Dred Scott

Dred Scott was as slave that was sold to work on the plantations in Illinois, which was a free state at the time. They quickly moved to Fort Snelling (present day Wisconsin) where slavery was also illegal or prohibited. Dr. John Emerson, Scott’s master, decided to lease him and his wife, Harriet Robinson. This is course was a crime because slavery was illegal in that part of the country. In order to show respect for their master, Scott did not sue Emerson.

However, when Dr. John Emerson passed away, his wife Eliza inherited the Scotts. Scott finally decided to sue for his freedom and the freedom of his wife. Yet Supreme Court justice Roger Taney overruled the case, and thus tension between the North and South increased.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

The Kansas-Nebraska Act created the territories (not yet states) of Kansas and Nebraska. It opened new lands suitable for settlement and it repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing the settlers to decide whether or not that territory/state would be free or slaveholding. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was enacted in 1854 and designed by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois.

Kansas was admitted as a free state in 1961 and Nebraska entered as a free state as well six years later in 1867.

Visual/map of The Kansas-Nebraska Act

The Georgia Platform

The Georgia Platform was a set of resolutions written by Charles J. Jenkins. Adopted in December of 1850, it decided what Georgia would do with the Compromise of 1850. Georgia’s conclusion was that they would accept the compromise “as a permanent adjustment of the sectional controversy.”
However, the state also sent out a warning that any more encroachments made on the South’s rights would lead to Disruption of the union.

Charles J. Jenkins, 44th governor of Georgia

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/CharJenkins.jpg

The Compromise of 1850

 In 1850, California wanted to be admitted as a free state, but once again, similar to the Missouri Compromise, the balance of free and slave states was at risk of being disrupted.

What the North received:	What the South received:
California admitted as a free state	Fugitive Slave Law
Texas loses boundary dispute with New Mexico	Texas receives $10 million
Land formerly Texas become New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada	No slavery restrictions in Utah or New Mexico territories
Slavery abolished in Washington DC

(left) The “Great Compromiser,” Henry Clay, introduces the Compromise of 1850 in the Senate.

Source: http://www.ushistory.org/