Chapter 10 and 11 of AMERICA History of Our Nation

In 1846, David Wilmot of Pennsylvania proposed that Congress ban slavery in all territory that might become part of the United States as a result of the Mexican-American War.

People in the territory or state would vote diretly on issues, rather than having their elected representatives decide.

In August 1848, antislavery Whigs and Democrats joined forces to form a new party. It called for the territory gained in the Mexican-American War to be free soil

Southern leaders threatened to do this because they feared that if free states gained a majority in the Senate, the South would not be able to block antislavery attacks.

Northerners wanted the slave trade abolished while Southerners called for a law that would force the return of these runaway people.

In January 1850, this Kentucky senator stepped forward with a plan to calm the antislavery debate. His Compromise of 1850 was passed as five bills in September.

A South Carolina senator against compromise. He believed that the only two ways to preserve slavery was the protection of states' rights or secession

A Massachusetts senator who argues for Clay's compromise to preserve the Union

In September 1850, five bills were passed to attempt to preserve the Union. Zachary Taylor opposed it, but Millard Fillmore signed it after Taylor's death.

California was admitted as a free state to please the North in the Compromise of 1850. To please the South, this act allowed special government officials to arrest any person accused of being a runaway slave. Suspects had no right to trial. They only had to be claimed

She published Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852, shocking many Northerners into supporting antislavery, but Southerners claimed it was propaganda.

Franklin Pierce signed this bill in 1852 which undid the Missouri Compromise. It proposed that slavery in new territories could be decided by popular sovereignty.

This senator suggested forming the Kansas and Nebraska Territories. He proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act to win over the Southerners

An antislavery settler from Connecticut who led seven men to a proslavery settlement to murder five men and boys. In 1859, he led men and slaves in a revolt against Harpers Ferry in Virginia.He was hanged for treason on December 2, 1859.

Thousands illegally voted in the election to select a territorial legislature Antislavery settlers demanded a second election. In April, a proslavery sheriff was shot while trying to arrest antislavery settlers.