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As Southern states threatened to secede, senators formed a committee to find a compromise in order to keep the Union together, but, on the same day as their first meeting, they lost their chance. Due to growing tensions, on December 20, 1860, South Carolina had voted to secede from the United States; six other states soon followed, and the seceded states joined together to form the Confederate States of America.
Image source: http://www.ushistory.org/us/32e.asp

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#14: Abraham Lincoln Is Elected President

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#14: Abraham Lincoln Is Elected President

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In 1860, Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election of the United States. This upset the Southerners and made them fear that Congress would end slavery.
Image source: http://npg.si.edu/blog/abraham-lincoln-elected-president-november-6-1860-part-one

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John Brown was a white abolitionist who attacked the Harpers Ferry arsenal in 1859, as part of a plan to arm slaves for a rebellion. His plan failed, and all of his men were captured or killed; Brown was sentenced to death for treason.
Image source: http://www.american-historama.org/1850-1860-secession-era/john-browns-raid-harpers-ferry.htm

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The Lincoln-Douglas debates where when Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debated the issue of slavery while competing to be the senator for Illinois. Lincoln argued that slavery was a moral issue and, though he didn't become senator, the debates helped make him much more well-known.
Image source: http://www.american-historama.org/1860-1865-civil-war-era/lincoln-douglas-debates.htm

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The Dred Scott decision was when the Supreme Court decided, in 1857, that African Americans were not and could never become citizens. This pleased Southerners, because slavery became allowed in all territories, but infuriated Northerners.
Image source: http://www.ushistory.org/us/32a.asp

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After the Lawrence raid, a senator named Charles Sumner gave a harsh speech on his feelings about the raid, which offended many Southerners. Two days later, a man named Preston Brooks violently attacked Sumner in the Senate, and it took him more than three years to recover.
Image source: https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/this-day-in-1856-a-near-murder-on-the-u-s-senate-floor

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In 1856, violent, pro-slavery settlers from Missouri invaded the anti-slavery town of Lawrence, Kansas. They looted many houses, sent fire to a hotel, and threw the printing presses of anti-slavery newspapers into a river.
Image source: http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1863/september/quantrills-lawrence-kansas-raid.htm

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Tha Kansas-Nebraska act was passed in 1854 and created the territories of Nebraska and Kansas. It also ended the Missouri Compromise by allowing citizens to decide if slavery was allowed or not in the territories, which angered many Northerners.
Image source: http://www.ushistory.org/us/31a.asp

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The fugitive slave act angered both the North and the South. The Northerners did not obey or enforce the act, while the Southerners were upset that it barely helped them regain the escaped slaves.
Image source: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/fugitive-slave-acts

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With this compromise, California joined the United States as a free state. This compromise also prohibited slavery in Washington, D.C. and allowed the Utah and New Mexico territories to decide for themselves whether to be slave or free territories. Another part of the compromise was that a stricter law regarding escaped slaves was passed.
Image source: http://www.ushistory.org/us/30d.asp

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In 1849, California asked to join the United States a a free state. However, Southerners were upset and didn't allow this because it would mean there were more free states than slave states.
Image source: https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=23856

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In 1846, James Polk asked Congress for funding for the war against Mexico. David Wilmot added the Wilmot Proviso to the bill, which prohibited slavery in the territory gained from Mexico in the war.
Image source: https://etc.usf.edu/maps/pages/800/808/808.htm

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While there were no major slave revolts after Nat Turner's Rebellion, many slaves still escaped to gain their freedom in the North. Northerners helped the escaped slaves, which angered the Southern slave owners.
Image source: http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Fugitives_from_Slavery

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The Missouri Compromise settled the issue of slavery, but only for a short time. Soon, many Americans began to petition Congress for the abolition of slavery, inspired by leaders of the Second Great Awakening.
Image source: http://www.ushistory.org/us/23c.asp

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The Missouri Compromise was an agreement made by Congress in 1820. It allowed Missouri to be admitted to the Union as a slave state and Maine to be admitted as a free state.
Image source: https://www.history.com/topics/missouri-compromise