoln won. Even before Lincoln inauguration, seven states left the union. The civil war was coming.

1831 - Nat Turner's Rebellion

sturner53 — 2025-04-03 17:33:36 UTC

Nat Turner, born into slavery in 1800, was an African American who led the most effective slave rebellion in American history. Turner learned to read as a boy, and he also became very religious. He was sold to different plantations twice as a young man. In 1831 he began to believe that God had called on him to lead a slave rebellion.

Turner and seven other enslaved people killed the family that owned them and then marched to the city of Jerusalem, Virginia, where they planned to capture an armory. Approximately 75 other African Americans joined the rebellion. Over the next two days and nights, they murdered about 60 white people. Local armed citizens and a state militia force of about 3,000 men stopped the rebellion, although it took about 6 weeks to capture Turner. He was quickly tried, convicted, and hanged.

Turner’s rebellion was significant because it ended the myth that slaves were happy with their lives and unlikely to rebel. This realization led many Southern states to pass laws making it illegal for slaves to be educated and forbidding them from assembling in large groups.

Jordy and Lily - Dred Scott Decision of 1857

2025-04-03 17:34:20 UTC

A man named Dred Scott was enslaved in Missouri, where slavery was legal. John Emerson, the owner, took Dred with him when he moved to Illinois then to Wisconsin Territory. Neither of these locations allowed slavery, but Dred and his family were kept as slaves. The owner died and Dred moved back to Missouri, where he tried to sue Emerson's family for their freedom, due to his departure from two states that outlawed slavery. His case went to the Supreme Court in 1857. In 1820 the Missouri Compromise was passed, which stated that the new states in the North would be free. When Dred's case arrived at the court, it was decided that the Missouri Compromise was "unconstitutional". This meant that Dred Scott would still be enslaved and was an obvious defeat for the abolitionists.

Uncle Tom's Cabin published by Harriet Beecher Stowe - 1851/1852

sturner53 — 2025-04-03 17:35:22 UTC

Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that was published in serial form in 1851 and 1852. The novel tells the story of the hardships that enslaved people faced, and it was one factor that contributed to the tensions and sectionalism between the North and the South before the Civil War. By personalizing the story of slavery and showing its impact on families, the book influenced many Americans to oppose slavery. It also angered many Southerners, who accused Stowe of making up an unrealistic, biased image of slavery. A legend says that when Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe, he commented that she was the little woman whose book started the great war. It is uncertain whether or not the president actually said this, but Uncle Tom’s Cabin did have an important impact on the debate over slavery in the years that led up to the war.

Sawyer B - 1828 - Tariff Of Abominations

2025-04-03 17:35:58 UTC

In 1828 America launched a tariff on imported goods. The purpose of the tariff was to increase sales of U.S.-made products by making foreign products more expensive. However they made it so the sales were raised up to 100%. It allowed northern manufacturers to sell there goods for an updated higher price and made them rich from selling these high priced goods. When foreign countries sold less of their products in the United States, they had less income with which to buy Southern cotton. That is why the tariff was nicknamed the Tariff of Abominations.

Narek and Josiah Nullification Crisis 1830

2025-04-03 17:36:00 UTC

The South Carolina House of Representatives created a response to the 1828 tariffs. Vice President John C. Calhoun wrote that a tax-supported industry at the expense of other sections in the country was an abuse of power. He argued that the states had the right to nullify federal laws if they were believed to be unconstitutional by the states. In 1830, a senator from Connecticut wanted to limit the sales of federal lands in western states. South Carolina Senator Robert Hayne argued that states should have control of the land within the borders instead of the federal government. After arguments, South Carolina passed a law nullifying the tariff prohibiting its enforcement. The nullification went into effect in 1833. The crisis ended when Henry Clay helped to broker a second compromise, causing Congress to reduce the tariff. However, South Carolina repealed the nullification law.

"Bleeding Kansas" & John Brown's attack

sturner53 — 2025-04-03 17:51:31 UTC

In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This law was introduced by Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois. The act created two new territories. It also opened up this land to settlement. According to the Missouri Compromise, slavery should have been prevented in Kansas and Nebraska. Instead, the Kansas-Nebraska Act canceled, or did away with, the Missouri Compromise. The act said the question of slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty. Almost overnight, proslavery and antislavery activists streamed into Kansas. They hoped to affect the outcome of the vote. It did not take long for violence to break out. A proslavery group attacked antislavery forces in Lawrence, Kansas. They burned a hotel, destroyed printing presses, and killed a man.

In revenge, John Brown led an attack on proslavery men in Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas. Brown and his group murdered five men and boys. Brown was an extreme abolitionist. He felt he had a personal mission to stop slavery. A war of revenge erupted. Proslavery forces fought antislavery forces. The newspapers referred to Kansas as “Bleeding Kansas.” Before the violence was over, 200 people were dead.

October 16, 1859, Brown led a group of 21 men on a raid of a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He wanted to capture weapons that could be used to start a slave revolt. Brown and his followers took about 60 people hostage, but U.S. Marines eventually forced them to surrender. Brown was taken prisoner and later convicted of treason, murder, and inciting enslaved people to rebel. He was hanged for these crimes on December 2, 1859.

When the dust settled, Kansas joined the Union as a free state. By this time, the Civil War had begun in 1861.