Causes of the Civil War
By: Kaleb Gorman
Missouri Compromise of 1820
Missouri Compromise was created by Henry Clay and it was to separate the free countries and slave countries. If adding a state the you will have to add another to keep it balanced in the system. Sectionalism threatened the union. The Missouri compromise settled the statehood on the application.
Compromise of 1850
Compromise of 1850 was whether it should be a slave or free state. California became a free state. Also it outlawed the slave trading. This caused the new fugitive slave law. If helped slaves then put in jail for six months. Also they would have to pay a fine of $1,000.
Fugitive Slave Act 1850
This law made it a crime to help runaway slaves and allowed officials to arrest those slaves in the free area. Free slaves could be kidnapped saying that this is there slave even though they weren’t there slave.
Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854
This act caused pro slavery and antislavery groups to fight. This act also divided the Louisiana purchase into two territories. The territories picked if they were slavery or not. This act eliminated the Missouri line.
Bleeding Kansas 1854-1861
Kansas had two governments and the population was angry. The pro-slavery owned guns so the antislavery was sent guns from the east. The posse set Lawrence to fire and looted buildings. John Brown was crazy and killed 5 pro-slavery settlers while sleeping and it was called the Pottawatomie Massacre.
Dred Scott Decision 1857
Just two days after Buchanan became president, the Supreme Court issued a historic ruling about slavery. News of the decision threw the country back into crisis. The Court reviewed and decided the complex case involving an enslaved man named Dred Scott. He was taken into the north where it was free and still worked for a slave owner.
John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry 1859
He started a rebellion by taking slaves to an arsenal. They took weapons and were fighting for their rights. They got trapped in a firehouse. They all got captured and John Brown was sentenced to death by hanging.
Election of 1860
The Constitutional Union Party recognized “no political principles other than the Constitution of the country, the Union of the states, and the enforcement of the laws. John Bell was a candidate of the new party. Bell was a slaveholder, but he had opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854.Douglas, Breckinridge, and Bell each knew he might not win the election. They hoped to win enough electoral votes to prevent Lincoln from winning in the electoral college. But with a uni ed Republican Party behind him, Lincoln won.
South Secedes December 1860-June 1861
Lincoln insisted that he would not change slavery in the South. However, he said that slavery could not expand and thus would eventually die out completely. That idea angered many southerners. No more slave states should be in the union. People can go against it.
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 (APUSH Review - Period 4)
The Conclusion
All of these events lead up to the Civil war. But the Kansas Nebraska started it. It started y lighting Lawrence up in flames. Then the Civil war came and the United States won.