Sectionalism (1850s)

Sectionalism (1850s)
Sectionalism - putting the interests of your region before the interests of the nation - dominated the
1850s. The nation was divided over the issue of slavery. Slavery was under attack as antislavery forces
tried to keep it from expanding into the territories acquired by the United States in the 1840s. A series
of events made it more difficult to maintain the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The South eventually
seceded from the United States after the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in 1860.
by Henry Clay
By Henry Clay
maintained
balance of
free and slave
states in
Senate
Included
controversial
Fugitive Slave
Act that
required the
return of
runaway
slaves
established
Missouri
Compromise
LIne
Missouri Compromise of 1820
Compromise of 1850
Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852
Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854
Book by Harriet Beecher Stowe that
described slavery to the North
Republican Party 1856
Slavery decided in Kansas by popular sovereignty; led to
Bleeding Kansas
Political party formed to oppose the
expansion of slavery into the territories;
Lincoln’s party
Harper’s Ferry 1859
Dred Scott v. Sandford 1857
Abolitionist John Brown’s attempt to start a
slave rebellion in the South
Supreme Court decision that defined slaves
as property and expanded the rights of
slaveowners; declared Missouri
Compromise unconstitutional
Election of 1860
Southern States Secede 1860-1861
Lincoln wins election without winning a
southern state; southerners believe he is a
threat to slavery
11 states withdraw from the US and form
the Confederate States of America