The early 1800s saw many conflicts over the expansion of slavery into new states. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 created a line dividing free and slave states, but this was challenged by the California gold rush and its desire to join as a free state. The Compromise of 1850 admitted California as free and included the Fugitive Slave Act, while popular sovereignty was established for the Mexican Cession territories. Further tensions arose from the Kansas-Nebraska Act repealing the Missouri Compromise and Bleeding Kansas violence, leading to the formation of the Republican Party opposing slavery's spread.

1. Key Events & Compromises of
the early 1800’s

2. Key Issue
 The admission of new states continually led to
conflicts over the whether the new states
would allow slavery “slave states” or prohibit
slavery “free states”

3. The Missouri Compromise 1820
• The idea of Henry Clay
• Drew an east-west line through the Louisiana
Purchase Territory
• Line was located at 36 30’ N
• Above the line “free states,” prohibited slavery
• Below the line “slave states” allowed slavery

5. The California Situation
• 1848 gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill in
California
• creates gold rush of 1849
• Rapid population increase in California
• In 1850 California wanted to come in as a free
state, threatened to upset the balance of
power

7. Compromise of 1850
• Established 3 key provisions
1. California entered the Union as a free state
2. The Fugitive Slave Act required that all escaped
slaves be returned to their owners
3. Popular Sovereignty: or a vote of the people living
in the territory would decide if the area of the
Mexican Concession was to be free or slave
• Northerners ignored the Fugitive Slave Act
• The idea of Popular Sovereignty was unclear

9. The Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854
• Repealed the Missouri Compromise
• Gave the people of Kansas and Nebraska the
right to chose
• This led to an event called “Bloody Kansas”

11. Bloody Kansas
• Pro- and anti- slavery supporters rushed to
Kansas to vote
• Fighting between pro- and anti- slavery
supporters erupted
• Fighting even made it to the Senate floor
• Led to the birth of the Republican Party
• Founded to oppose the spread of slavery

13. Other Events and Issues

14. States Rights
• Southerners argued;
• That individual states could nullify laws passed
by congress
• Began to insist that states had entered the
Union freely and could leave it freely if they
choose- secede
– NULLIFICATION CRISIS

15. Lincoln-Douglas debates
• Lincoln joined the Republican party
• Douglass was a Northern Democrat
• Competed against each other for a U.S. Senate
seat in Illinois in1858
• Conducted a series of debates
• Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery
• Douglass favored popular sovereignty

17. Lincoln Warned
 “A house divided
against itself cannot
stand”
• Meaning the nation
could not continue half-free
and half-slave, the
issue must be resolved

18. Dred Scott Decision
• Decision by the
Supreme Court
• Overturned efforts to
limit the spread of
slavery
• Outraged Northerners

19. Decision said
• Slaves were not citizens
• Slaves have not rights
• Congress could not regulate slavery
• Slaves were property

20. Election of 1860
• Lincoln won
• Southerners feared he would abolish slavery
• Before he took office South Carolina and 6
other Southern states seceded
• They formed the Confederate States of
America
• Elected Jefferson Davis President
• War was just around the corner

22. Lincoln
Davis