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Missouri wanted to be a slave state. This caused national debate about the growth of slavery and the fact that if Missouri was a slave state, then pro-slavery legislators would be the majority in Congress. As a compromise, Maine was added as a free state in order to have a balanced Congress.
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Nat Turner was a slave who led a rebellion that spread through many plantations in southern Virginia. He and seventy others took part in this and killed sixty white people. They were stopped by the military after two days. Fifty-five slaves were executed for this and another two hundred were lynched by angry mobs. In response to other rebellion, Virginia officials took back what few rights freed and current slaves had.
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At the end of the Mexican-American war, the Wilmot Proviso was proposed. This would outlaw slavery in the territory the United States won in the war, which was most of the Southwest all the way to California. The plan was not successful. It caused intense debates which in turn sparked serious discussions of succession.
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In response to the Wilmot Proviso, the Compromise of 1850 was made. This compromise made California a free state and did not regulate slavery in the remainder of the Mexican cession, but it did strengthen the Fugitive Slave Act. This law required Northerners to return run-away slaves to the South. This compromise soothed the tensions of the North and South for a small amount of time, but did not address the division of the United States.
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Uncle Tom's Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, provided an insight to the terrors of slavery. Many Northerners became aware of how bad slavery conditions were, but many Southerners felt as if the book was full of lies and painting a worse picture of slavery. This book created more division and tension between the North and South.
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This act would allow each individual state to have their own choice in deciding whether they would be a free or a slave state. Popular sovereignty would be in effect. This also established Kansas and Nebraska as states. People moved to Kansas in hopes of having enough people to make it a free or slave state, whichever side they were on. Violence ensued.
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Dred Scott was a slave who took the issue of his freedom to the Supreme Court. He tried to sue for his freedom. The justices' verdict was that slaves were property, so they did not have a right to sue. This classification of slaves caused the federal government's authority to be much more arguable. Tensions rose.
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John Brown was an abolitionist who supported violence against the South in order to end slavery. He led a raid on a federal armory in Virginia, trying to acquire. all of the weapons there so that they could be distributed to local slaves. U.S. Marines stopped this uprising. Seven people were killed, some from both sides.
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Abraham Lincoln was elected as president, as he had won by a lot. Since he was a Republican who was against slavery, many Southerners were on edge as they did not want to lose their slaves. A month after Lincoln was elected, South Carolina was the first state to secede. Six more states followed their example by the spring of 1861.
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This was the battle that started the Civil War. Taking place in Charleston, South Carolina, confederate soldiers fired the first shot. The battle was very uneven, as there were around five hundred Confederate soldiers attacking and only 80 Union soldiers defending. The battle lasted a day and a half. No casualties occurred, but this battle did spark the Civil War.
