Slavery
Rights in the States
Abolitionist Movement
The Dred Scott Decision
The Underground Railway
Abraham Lincoln
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Even when slavery was forbidden by the federal government some States refused, there was a struggle over political power.
Some 4 million Africans and their descendants were slave laborers in the South mainly in plantations.
A book published in 1852, became a best seller representing the evils of slavery.
A slave looking for citizenship legally in the Supreme Court whose request was denied since no person with African blood could become a U.S. citizen.
By the early 1830s, ideas became more strident. People were following a higher law not the Constitution. Freedom, not being a fugitive was the aim.
Some abolitionists actively helped runaway slaves to escape through this path.
Opponent of the expansion of slavery but said he would not interfere with it where it existed until he became president and slavery was banned.