US History: Key Events and Figures
Key Events and Figures in US History
The Wilmot Proviso
This would prohibit slavery in any lands acquired from Mexico.
Popular Sovereignty
The idea of this would allow people in the territories to decide whether or not to permit slavery.
Free-Soil Party
This party’s stance on slavery infuriated John C. Calhoun.
Gold
The discovery of this in California did not create a population with an equal balance of men and women.
Zachary Taylor
His death strengthened the chance for compromise over slavery in 1850.
Compromise of 1850
This strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act.
Fugitive Slave Act
This law outraged abolitionists because it offered a strong temptation to kidnap free blacks in northern free states.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
She wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
This book outraged slave owners because it showed how the brutal realities of slavery harmed everyone associated with it.
Stephen Douglas
The Little Giant, who succeeded in getting the Compromise of 1850 passed by breaking it into separate proposals.
Whig Party
This collapsed because the strain of the Kansas-Nebraska Act pushed northern and southern members toward joining different parties.
Republican Party
This was created in 1854 by the merger of several anti-slavery groups and its presidential platform was not to end slavery.
Preston Brooks
His caning of Charles Sumner made him a hero in much of the south.
James Buchanan
One major reason he won the 1856 election was that the Democrats were the only remaining national party.
Dred Scott
The legal basis on which he sued for his freedom was that he claimed that living for extended periods in areas where slavery was forbidden made him free.
Lecompton Constitution
This was controversial because it allowed slavery even though a majority of residents opposed it.
Panic of 1857
This strengthened southern confidence in its cotton economy.
Harper’s Ferry
John Brown’s raid on this was intended to provoke slave insurrections.
Dred Scott Case
The ruling in this implied that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.
John Brown
Through his execution he became a martyr for the anti-slavery cause.
Abraham Lincoln
He won the election of 1860 by sweeping the free states.
Crittenden Compromise
This guaranteed continuance of slavery in the states where it then existed.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
It would essentially repeal the Missouri Compromise.
John C. Calhoun
Argued that congress needed to protect the right of slave owners to take their property into the territories.
Jefferson Davis
He was elected president of the Confederacy.
Millard Fillmore
This president supported the compromise of 1850.
William Seward
Lincoln’s major rival for republican presidential nomination.
Douglas – Lincoln Debate
During this, Lincoln did not state that he believed in racial equality.
Additional Information:
- In late 1849, Zachary Taylor wanted California’s immediate entry as a free state.