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As the nation grew, expanding westward, the issue of slavery grew as well. This was beneficial for the South, as they hoped that these new territories would become slave states, they believed that it’d help keep control of, at least, half of the Senate. There was then a series of compromises, segwaying into the Missouri Compromise.

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The Missouri Compromise stated that for every slave state, there would also be a new free state. For example, when Missouri became a slave state, Maine became a free state, and Florida was admitted as a slave state to account for Iowa becoming a free state. However, there weren’t enough states joining America, to keep this up for long. Hence the passing of the Compromise of 1850.

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There wasn’t enough new states joining America to keep up with the Missouri Compromise, so there had to be a change. Under the compromise of 1850, the people living in those territories were now allowed to vote (system of popular sovereignty) for whether they were a slave state, or a free state.

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However, after the Compromise of 1850, the slave states introduced a stricter slave law, the Fugitive Slave Act. This act states that regardless of if a slave is in a free state or slave state, they must be returned to their owners. This act also made the Federal government responsible for locating & returning slaves.

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Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a book published to help spread awareness of the horrors that the slaves had been forced to endure. Many people had no idea just the extent of the brutality that slaves faced, so upon the book's publishing there was a wave of moral outrage from the North. This book had encouraged people to speak out, and worsened the North and South's relationship.

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The Kansas-Nebraska Act was raised by Senator Stephen Douglas who’d helped arrange the previous Compromise of 1850, and the territory had split into Kansas and Nebraska. Douglas had applied popular sovereignty to these two territories, which had caused outrage in the North who didn’t want slavery to extend to any new territories.

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The Kansas-Nebraska Act had caused the violent uprising known as “Bleeding Kansas,” both anti-slavery and pro-slavery settlers had come to Kansas in an attempt to sway the votes. Eventually, the violence had even spread to the federal government where Senator Charles Sumner was beat with a cane.

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The Formation of the Republican Party (1854)

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The Formation of the Republican Party (1854)

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In direct response to Bleeding Kansas, two state government parties were formed. One was anti-slavery, the other was pro-slavery; one of these parties was the Republican Party, Republicans opposed the extension of slavery into new territories. This party was made up of protestant, outraged northerners, and following the civil war, former slaves.

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Southerners had advocated for the Ostend manifesto, whilst northern abolitionists were against it. The northerners believed that the South attempting to buy Cuba was another attempt at extending slavery, seeing as the southern diplomats were well-known advocates for slavery. Not only did they lose relations with France, Spain, and England; they’d also strained the relations between Northern and Southern politicioans, pushing the nation closer to Civil War.

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John Brown who was a white abolitionist, attacked a federal arsenal, in hopes to gain the support of the enslaved people in his area. Slowly as the group of 22 men (and two of his sons) started to die off he was captured and hung days later

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Considered the most pivotal election in the state's history. Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln was up against the Democratic party nominee Senator Stephan Douglas. The main issue this election being slavery and states rights. Lincoln won and became the 16th president.

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The war started just weeks after the election of 1860, when the confederacy fired on Fort Sumter. Before the war however, seven states seceded and started the Confederate States of America because of the election results; Four more states joined them later. Ending with the confederacy's surrender, it is considered the deadliest war on American soil, with around 620,000 out of 2.4 million soldiers dead, left both the south in ruin and families torn apart.

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Issued by Lincoln in 1863, only freed the slaves behind the confederate lines and didn't apply to the slave states in the union.

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Because of the emancipation, the union started recruiting newly freed African- Americans, and the first organized group to be introduced to the war was the 54th Regiment

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More than 50,000 troops were injured or killed in battle. General Lee with the Confederacy advanced to the North and two days after that advance and that loss, he never advanced the North again. This was new for the North as they were losing the war before this battle.

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The North had just won the Battle of Gettysburg the day before so the taking of the Vicksburg (a part of the souths route to getting supplies to the Mississippi) was very easy for the north

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Army troops destroyed all Confederate supplies by total war