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After a couple of cases regarding Dred Scott's freedom, the Supreme court made the Dred Scott decision.
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The Lincoln-Douglas debates - won by Douglas, who said that each state should decide whether to be free or slave.
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After breaking up with his good friend Frederick Douglass, John Brown had a raid on Harpers Ferry.
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Lincoln is elected President.
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South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas all secede from the Union.
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Mississippi adopts the Ordinance of Secession, lowers the Stars and Stripes, and raises a new blue flag bearing a single white star over the State Capitol in Jackson.
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The Confederate States of America is formed with Jefferson Davis, a West Point graduate and former U.S. Army officer, as president.
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After Fort Sumter is attacked, the Civil war begins
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Virginia seceded, followed by Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina.
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President Lincoln convenes a special session of Congress to ask for help conducting and funding the war and outlines the events that ignited the conflict.
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President Lincoln's son, Willie, dies of fever.
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A little after Frederick Douglass encouraged black soldiers to fight in the army, the Government established the Bureau of Colored Troops to manage the burgeoning numbers of black soldiers.
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Confederate army general Robert E. Lee surrenders to general Ulysses S. Grant, ending the terrible Civil war.
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Lincoln and his wife, Mary go to see a play called "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater. At about ten P.M. Lincoln is shot.
