-
The Compromise of 1850 introduced a new and stronger Fugitive Slave Act, a law hated by Northerners. The law told the federal government to help in the recapture of liberated Black people and criminalized free people who helped the escape of the formerly enslaved. Basically this created an anger in the Northerners against the Southerners because southerners could just take freed-black-northerners as slaves. Even after they escaped. -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act raised the possibility that slavery could be extended into territories where it is banned. (The North) The Act/Bill intensified the bitter debate over slavery between the North and South in the United States. This added onto the tension slowly leading to a Civil War. -
Kansas had three political groups, pro-slavery, free-staters and abolitionists. They were trying to decide to stay as a slave state or become a free state. Violence broke out between them and a big group of people died from it. The violence deepened the North and South’s divided opinions on slavery and their hatred toward each other. -
Shortly after the Senate had adjourned for the day, Brooks entered a old chamber, where he found Sumner attaching his copies of his speech “Crime Against Kansas”. Moving quickly, Brooks slammed his metal-topped cane onto Sumner’s head. Sumner nearly died and it contributed to the country’s fight over the issue of slavery. The willingness to resort to violence led to the civil war. -
The U.S. Supreme Court stated that enslaved people were not citizens of the United States and won’t be protected by the federal government or courts. This grew the divide between North and South and culminated in the secession of southern states from the Union and the creation of the Confederate States of America. -
Lincoln-Douglas debates, series of seven debates between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln during the 1858 Illinois senatorial campaign, largely concerning the issue of slavery extension into the territories. This leads up to the civil war because it adds onto the fight about slavery. -
John Brown led a small group on a riot against Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in an attempt to start an armed revolt of enslaved people and destroy the institution of slavery. Although the raid failed, it inflamed tensions. Brown's raid helped make any further agreement between North and South nearly impossible. -
Lincoln was against slavery and wanting to abolish it. Lincoln was a threat because as president he had power to abolish it and south did not like that. Civil war broke out to keep slavery.