Causes of the Civil War Timeline

  • Forced Labor

    New land opening, southern planters counting on slaves to work on land.
    Southerners were fearful of slave revolts and uprisings.
    Abolitionists made planters angry and fearful that abolitionists wanted to take slaves away.
  • Sectionalism

    People want best for themselves.
    Southern region relies on agriculture.
    Northern region relies on industry.
  • Missouri Compromise

    Maine enters US as free state, Missouri as slave state.
    36° 30' North is closed to slavery.
    36° 30' South is open to slavery based on popular soveriegnty.
  • Compromise of 1850

    No slave trade in D.C.
    California free state.
    People decide on slavery expansion.
  • Uncle Tom's Cabin

    Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin.
    North loved the book, and made it into a play.
    South hated it, and banned it.
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act

    People in states could vote for or against slavery.
    Overturned Missouri Compromise.
    Abolitionists and pro slave people clash.
  • Dred Scott v. Sanford

    Dred Scott; slave taken to a free state by owner.
    Sued for freedom.
    Cheif Justice Roger Taney ruled Scott was not a person, he was property.
    Nullified Missouri Compromise of 1820.
  • John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry

    Lead a slave revolt.
    Northerns thought of him as a hero, a martyr.
    Southerners thought he was a fanatical murderer.
  • Secession of Southern States

    Lincoln elected, South Carolina first state to secede the Union.
    Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Georgia, Lousiana, and Texas seceded Union shortly after.
    Names themselves the Confederate States of America
  • Firing on Fort Sumter

    First Shots of Civil War.
    Confederate States of America tried to capture Ft. Sumter for guns.
    Lincoln sent food and supplies to Ft. Sumter.