Download Key Events Leading to the Civil War

Key Events Leading to the Civil War
Directions: Complete the chart by filling in the missing information. The information in the column labeled “Significance” should explain how the
event/legislation contributed to the coming of the Civil War.
Description
A two-part compromise reached in 1820. Missouri
would be allowed to join the Union as a slave state, but at the same time,
Maine which had been part of Massachusetts would be admitted as a free
state. This preserved the delicate slave-free balance in the Senate.
Second, a line was drawn across Louisiana Territory at the latitude of 36
degrees, 30 minutes. With the exception of Missouri, slavery would not
be allowed north of the line.
Between 1846 and 1848, the United States and Mexico went to war. By
the war's end, Mexico lost nearly half of its territory, the present
American Southwest from Texas to California, and the United States
became a continental power.
Wilmot Proviso
MexicanAmerican
War
Missouri
Compromise
Event or
Legislation
On August8, 1846, David Wilmot, a young Democratic representative
from Pennsylvania serving his first term in Congress, attached to an
appropriations bill a provision that slavery be excluded from any territory
acquired from Mexico. It carried in the House of Representatives along
sectional lines but died in the Senate. The Wilmot Proviso would be
brought forward in subsequent sessions of Congress where it often
passed in the House but not in the Senate.
Compromise of
1850
Date
A compromise reached in 1850 where California would be admitted to
the Union as a free state. Other territories in the Southwest would be
organized without mention of slavery. The slave trade in the District of
Columbia would be abolished, but the federal government would pass a
strong fugitive slave law to prevent escaped slaves from being declared
free. The federal government would also assume the debts Texas
incurred before it was annexed to the United States.
Significance – How might this event lead to rising
tensions between the North and South?
Date
Event/Legislation
Fugitive Slave Act
Description
The Fugitive Slave Act mandated the return of runaway
slaves, regardless of where in the Union they might be
situated at the time of their discovery or capture. It required
citizens to assist in the recovery of fugitive slaves.
Kansas-Nebraska
Act
When the territories of Kansas and Nebraska applied for
statehood in 1854, Congress repealed the Missouri
Compromise, and passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The
Kansas-Nebraska Act left the question of slavery up to the
“popular sovereignty” of the settlers of the two territories to
decide.
Dred Scott was a St. Louis slave trying to win his freedom
from the courts because he was a citizen of Missouri and
because of his travels with his master in free territory like
Illinois and Wisconsin until his master’s death in 1846. When
the state court decided against him, he and his lawyers
appealed to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney
ruled first that neither free blacks nor enslaved blacks were
citizens so could not sue in federal courts. The Justice also
ruled that the Illinois law banning slavery had no force over
Scott after he returned to Missouri, where slavery was
allowed. Also the Court ruled that the Wisconsin Territory
laws had no force either, because the Missouri Compromise
that outlawed slavery in the territory was unconstitutional
Dred Scott Decision
th
John Brown and
Harper’s Fairy
based on the 5 Amendment, which prohibits the government
from depriving people of property and liberty without due
process of law.
On October 16, 1859, the radical abolitionist John Brown led
a raid with twenty-one followers against Harper’s Ferry,
Virginia, in and effort to obtain arms for a slave rebellion.
th
Federal troops took control of the arsenal on October 17 and
Brown was charged with treason, conspiracy and murder. He
was convicted and hanged by the state of Virginia. Brown
became a martyr.
Significance
Lincoln’s Election
Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate is elected
President of the United States.
Fort Sumter
Decades of growing strife between North and South erupted
in civil war on April 12, 1861, when Confederate artillery
opened fire on this Federal fort in Charleston Harbor. Fort
Sumter surrendered 34 hours later. Union forces would try for
nearly four years to take it back.