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Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin shortly after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Her family was very antislavery, and Stowe had witnessed slavery when she lived in Kentucky, although she never had first hand experience. Her book became very popular, being published in multiple editions and languages. Northerners agreed that her portrayal of slavery was not completely accurate, but that it highlighted the right parts. The book contributed to the growing tensions in the Union.
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The Republican Party was formed after the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Horace Greeley wrote in the New York newspaper that it should not matter if someone is a part of the Whig Party or Free Democrat Party, if someone wants for the Union to be focused on the promotion of liberty, they should be known as a Republican. The Republican Party made advances in many northern states and gained control of the majority in the House of Representatives by 1855.
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The Kansas-Nebraska Act was proposed by Stephen Douglas, who also created the Compromise of 1850. He was a supporter of popular sovereignty and wanted the people who settled the new territories to be in charge of voting whether or not they would become slave states. The Act essentially voided the Missouri Compromise, which divided the country into free and slave states. This caused people from the North and South to fight over the territory to make it into either a free-state or slave state.
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Bleeding Kansas was a period of guerilla warfare between Northerners and Southerners in an attempt to make Kansas a free-state or a slave-state. The sack of Lawrence entailed proslavery Southerners arresting multiple antislavery people in the local government, burning multiple antislavery businesses and buildings, and killing a man. John Brown retaliated by kidnapping six men from their beds, splitting their heads open with swords, and cutting off their hands. Proslavery forces attacked Brown.
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Following the sack of Lawrence, Senator Charles Sumner denounced several Southern Senators because of their support of slavery. One of these Senators was Andrew Butler of South Carolina. Butler's nephew, Congressman Preston Brooks, beat Sumner senseless over the head with his cane on the Senate floor. It took Sumner several years to return to his Senate seat, though he never recovered from his injuries. Brooks was regarded as a hero by the South, even sending canes to replace his broken one.
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The election was between previous President Pierce, the Republican nominee John Fremont, and the Democrat nominee James Buchanan. This was the first election in which there were rigid sectional divides in votes. Buchanan won the Electoral College vote with 174 votes while Fremont had 114. Fremont received no votes south of the Mason-Dixon line, which resulted in his loss.
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Dred Scott was a slave whom was taken to multiple different free states by his owner. Due to this, Scott sued his owner's family because he believed he should be freed. This Supreme Court case was decided against Dred Scott. The decision declared the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional because slaves were considered property, and the government was not allowed to restrict people's property. It also declared that African Americans were not American citizens. Popular sovereignty was gone.
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The Lecompton Constitution was the first Constitution the Southerners attempted to pass to turn Kansas into a slave state. They had the upper-hand in the fight against the Northerners, so they believed it could be passed. Congress rejected the Constitution. Three other attempts at constitutions would be made by both sides until the Wyandotte Constitution would be passed in 1859.
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Abraham Lincoln made his House Divided speech after he accepted his nomination to be the Republican candidate for the Senate seat in Illinois. Lincoln believed that a government that was split between antislavery and proslavery could not last long term. In the later debates between Lincoln and Douglas, Douglas would use this speech against Lincoln, saying that he was advocating for the abolition of slavery.
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Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas were fighting for the Illinois Senate seat. They had seven different debates across the state of Illinois with the focus being the issue of slavery. Lincoln thought that it would continue to spread while Douglas believed it would fizzle away on its own. Douglas made the Freeport Doctrine, which created a loophole for the Dred Scott court case decision which could prevent the expansion of slavery and won the Senate seat.
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John Brown led a small group of men to raid Harpers Ferry. The group seized millions of dollars worth of guns and ammunition and then left to go liberate slaves. Brown believed he was sent by God to free the slaves because it was morally wrong, but also claimed that he was not trying to incite an uprising. Locals were alarmed of the revolt by the church bell, armed themselves, and gunned Brown's men with truce flags down in the street.
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John Brown was put on trial for his attempt to raid Harpers Ferry. He was allowed to give a five minute speech, in which he managed to convince people that his acts were not for violence, but for saving. Brown refused to plead insanity and was sentenced to be hanged. He wanted to be seen as a martyr who was dying because he wanted to save people. Northerners were distraught and mourned his execution. Ralph Waldo Emerson even compared Brown to Jesus Christ.
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There were four different presidential candidates for the election of 1860. The Deep South Democrats chose Breckenridge, a few Upper Southern Democratic states chose Douglas, the Northern Republicans overwhelmingly chose Lincoln, and the Constitutional Union Party chose John Bell. Lincoln won the election with 180 Electoral College votes, while he barely had 40% of the popular vote.
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Secession began with South Carolina in December of 1860. Mississippi, Florida, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas followed, ending with the secession of North Carolina. The decision to secede in South Carolina was almost unanimous, but in states like Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana there was some resistance to immediate secession. In the Upper South, the resistance was even greater, Tennessee even refusing to hold a secession convention.
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Abraham Lincoln made his 1st Inaugural Address after being elected as President in 1860. He focused on addressing Southerner's concerns that the Republican Party would interfere with their private property and slavery. Lincoln believed that he did not have the right to regulate slavery, and therefore he would not. He wanted to avoid civil war at all costs, so he offered to not abolish slavery as long as Southerners negotiated a peaceful resolution.