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To pacify slave-state politicians, who would have objected to the imbalance created by adding another free state, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. Of all the bills that made up the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was the most controversial. It required citizens to assist in the recovery of fugitive slaves. -
Only then did Kansas officially become a free state on January 29, 1861. Altogether, 55 people were killed in the territory from 1854 to 1861. The violence served to deepen the North-South divide on slavery, making a civil war imminent. (1854-1856) -
Known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the controversial bill raised the possibility that slavery could be extended into territories where it had once been banned. Its passage intensified the bitter debate over slavery in the United States, which would later explode into the Civil War. -
The beating nearly killed Sumner and contributed significantly to the country's polarization over the issue of slavery. It has been considered symbolic of the "breakdown of reasoned discourse" and willingness to resort to violence that eventually led to the Civil War. -
The Dred Scott Decision outraged abolitionists, who saw the Supreme Court's ruling as a way to stop debate about slavery in the territories. The divide between North and South over slavery grew and culminated in the secession of southern states from the Union and the creation of the Confederate States of America. -
Douglas repeatedly attacked Lincoln's supposed radical views on race, claiming his opponent would not only grant citizenship rights to freed slaves but allow Black men to marry white women (an idea that horrified many white Americans) and that his views would put the nation on an inevitable path to war. (It was August 21, 1858 – October 15, 1858) -
He offered Southern secessionists an argument and a warning. The argument was used by the South to hasten secession: the raid symbolized the ruthlessness of the North, of abolitionism, in attacking the cherished institutions of the South.” The trial and execution of Brown pushed the nation closer to civil war. -
A former Whig, Lincoln ran on a political platform opposed to the expansion of slavery in the territories. His election served as the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the Civil War. After being sworn in as president, Lincoln refused to accept any resolution that would result in Southern secession from the Union.