Causes of the Civil War

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1820 - Missouri Compromise

- Maine would enter as a free state

- Missouri would enter as a slave state

- Slavery banned above the 36-30 line(Missouri's southern border) excluding Missouri

*Showed that Congress had the power to ban slavery in new territories

1850 - Compromise of 1850

- Repealed Missouri Compromise

- California would enter as a free state

- The Mexican Cession(1848) would be split into Utah and New Mexico

- People in UT and NW would decide whether or not to have slavery via popular sovereignty

1854 - Kansas-Nebraska Act

- Kansas and Nebraska would decide whether or not to have slavery via popular sovereignty

- Led to Bleeding Kansas(mini civil war that lasted 4 months)

Bleeding Kansas

- anti-slavery and pro-slavery people voted in Kansas

- more votes than there were registered citizens

- people died

1858 - Lincoln-Douglas Debates

- Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debated over slavery

- Lincoln was anti-slavery, but not an abolitionist(slavery was wrong, but legal)

- Douglas won, but Lincoln gained national recognition

1859 - Harper's Ferry

- John Brown(abolitionist) led a slave rebellion

- tried to attach federal arsenal

- failed and all involved were punished

- Lincoln called Brown a "misguided fanatic"

Dred Scott Decision

- SC ruled that:

1. African-Americans aren't citizens so they can't sue in court

2. Dred Scott's time in the North didn't make him free

3. Banning slavery via the Missouri Compromise is unconstitutional

*South said they answered all questions about slavery

*North believed Congress had the right to ban slavery

Uncle Tom's Cabin

- written by Harriet Beecher Stowe

- 1852

- sparked outrage in the North and South

- South thought it was propaganda and it was fake

- North spread anti-slavery support

Election of 1860

- Lincoln won(republican)

- Lincoln never campaigned in the South

- South Carolina secedes one month after he's elected

- South thinks they have no more hope to keep slavery

*Was the secession justified?

1861 - Civil War Begins

- Ft. Sumter is the first battle

- 11 states form the Confederate States of America

April 12, 1861 - Battle at Ft. Sumter

- South thinks the fort is theirs bc it's in the South

-North thinks it's theirs bc it's U.S. property

*Who has control over the fort, North or South?