Many events occurred between the years of 1850 -1861. Two presidents were elected, President Franklin Pierce(1853-1857) and James Buchanan(1857-1861). The compromise of 1850 was created, which consists of many new changes such as; California becoming a state, popular sovereignty being settled in States like Utah and New Mexico, banning of slavery in D.C and Texas getting it’s 10 million dollars to pay the fine to Mexico. Commodore Perry went to Japan and eventually argued for a treaty which would allow U.S ships into Japan. A civil war as we know it progressed in Kansas between pro slavery and antislavery believers, which lasted for 10 years. The Republican party was formed in 1854, out of a very weak Whig party, in response to the Kansas-Nebraska act. South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks attacks Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the U.S. Senate after Sumner gave a speech attacking Southern sympathizers for the pro-slavery violence in Kansas. And finally, the biggest event to to end the 1850’s, is the attack by James Brown, the abolitionist who led the 21 who took over the United States Armory. This invasion led to an uprising in the slaves, he tried to cause an armed slave revolt, but it failed. These were the major events of the 1850’s.
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