1. Slavery
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, ran as a serial in an antislavery newspaper and then came out in book form in 1852.
Stowe’s writings about an enslaved African American and his overseer changed Northern outlooks on African Americans and slavery.
Southerners tried to have the novel banned. They accused Stowe of writing falsehoods in her portrayal of slavery.
The book sold millions of copies and had a great effect on public opinion.
Many historians say it was one of the causes of the Civil War.

2. The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Douglas wanted to create a new territory to be called Nebraska, west of Missouri and Iowa, to build the transcontinental railroad through. The eastern terminus, or ending point, would be located in Chicago.
Stephen Douglas, a Democratic Senator from Illinois, knew that any attempt to repeal the Missouri Compromise would divide the country.
Douglas first proposed that the Nebraska territory would be allowed to exercise popular sovereignty on slavery. Southern leaders didn’t bite.
Next, Douglas proposed that the region should be divided into two territories. Nebraska would be on the north, next to the free state of Iowa, and Kansas would be on the south, west of the slave state of Missouri.

3. The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Douglas’ bill outraged Northern Democrats and Whigs.
Democrats in Congress won enough support to pass the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Bleeding Kansas
Kansas became the first battle ground between those favoring the extension of slavery and those opposing it.
Thousands of “border ruffians” from Missouri crossed into Kansas and voted illegally for slavery. Later, the ruffians attacked the town of Lawrence, a stronghold of antislavery settlers.
By the end of 1856, 200 people had died and two million dollars worth of property had been destroyed.

4. Caning in Congress
Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, a fiery abolitionist, delivered a speech accusing pro-slavery senators of forcing Kansas into the ranks of slave states.
Sumner singled out Andrew Butler of South Carolina.
On May 22, 1856 Butler’s second cousin, Representative Preston Brooks, approached Sumner at his desk in the Senate chamber and beat him with a cane.

5. The Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act among Northerners who had previously been indifferent hurt the Southern cause because it created hostility toward slavery toward it.
Under this act, an African American accused of being a runaway was arrested and brought to a federal commissioner.
A sworn statement saying the captive was an escaped slave, or testimony by a white witness, was all a court needed to send the person south.
African Americans accused of being fugitives had no rights to a trial and were not allowed to testify in court.
A person who refused to help capture a runaway slave could be jailed.

6. Fugitive Slave Act
Newspaper accounts of the seizure of African Americans and the law’s injustices made Northerners increasingly angry.
Frederick Douglas spoke out against the Fugitive Slave Act. He emphasized the law’s requirement that ordinary citizens help capture runaway slaves.
Whites and free African Americans helped runaway slaves through the Underground Railroad.
Members called “conductors” secretly transported runaways to freedom in the Northern states or Canada.
They gave the runaways food and shelter along the way. Harriet Tubman was a famous conductor.

7. The Transcontinental Railroad
The admission of new states and the acquisition of new territory convinced many Americans that a transcontinental railroad was needed to connect the West Coast to the rest of the country.
This would make the travel to the West Coast quicker and it would increase the growth of the territories on its routes.
The fight developed over the route in which the train would follow. A Northern or Southern route would have to be determined.

9. Birth of the Republican Party
Anger over the Kansas-Nebraska Act convinced former Whigs, members of the Free-Soil Party, and a few antislavery Democrats to work together during the congressional elections of 1854.
This new coalition, an alliance of parties, became known as the Republican Party.

10. Sectional Division Grows
Dred Scott was an enslaved man whose Missouri slaveholder had taken him to live in a free territory before returning to Missouri.
Assisted by abolitionist, Scott sued to end his slavery, arguing that the time he had spent in free territory meant he was free. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court.
Dred Scott v. Sanford was decided on by the Supreme Court. The court ruled against Scott because he claimed that African Americans were not citizens and therefore could not sue in the courts.

11. Kansas and Statehood
The pro-slavery legislature of Kansas held an election for delegates to a constitutional convention.
Antislavery Kansans boycotted the election, saying it was rigged.
The convention wrote the Lecompton constitution in which slavery was legalized.
Each side held its own referendum, or popular vote, on the constitution. Antislavery forces voted against it; pro-slavery forces voted for it.
President Buchanan asked Congress to admit Kansas as a slave state.
The Senate accepted the Lecompton constitution, but the House did not. In 1858 the settlers in Kansas held another referendum and voted to reject the Lecompton constitution. Kansas did not become a state until 1861.

12. Lincoln and Douglas
In 1858 Lincoln was chosen by the Illinois Republicans to run for the Senate against the Democratic incumbent, Stephen A. Douglas.
Lincoln and Douglas held a series of debates. Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery to the western territories. Douglas favored popular sovereignty.
Douglas formulated the Freeport Doctrine. In this statement, Douglas accepted the Dred Scott ruling.

13. John Brown’s Raid
John Brown, an abolitionist, planned to seize the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. (West Virginia today)
He would then free and arm the enslaved people in the area and begin an insurrection, or rebellion, against slaveholders.
Brown and his followers seized the arsenal on October, 16, 1859, but within 36 hours were captured by U.S. Marines.
Brown was tried, convicted and sentenced to death.

14. Election of 1860
John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry was a turning point for the South. Southerners feared an African American uprising and were angered that Northerners would arm them and encourage them to rebel.
The Democratic Party could not agree on a candidate for the 1860 election. Northern Democrats chose Stephen A. Douglas, who supported popular sovereignty.
Southern Democrats chose John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky. He was the vice president at the time. He supported the Dred Scott decision.

15. Election of 1860
The Constitutional Union Party was formed by people who wanted to uphold the Constitution and the Union.
Their candidate was former Tennessee senator John Bell.
The Republican candidate was Abraham Lincoln. The Republican platform:
campaigned against slavery in the western territories, against John Brown’s raid
for the right of the Southern states to preserve slavery within their borders
higher tariffs
a new homestead law for western settler
transcontinental railroad

16. Lincoln Wins the Election
Lincoln won the election. The south saw the election as a victory for the abolitionists.
South Carolina was the first state to secede.
By February 1861, six more states in the Lower South voted to secede.
Compromise Fails and on February 8,1861, the Southern states declared themselves to be the Confederate States of America, or the Confederacy.

18. Crittenden’s Compromise
Senator John Crittenden of Kentucky suggested several amendments to the Constitution.
This would guarantee slavery where it already existed.
It would also reinstate the Missouri Compromise line, extending it to California. Slavery would be ban north of the line, and protected south of the line.
This compromise failed.
Jefferson Davis became the president of the Confederacy.

19. The Civil War Begins
Lincoln stated that the Union would hold on to any federal owned property in the seceding states.
Lincoln announced plans to re-supply Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.
President Davis ordered an attack on the fort.
After hours of fighting, the Union commander surrendered. This was the beginning of the Civil War.
Lincoln asked for 75,000 volunteers to serve in the Union army.
The Upper South seceded, beginning with Virginia. The capitol of the Confederacy was immediately switched to Richmond, VA.
Lincoln did not want the border states to secede, especially Maryland. Martial law was imposed in Baltimore to prevent Maryland’s secession.