A. Modernization
B. Antebellum South
C. Abolitionism
II. Firebells - a growing "vortex"
A. After the Missouri Compromise of 1820
1. Texas 1836 - no annexation of a slave state
2. Polk defeats Clay 1844 - Manifest Destiny popular
3. Wilmot Proviso 1846 - would prohibit slavery in territories
4. Mexican War 1846 - Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
5. Free Soil Party 1848 - challenge to 2-party system
6. Zachary Taylor 1848 - avoid slavery issue
B. After the Armistice of 1850
1. Fugitive Slave Law - H.B. Stowe, Margaret Garner, John Price and the Oberlin "Rescuers"
2. Abelman v. Booth - Taney pro-South
3. nativism - Harper Bros. Co., Maria Monk, School Question, U.S. Grant
4. Filibustering - William Walker, Ostend Manifesto
5. Territories - Sen. David Atchinson and railroads
C. Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
1. Jeff Davis - southern perspective, "purple dream"
2. Stephen Douglas - popular sovereignty, Manifest Destiny
D. After the Kansas-Nebraska Act
1. Ripon Convention - Republican party born
2. Bleeding Kansas - Pottowatomie, sack of Lawrence
3. Brooks-Sumner fight in Congress
4. Buchanan defeats Fremont, Fillmore 1856
E. 1857 "at the brink"
1. Buchanan inaugurated March 4
2. Dred Scott decision March 6
3. Lecompton constitution supported by Buchanan
4. Panic of 1857 - helps Republicans
F. 1858 year of debate
1. Lincoln-Douglas debates - Douglas trapped
2. "care not" policy vs. "House Divided" speech
3. Freeport Doctrine - exclusion by refusal to pass police powers
4. Slave trade restoration bill - Congress paralyzed
G. 1859 John Brown crisis
1. Gerrit Smith & Secret Six fund Sharps rifles
2. JEB Stuart & marines save Harper's Ferry
3. hanging Dec. 2 - "to purge this land with blood"
H. 1860 Critical Year