HIST 121 BDE: AMERICAN HISTORY TO 1877 DISCUSSION

The events leading up to the issues of slavery in the 1850s began when the Constitution included the Three-Fifths Compromise, confirmed that the slave trade could continue until 1808, and included a clause requiring states to return runaway slaves. However, the events of the 1850s brought slavery to the forefront of national politics and social reform. Which event(s) in this period did the most to push the nation toward civil war (the Wilmot Proviso, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the debate over the Lecompton Constitution, the Fugitive Slave Act, the Dred Scott Decision)? Explain your answer with specific examples from your assigned reading and media. USE PRIMARY SOURCES LISTED BELOW!!

Primary Sources

• 12.1 Chief John Ross, The Petition and Memorial of the Delegates and Representatives of the Cherokee Nation (1840)
• 13.3 James H. Hammond, Speech On The Admission Of Kansas (1858)
• 13.4 Abraham Lincoln, Speech at Springfield, Illinois