Notes

Resistance Against the Fugitive Slave Act

In this section, we have learned the following:

The new Fugitive Slave Act enraged many northerners, who saw it as increasing federal intervention in the affairs of independent states.
A few northern states passed personal liberty laws, which nullified the new Fugitive Slave Act and allowed states to arrest slave catchers for kidnapping.
Northern abolitionists and free blacks risked their lives to help enslaved people escape through a loosely organized network known as the Underground Railroad.
Harriet Tubman, a Maryland-born fugitive slave, was a courageous leader of the Underground Railroad. She helped hundreds of slaves escape to freedom.
In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom's Cabin. The book intensified northerners' compassion for enslaved people and confirmed their belief that slavery was morally wrong.
Southerners were angered by the portrayal of slavery in Uncle Tom's Cabin and resented the increasing activism of abolitionists.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act

In this section, we have learned the following:

In 1854, Senator Stephen Douglas introduced a bill to establish a government in the Nebraska Territory.
Douglas proposed that Nebraska be organized according to popular sovereignty, allowing the people rather than Congress to decide whether or not to allow slavery.
Southerners feared Nebraska might enter as a free state, tipping the balance of power in favor of the free states.
In a compromise move, Nebraska was divided into two territories: Nebraska and Kansas.
In accordance with the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Kansas would become a slave state, and Nebraska a free state.
"Bleeding Kansas"

In this section, we have learned the following:

Two competing governments developed in the Kansas Territory—one antislavery and one proslavery. Each wanted to succeed over the other.
Both antislavery and proslavery settlers in Kansas were willing to go to great lengths to make sure that the territory adopted their beliefs regarding slavery.
In 1856, violence erupted in various locations around Lawrence, Kansas, and even on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
After several proslavery settlers were murdered by an antislavery mob, reporters referred to the territory as "Bleeding Kansas."