Describe the main events of rising sectional tension in the union during the 1850's that ultimatly led to disunion in 1860-61.

Missouri Compromise 1820Allowed Missouri to enter the union as a slave state, Maine to enter the union as a free state, prohibited slavery north of the 36˚ 30' lineNullification CrisisSoutherners declared federal laws null and void, Jackson responded with the Force Bill; John C Calhoun was a big advocate of this ideaSectionalismLoyalty to one's own region of the country, rather than to the nation as a to remove adsMexican American War1846 - 1848 - Conflict with Mexico over the dispute of land in Texas. At the end, the US gained several new territories in the WestSam HoustonTexas military leader who fought to gain independence for Texas from Mexico and to make it a part of the United States, first president of the Republic of TexasThe AlamoSanta Anna's force of 4000 men attacked an abandoned mission in San Antonio, whose 200 Texan soldiers defended bravely. Among those there: Davy Crockett, David Bowie, Colonel TravisAnnexationThe adding of a region to the territory of an existing political unit.Treaty of Guadalupe HidalgoTreaty that ended the Mexican War, granting the U.S. control of Texas, New Mexico, and CaliforniaBear Flag Republicnickname for California after it declared independence from Mexico in 1846Wilmot ProvisoBill that would ban slavery in the territories acquired after the War with MexicoPopular SovereigntyThe concept that a States people should vote whether to be a slave state or FreeCalifornia Gold Rusha period from 1848 to 1856 when thousands of people came to California in order to search for gold.49ersPeople who rushed to california in 1849 for gold.Compromise of 1850Includes California admitted as a free state, the Fugitive Slave Act, made popular sovereignty in most other states from Mexican- American WarFugitive Slave Acta law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves; allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholdersUnderground Railroada system of secret routes used by escaping slaves to reach freedom in the North or in CanadaHarriet TubmanFormer slave who helped slaves escape on the Underground RailroadHarriett Beecher StoweAuthor of a book called Uncle Tom's Cabin. It was a novel that vividly described slavery. It was a best seller and caused a big stir.Uncle Tom's CabinWritten by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1853 that highly influenced england's view on the American Deep South and slavery. a novel promoting abolition. intensified sectional conflict.Transcontinental RailroadTransportation system that connected the east with the west.Kansas Nebraska ActThis Act set up Kansas and Nebraska as states. Each state would use popular sovereignty to decide what to do about slavery.Bleeding KansasA sequence of violent events involving abolitionists and pro-Slavery elements that took place in Kansas-Nebraska Territory.John Brownviolent abolitionist who murdered slaveholders in Kansas and Missouri (1856-1858) before his raid at Harpers Ferry (1859), hoping to incite a slave rebellion; he failed and was executedHarper's Ferry RaidJohn Brown's scheme to invade the South with armed slaves, backed by northern abolitionists; seized the federal arsenal; Brown and remnants were caught by Robert E. Lee and the US Marines; Brown was hangedDred Scott DecisionSupreme Court case which ruled that slaves were not citizens and could not sue, and that the federal government could not determine the slave status of statesElection of 1860Lincoln wins causing southern states to begin secessionConfederate States of Americathe southern states that seceded from the United States in 1861, created their own countryJefferson DavisPresident of the Confederate States of AmericaAbraham Lincoln16th President of the United States saved the Union during the Civil War and emancipated the slaves; was assassinated by Booth (1809-1865)