Crisis of the Union

With the end of the Mexican War in 1848 and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, America was ceded western territories. This posed a problem. As these new territories would be admitted as states, would they be free or slave states? To deal with this, Congress passed the Compromise of 1850, which basically made California free and allowed the people in Utah and New Mexico to choose for themselves. This ability of a state to decide whether it would allow slavery was called popular sovereignty.

Antislavery members of the Whig and Liberty parties join to form the Free Soil Party, which opposes the expansion of slavery into the newly acquired western territories. The party platform also calls for the federal government to provide free land to settlers in the West.

The Fugitive Slave Act was passed as part of the Compromise of 1850. This act forced any federal official who did not arrest a runaway slave to pay a fine. This was the most controversial part of the Compromise of 1850 and caused many abolitionists to increase their efforts against slavery. This act also prompted more activity along the Underground Railroad as fleeing slaves made their way to Canada.

"Uncle Tom's Cabin or Life Among the Lowly" was written in 1852 by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Stowe was an abolitionist who wrote this book to show the evils of slavery. The book became a best-seller and had a huge impact on the way that Northerners viewed slavery. It helped further the cause of abolition, and even Abraham Lincoln recognized that this book's publication was one of the events that led to the outbreak of the Civil War.

In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, allowing the Kansas and Nebraska territories to decide for themselves using popular sovereignty whether they wanted to be free or slave.

The Pottawatomie Massacre occurred on May 25, 1856. It was led by John Brown, an abolitionist who believed in using violence to aid the end of slavery. He and a group of followers murdered five pro-slavery men along the Pottawatomie Creek. This massacre was one of the main events that gave this time period the name “Bleeding Kansas.” It aided the cause of the civil war by infuriating anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups and leading to more violence in the future.

In 1857, Dred Scott lost his case that argued that he should be free because he had been held as a slave while living in a free state. The Supreme Court ruled that his petition could not be seen because he did not hold any property. But it went further, stating that even though he had been taken by his "owner" into a free state, he was still a slave because slaves were to be considered the property of their owners.

John Brown was a radical abolitionist who had been involved in anti-slavery violence in Kansas. On October 16, 1859, he led a group of 17, including five black members, to raid the arsenal located in Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). His goal was to start a slave uprising using the captured weapons. However, after capturing several buildings, Brown and his men were surrounded and eventually killed or captured by troops led by Colonel Robert E. Lee. Brown was tried and hanged for treason.

With the election of Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln on November 6, 1860, South Carolina followed by six other states seceded from the Union. Even though his views about slavery were considered moderate during the nomination and presidential campaign, South Carolina had warned it would secede if he won. Lincoln agreed with the majority of the Republican Party that the South was becoming too powerful and made it part of the party platform that slavery would not be extended to any new territories or states added to the Union.

South Carolina became the first state to secede, or leave, the United States. They decided to make their own country rather than be part of the USA. Within a few months several other states including Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana would also leave the Union.