The Five Bills
This bill admitted a specific Western state to the Union as a "Free State," alarming Southern leaders.
What is the Admission of California?
This two-word term means that voters in a territory, rather than Congress, decide whether slavery is legal.
What is Popular Sovereignty? (or Popular Self-Rule)
This law forced citizens and local officials in these types of states to assist in capturing freedom seekers.
What are Free States?
Under the Fugitive Slave Law, a commissioner was paid this much if they ruled in favor of a slaveholder.
What is $10?
The Fugitive Slave Law is cited by many historians as a direct provocation for this major American conflict.
What is the American Civil War?
This act settled a border dispute by having a state surrender territorial claims in exchange for the federal government assuming its debt.
What is the Texas and New Mexico Act?
The Utah Act effectively allowed slavery to expand into this specific territory if the people voted for it.
What is Utah?
Accused individuals were denied this constitutional right, meaning they couldn't have their case heard by a group of peers.
What is a Jury Trial?
A commissioner was paid this much, exactly half the other amount, if they set an individual free.
What is $5?
The Fugitive Slave Law was actually an attempt at this, but it failed and instead drove the North and South further apart.
What is a Compromise?
This bill created a new territory where the status of slavery would be decided by the settlers themselves.
What is the Utah Act?
The Compromise aimed to resolve disputes that followed this specific 1840s war.
What is the Mexican-American War?
Under the law, a person could be sent South based solely on this, without any other physical evidence
What is oral testimony?
The federal government paid this state $10 million to help it settle its state debts.
What is Texas?
The U.S. Constitution of this year originally stated that seekers of freedom had to be returned to their owners.
What is 1789?
This part of the compromise ended the buying and selling of humans in the nation’s capital, though slavery remained legal there.
What is the Abolition of the Slave Trade in D.C.?
By admitting California as a free state, the government was attempting to "balance" its status with these two other territories.
What are Utah and New Mexico?
This movement and secret network were "boosted" or increased because of the harshness of the 1850 law.
What is the Abolitionist Movement? (or the Underground Railroad)
In 1862, an act provided up to this amount of money to slave owners in D.C. who remained loyal to the Union.
What is $300?
By shrinking the borders of Texas, the government created this new territory.
What is the New Mexico Territory?
Historians describe this specific part of the 1850 Compromise as the most powerful exercise of federal power in U.S. history.
What is the Fugitive Slave Act?
Southern leaders were "alarmed" by California's admission because it threatened the balance of power in this legislative body.
What is the Senate?
Many Northerners became convinced that the government was controlled by this "scheme" or conspiracy.
What is the Slave Power scheme?
This group of people was forced to become "active participants" in slavery's enforcement, even if they morally opposed it.
Who are Northern citizens (and local officials)?
The Fugitive Slave Law brought the "violence of the institution" into these areas, where it was previously not allowed.
What are Free States?