The Compromise of 1850 established harsher fugitive slave laws that turned many Northerners against slavery and strengthened the abolitionist movement. Tensions further increased over the Kansas-Nebraska Act and "Bleeding Kansas", the 1856 election of Republican Lincoln, and the Dred Scott decision allowing the expansion of slavery into new territories. By 1860 the nation was polarized, leading Southern states to secede after Lincoln's election but before he took office, forming the Confederate States of America.

2.  The first, big dividing event of the 1850s
was the Compromise of 1850. While the
South got more things in the
Compromise, it ultimately hurt them – the
harsher fugitive slave laws made many
Northerners become fierce abolitionists
and cry against slavery.

3.  Federal commissioners
who handled fugitive
slave cases would
receive 5 dollars if the
fugitive was freed and
10 dollars if not – it was
essentially a bribe.
 In
addition, Northerners
who aided slaves
would be either
heavily fined or jailed.
 This turned many
Northerners to
abolitionists.

4.  The Republican Party
developed as a
moral outcry against
slavery. It emerged
in the Midwest and
included many
political parties, such
as Whigs, Free Soilers,
and Know-Nothings.

5.  Strapped for land for slavery, the South
looked to Cuba for land. The Ostend
Manifesto was the South’s document
attempting to get Cuba from Spain –
they offered $120 million for the island,
and if Spain refused, the US said they
had justification for war.
 The document leaked, and Northern
free-soilers and abolitionists became
even more enraged.

6.  The act split the
Nebraska territory to
Kansas and
Nebraska, and both
would be open to
popular sovereignty.
 This angered Northerners
who didn’t want popular
sovereignty in new
territories – they just
wanted slavery
abolished, so they didn’t
follow the Fugitive Slave
Laws.

7.  Abolitionists who didn’t
want Kansas to be open
to slavery flooded into
the state along with pro-
slavery southerners.
 Voting for a Constitution
with either slavery or
none, Abolitionists and
pro-slavery men fought
at the polls and held
each other at gunpoint.
Full scale battles even
broke out.

8.  Senator Charles Sumner, a leading
abolitionist, made a speech called “The Crime
Against Kansas.” He condemned pro-slavery
men, calling them vomit, and insulted one of
the most liked members of the Senate, Andrew
Butler of South Carolina.
 Preston Brooks of South Carolina angrily beat
Sumner with his cane in response, and Sumner
fell bleeding and unconscious.
 This incident furthered separation between
North and South – Northerners hated Brooks for
his actions whereas Southerners cheered him
on.

9.  The Democrats
nominated James
Buchanan, and the
new Republican party
nominated John
Fremont.
 Even though
Buchanan won,
Fremont managed to
get 38% of the
electoral vote. For just
a 2 year old party, it
was an impressive
feat.

10.  Dred Scott was a slave in Wisconsin who sued for
freedom since he’d lived there for 5 years.
 The Supreme Court ruled, since Dred Scott was a
slave and not a citizen, he couldn’t sue in federal
courts. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney also said that
since slaves were private property, they could be
taken into any territory and legally held there.
 Overall, it meant that Congress had no power to
ban slavery from the territories, regardless of what
the territories themselves wanted.
 This delighted Southerners, but not surprisingly,
infuriated Northerners and Republicans.

11.  Lincoln, Republican nominee for the Illinois
Senate seat, challenged Douglas to many joint
debates from August to October 1858.
 The most notable was at Freeport Illinois, where
Lincoln asked, what would happen if a territory
voted slavery to be abolished? Would the
people win, or would the Court’s ruling from
Dred Scott saying they could not win?
 Douglas said that slavery would stay down if
people voted it down – while technically always
true by Popular Sovereignty, Southerners hated
hearing it, and later split from Douglas and
formed their own southern Democratic party.

12.  At Harpers Ferry,
abolitionist John
Brown killed seven
people to attempt to
lead a rebellion, but
it failed, and he was
captured.
 Southerners viewed
as a murderous
traitor, and thought
the entire North was
like John Brown.

13.  The Democratic party split into 3 sections
(moderate, extreme, and compromise).
 Republican Abraham Lincoln won the
presidency with a solid 180 electoral
votes.
 In response, southern states, starting with
South Carolina, seceded from the Union
and made the Confederate States of
America before Lincoln could actually
take office in March.

14.  The Crittenden
Amendments were a
last-ditch effort to
save the country
from splitting. They
were designed to
appeal to the South.
 Lincoln flatly
rejected it – he
couldn’t agree to
more slavery in the
Union.