-
Period: to
Events that Lead up to the Civil War
The Civil War was fought between the Northern and Southern states of the United States. The main reason that triggered hatred, was the topic of slavery. Other events also provoked the war . This time line will tell of the events that led up to the Civil War. -
Missouri Comprimise
The Missouri Compromise was an agreement made by Congress in 1820 under which Missouri was added to the Union as a slave state and Maine was admitted as a free state. It set an imaginary line across the Louisiana Purchase at latitude 36°30ʹ. That line stated that slavery was illegal above the line and it was permitted below it. This affected the Civil War because some southern states were partially on that imaginary line and they got mad and upset that some owners could not hold slaves any more. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was the agreements made in order to add California into the Union as a free state. These agreements included allowing the New Mexico and Utah territories to decide whether to allow slavery, outlawing the slave trade in Washington, D.C., and creating a stronger fugitive slave law. This created hate between the North and South by some southerners not accepting the law still wanting to break free from the union. -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act was an act passed in 1854 that created the Kansas and Nebraska territories and abolished the Missouri Compromise by allowing settlers to determine whether slavery would be allowed in the new territories. Stephen A. Douglas configured this act and thought of it as popular sovereignty. The act scared the Northerners because they thought slavery would become allowed in the whole country.. -
Dred Scott Case
The Dred Scott decision was a Supreme Court decision in 1857 that held that African Americans could never be citizens of the U.S and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court had decided that Scott could not sue for his freedom in a federal court because he was not a citizen. Tanley said, no African American, whether slave or free, was an American or could ever become one. This angered the North because they disagreed with the decision. The south accepted it gladly. -
Election of 1860
United States presidential election of 1860, where Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. This event added more tension to the lead up of the Civil War because it made southerners now the minority.They no longer had the power to shape national events or policies.Southerners also feared Congress would try to abolish slavery. They wanted to break away before all of that happened. -
Attack on Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter was the assault of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina by the Confederate Army States, and the return gunfire and consequent surrender by the United States Army that started the American Civil War. This news of the Confederates open firing on the American flag unleashed a wave of patriotic fury in the North.The Civil War Had begun.
