EVENTS LEADING TO THE CIVIL WAR

Wilmot Proviso

Mar 30, 1846

It was an attempt to ban slavery in the Mexican Cession territories; the area acquired from Mexico.

Compromise of 1850

Mar 30, 1850

This confirmed the right to choose whether a state wanted to be free or slave. It also would confirm through the Fugitive Slave Act that slaveowners could get their slaves back from the North.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Mar 30, 1852

This book, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, told people of how evil and inhumane slavery was and why they should abolish it.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Mar 30, 1854

This act allowed the Kansas and Nebraska territories the right to choose whether to be free or slave. Pro-slavery and Anti-slavery flooded in to the territories to force the territories to be what they wanted them to be.

Bleeding Kansas

Mar 30, 1856

This was a small scale civil war in Kansas and became rally cry along with "Bleeding Sumner" for anti-slavery Northerners and new political party.

Dred Scott Decision

Mar 30, 1857

A slave who lived with his owner shortly in free land sued to be a free man. The judges said he was not a citizen and could not sue.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Mar 30, 1858

Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas were fighting to be Senator of Illionois.Lincoln was against slavery, but said it was legal. He just didn't want it to expand.

Raid on Harper's Ferry

Mar 30, 1859

John Brown and his men attacked Harper's Ferry, dealing 4 casualties. His goal was to start a slave revolt in Virginia and end slavery. Obviously, it didn't work (as expected).

The Election of1860

Mar 30, 1860

This time round, Lincoln won. Quite immediately, the southern states started to secede.

Fort Sumter April 12,1861

Apr 12, 1861

Lincoln informed the Confederate President that he was sending supplies to the fort. The South fired on them and the North surrendered because they were under-supplied. This started the war.