And of Course, I Have to Mention the Elephant in the Room

Recently, we've been studying the politics of the early nineteenth century, particularly those which revolved around slavery, which was pretty much the biggest focus of politics at the time.  New states were being admitted into the Union, and there was much negotiation around how to keep the balance between slave states and free states, none of which succeeded at keeping the peace for long.  We looked at the Dred Scott Decision, the Compromise of 1850, Bleeding Kansas, and other events to see some of the events which showed that slavery was at the forefront of the national conscience in the early 1800s.  We made a timeline of these events:

In the early 1800s, the country was focussed on keeping the peace between slave holders and abolitionists.  In the Compromise of 1850, the territory recently acquired from Mexico was divided and several new laws were put in place to appease both groups.  The slave trade was abolished in the capital, which was a win for abolitionists, but the Fugitive Slave Act, while meant to pacify Southerners who would have been angry that the compromise upset the balance of slave and free states, became extremely controversial.  The Kansas-Nebraska Act left the territories of Kansas and Nebraska open for voters to decide whether or not to legalise slavery when applying for statehood.  This caused the event known as Bleeding Kansas.  There were several battles in the territory of Kansas over slavery.  In the Dred Scott Decision, a freed slave named Dred Scott sued his former master, 'And upon a full and careful consideration of the subject, the court is of opinion, that.... Dred Scott was not a citizen of Missouri within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States, and not entitled as such to sue in its courts.'  This also caused great controversy.  Many of the biggest events of the early eighteenth century revolved around slavery.


Sources:
http://www.edline.net/files/_BYIYQ_/a95c65dcd7b8c02c3745a49013852ec4/Elephant_in_the_Room_Lesson.pdf
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2951.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2933t.html