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When Missouri applied to become a state, the nation had a debate on whether it should be a slave state or a free state. At that point, some states recognized slavery as immoral. If Missouri had been admitted as a slave state, the pro-slave states would have taken majority in Congress.

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The solution Congress came up with was that Missouri would be admitted to the nation as a slave state. To keep balance within Congress, Maine would be admitted as a free state. A line was drawn at the 36, 30 parallel, separating the North and South as slave and free states.

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The Missouri Compromise sparked conflict in between the free and slave states and caused them to fight over whether new states should be free, slaved, or have the power to choose for themselves. The division on the 36 30 parallel divided the states into North and South, assigning them as either slave or free state, which determined the moral standpoint the respective states were on.

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Nat Turner was a slave that sparked an uprising throughout several plantations in southern Virginia. He believed that two solar eclipses were instructions from God to lead this rebellion. They were stopped two days later by the militia. During the two days that Turner and about 70 other cohorts were running rampant, they are suspected to have killed 60 white people. Nat's rebellion is considered the bloodiest slave uprising of the time.

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Nat Turner and 54 other slaves ended up getting tried and suffered the death penalty for their participation in the riot. About 200 more slaves where executed by mobs of citizens "serving justice". This lead Virginia lawmakers to take away what little rights and education blacks (slaves or freed) had at the time.

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David Wilmot proposed a piece of legislation at the end of the Mexican-American war named The Wilmot Proviso. This would have been able to prohibit slavery in all the land acquired from the war. Fighting for his plan for two years, he tried to attach it to other existing treaties and bills but was not successful.

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Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas got a "shaky accord" due to the debate on the Wilmot Proviso. This compromise strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act but also prevented slavery from expanding on to new lands.

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This compromise was able to stop the war in between the North and the South from starting too soon. The bad thing was that it may have divided the nation even more due to the unaddressed issue of the dividing of slave and free states. It also did not help get the North and the South back on the same side.

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Nat Turners Rebellion was started to try and break free from slavery. In the end, the rebellion ended up taking away even more rights from blacks. Over 250 slaves died and over 60 white men died, leading white citizens to think that blacks were dangerous.

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Nat Turner: Leader of the 1831 Rebellion

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Nat Turner: Leader of the 1831 Rebellion

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If accepted, Wilmot's legislation would have created more free states than slave states. The free states would have had a bigger vote in Congress, and slavery would have been abolished quickly. However, the legislation was not accepted, and the first discussions of splitting into the Union and the Confederates took place.

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Green land would have been slave-free if Wilmot Proviso was accepted. 

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Green land would have been slave-free if Wilmot Proviso was accepted. 

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Uncle Tom's cabin was a second-best-selling book in America for the 19th century written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was a fictional story about the life of a slave.

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Uncle Tom's Cabin made Northerners recognize the brutal life of a slave. Southerners believed the story was fictional and made slavery sound worse than it was. Due to it's popularity, Uncle Tom's Cabin brought many citizens who were indifferent about slavery to take a side, increasing the divide between the North and the South.

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The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 barely passed. Congress became a war zone, with death threats and weapons, allowing citizens to decide for themselves about slavery.

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Settlers traveled to Kansas to voice their opinions on slavery, hoping to win over others. The two sides stayed in Kansas for 5 years, with occasional fights that killed 56 people. Both sides eventually passed anti-slavery agreements, but the violence shocked and troubled citizens outside of Kansas.

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A slave named Dred Scott (seen below) decided to sue his master, Sandford, for his freedom. After going all the way to the Supreme Court, it was decided that because Scott was a slave and therefore a piece of property, he wasn't subject to the same rights that whites were given.

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The decision of the Dred Scott v. Sandford case completely changed the game for the Southerners case on why slavery was okay. Southerners challenged the territorial limitations that were agreed upon, and the divide between North and South increased.

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John Brown was an advocate for anti-slavery during Bleeding Kansas (1854-1861). He organized a small group of white allies and freed slaves and raided a government arsenal in Virginia, in hopes of gaining weapons to strengthen the slave uprisings.

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Brown was captured and executed for treason. He became one of the faces of the abolitionist cause. Southerners increased militarily surveillance in fear of future raids.

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In 1860 Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election by a landslide, even though he wasn't included on many ballots.

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As an advocate for anti-slavery, Southerners feared their slaves would be taken away once Lincoln was in office. A month later, South Carolina and 6 other states seceded.

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Several forts including Fort Sumter became outposts in a foreign land. Lincoln decided to send supplies to these forts. On April 12th, Confederate ships stopped the supply shipment to Fort Sumter and bombarded the ship, which surrendered April 14th.

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The Battle of Fort Sumter marked the beginning of the Civil War. On April 15th, Lincoln recruited 75,000 volunteers to join the Northern Army. Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee seceded from the Union due to an unwillingness to contribute to the army.