The Coming of the Civil War
Political Debates and Controversies
Wilmot Proviso (1846)
1846 proposal to prohibit the expansion of slavery into the territories won in the Mexican American War
Kansas Nebraska Act (1854)
1854 Act that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, repealed the Missouri Compromise, and allowed for popular sovereignty
The Struggles Over Slavery
Dred Scott V Sandford
1857 Supreme Court decision that declared the Missouri Compromise illegal, reaffirmed slaveholder’s property rights, and denied that Black Americans were United States citizens.
Calhoun, Speech on Abolition Petitions, 1837
1837 speech delivered by John C. Calhoun
Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July (1852)
Speech delivered by Frederick Douglass on July 5th, 1852
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