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Uncle's Tom Cabin was written by Harriet Stowe, a woman abolitionist, and published on March 20, was about a slave who went by Uncle Tom, covered the brutal reality about slavery, such as torture, as well as the cruelty of slave owners. This would further divide the North and South because the grisly depictions of slavery would promote the North's antislavery ideologies while the South claimed this story exaggerates the reality of slavery. -
On March 20, 1854, the Republican Party was adopted in Ripon, Wisconsin, by citizens who were outraged by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This party initially stood for ideologies such as antislavery, supporting freed slaves, and providing for Caucasian Americans to work for themselves. This would be a catalyst for division and the Civil War because this would drive sectional division further, and the secession of many Southern states after the first Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln took office. -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was a bill introduced to Congress and signed on May 30th, 1854. This bill would state that if Kansas and Nebraska would be free states or slave states by means of popular sovereignty and to make up for the Missouri Compromise. This would lead to Bloody Kansas, the disbanding of the Whig Party, division of the Democratic Party, and creation of the Republican Party, which caused division since Democrats split into Northern Democrats and Southern Democrats. -
The Bleeding Kansas was a result of many years of conflict between antislavery and proslavery over Kansas, popular sovereignty, and if Kansas was to be free or slave. On May 21, many proslavery men marched to Lawrence, Kansas, and would destroy abolitionist property, destroy antislavery presses, and even murder one, which also lead to Brown and his antislavery men killing five proslavery men. This lead to further division because it proved slavery could not be peacefully be debated. -
On May 22, 1856, while giving an antislavery speech, Charles Sumner would be nearly beaten to death by Preston Brooks with a cane, since Brooks was displeased with Sumner's antislavery ideologies. This would further drive division because this would propel the nation closer to forming the Republican Party and would promote radical viewpoints on both sides of the political spectrum. -
This presidential race was between Democratic candidate James Buchanan, Republican candidate John Fremont, and Know Nothing Whig Millard Fillmore, which Buchanan won. This election was said to be one of the most divided and bitter elections, which included Democrats claiming Republicans stood for radical ideologies, and Fremont was a "black abolitionist", catholic, etc. Meanwhile, Republicans were promoting antislavery ideologies. -
In March 1857, the Supreme Court reached the verdict of Dred Scott v Sandford, ruling that African Americans, by law, are property (slaves), and if freed slaves were to be no longer property, that would be wrongfully ceasing the property of slave owners. Congress also was not allowed to regulate or ban slavery. This further drove division because it would please Southerners, but the North and Republicans would feel strongly scornful towards this miscalculation. -
The Lecompton Constitution was a proslavery Constitution that Southerners tried to draft in Kansas so it would be introduced to the Union as a slave state, which would be boycotted, protested, and deemed undesirable by antislavery voters. This would cause further division because it would cause permanent damage to the Democratic Party and would further push the political crisis that was the United States. -
On June 16, 1858, politician Abraham Lincoln gave a speech that would explain why the government can't continue to provide for a divided nation and that we can't keep America half slave half free. This would lead to further division because Southerners would see Lincoln as "too radical" for the speech he delivered and would scold moderates, telling them at that point, it was about the nation as a whole and to pick a side. -
Debates: Ottowa (8/21)
Freeport (8/27)
Jonesboro (9/15)
Charleston (9/18)
Galesburg (10/7)
Quincy (10/13)
Alton (10/15) The Lincoln-Douglas Debates were a set of political debates regarding the topic of slavery. Douglas's strategy was to paint Lincoln as a "black abolitionist" and radical while Lincoln denied these claims and argued he supported the Fugitive Slave Act. This caused further division because it would make slavery a national issue and expose divisions within the Democratic party. -
On October 16, 1859 at 8 pm, abolitionist John Brown and twenty one men would launch an attack on Harper Ferry to take out the anger the Kansas-Nebraska Act caused him that this guerilla leader prepared for as early as 1857. The attack consisted of slashing telegraph wires, stealing slaves, guns, and federal arsenal, and was found guilty of murder, treason, and conspiracy. This would lead to further division because Brown would become a Martyr in the North and the South began to fear antislavery -
On December 2nd, 1859, John Brown, an abolitionist who murdered proslavery voters, would be hanged for treason and the murder of many. His death would make him a Martyr and a radical symbol in the North while in the South, he was seen as a terrorist and a symbol of fear, making compromise between the North and South near impossible. -
The Presidential Election of 1860 was a race between Abraham Lincoln of the Republican Party, John Breckinridge of the Democratic Party, John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party, and Steven Douglas of the Northern Democratic Party. This election was won by Lincoln, as the majority of the South was slaves, and the North was more populous. The poles from this election contributed to rising tension between the North and South since poles showed massive division, and the Deep South seceded. -
On December 20, 1860, agitated over Lincoln winning the Election of 1860, South Carolina would secede from the union, many Southern states following suit until the final state, Tennessee, seceded on June 8, 1861. These state seceded because they disagreed with Lincoln's antislavery views. This would further drive division, as Lincoln saw the Confederacy as an act of rebellion, so he would use the militia, starting the Civil War. -
President Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as President on March 4, 1861 after the brutal and long election of 1860. Lincoln would take the oath and warn that the government would defend itself if necessary, stated secession was unconstitutional so he wouldn't interfere with slavery in the South, and try to prevent the Civil War. This further drove division his compromise failed, and his willingness to use force to enforce law would make the Civil War inevitable.