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South Carolina and six other Southern states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. Confederate troops fired upon Fort Sumter marking the beginning of the civil war.

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Lincoln sailed to victory with with just 40% of the votes. The south was now in the minority. No longer able to shape the national events and policies.

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Brown wanted to use the weapons to arm slaves for a rebellion that would end slavery. It was an insane scheme where his men were wither killed or captured trying to steal weapons.

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A series of political debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, who were candidates in the Illinois Race for U.S. senator, in which slavery was the main issue.

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A Supreme Court decision in 1857 that held that African Americans could never be citizens of the United States and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.

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Reactions to the attack on Sumner showed how divided the country had become. Many Southerners applauded Brooks for defending the honor of his family and the South. Most Northerners viewed the beating as another example of Southern brutality.

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Armed invaders burned a hotel, looted several homes, and tossed the printing press of an abolitionist newspaper into the Kaw River. Abolitionists planned revenge, John Brown and seven followers dragged five men they suspected of supporting slavery and killed them.

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An Act passed in 1854 that created the Kansas and Nebraska territories and abolished the Missouri Compromise by allowing settlers to determine whether slavery would be allowed in the new territories.

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The Fugitive Slave Act was passed as part of the Compromise of 1850. A person arrested as a runaway slave has almost no legal rights. The Slave catchers could roam anywhere in the U.S. to catch these slaves.

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The agreement made in order to admit California to the union as a free state. These agreements included allowing New Mexico and Utah territories to decide whether to allow slavery or not.

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Making California a free state would upset the balance of free and slave states in Congress. The year ended with Congress deadlocked over California's request for statehood.

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The Wilmot Proviso stated that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist" in any part of the territory that might be acquired fro Mexico as a result of the Mexican-American War.

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These fugitives from slavery were often helped in their escape by sympathetic people in the North. Slaveholders demanded that Congress pass a fugitive slave law to help them recapture their property.

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Leaders of this early 1800's religious revival promised that God would bless those who did the Lord's work. For some Americans, the Lord work was the abolition of slavery.

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A agreement made by Congress in 1820 under which Missouri was admitted to the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state. It also created an imaginary line in which the northern-most part would be free, while the southern-most part would be slave.