-
Six laws known as the Compromise of 1850 were designed to reduce conflicts between slave and free states. The boundary between Texas New Mexico was established, California was accepted as a free state, Utah New Mexico were granted popular sovereignty, Texas's debt was taken on by the federal government. It also created a stricter Fugitive Slave Law and outlawed the slave trade in Washington, D.C. These actions were supported by Stephen A. Douglas and Henry Clay to maintain the Union. -
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s bestselling novel, exposing the brutality and moral horror of slavery. Many Northerners became more supportive of abolition by learning about the hardships endured by enslaved people. The South were offended by the book because they believed it presented an inaccurate and exaggerated image of slavery. Divisions increased as a result of its immense popularity, bringing the country even closer to war. -
Under a system known as popular sovereignty, the Kansas–Nebraska Act gave residents in Kansas + Nebraska the right to vote on whether or not toallowslavery. It reopened the expansion of slavery into formerly free territories by overturning the Missouri Compromise. Pro-slavery and anti-slavery organizations poured into Kansas, causing bloody conflicts known as "Bleeding Kansas." Political parties were split apart, national tensions rose, and the Republican Party emerged as a result. -
Charles Sumner was a Massachusetts senator and a vocal opponent of slavery. Senator Brooks of South Carolina violently assaulted Sumner on the Senate floor following his two-day address denouncing pro-slavery forces in Kansas and denouncing Brooks's pro-slavery uncle. The attack stunned the country and served as a powerful symbol for how deeply divided the nation and the government had become over slavery. -
The Dred Scott decision (1857) involved an enslaved man who sued for freedom after living on free soil. The Supreme Court decided that African Americans could not file lawsuits in federal courts because they were not citizens. Additionally, it overturned the Missouri Compromise by stating that Congress lacked the authority to outlaw slavery in the territories. The decision was criticized by Northerners as a pro-slavery rule that increased tensions between the various sections.