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The Fugitive Slave Law is at the beginning of the road to emancipation because it was something that many Southerners had wanted for a long time and it was mostly Southerners that protested against it. This contributed to rising tensions between the North and South, led to the South threatening to secede and sparked anger and violence between the parts of the country.
Zachary Taylor threatened to veto the Fugitive Slave Law and Southern states threatened to secede. In response, he threatened to hang them. Taylor died and his Vice President Fillmore, signed the act despite that being the opposite of Taylor's intention. Civilians protested very physically, a contrast to the previous abolitionist strategy of using writing to protest. William Loyd Garrison burned a copy of the Fugitive Slave act and the constitution in protest of the law.

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Left: Chief Justice Roger Taney,                                                            Right: Dred Scott         

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Dred Scott was a slave whose master took him to Wisconsin territory, an area with no slavery. He decided to try to sue for his freedom, because slaves were supposed to be free there. The Supreme Court decided to hear the case and President Buchanan hoped their ruling will calm the rising tensions between Northern and Southern states. After a decade in court, on March 6th 1857, Chief Justice Roger Taney delivered the decision. The court ruled that Dred Scott, nor any slave can sue for their freedom because they are not citizens and according to this ruling, no free or enslaved African American in the United States can ever become a citizen. The ruling also said that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and taking slavery away should be treated like taking someone's property away. This meant that slavery was allowed in all United States territories.
This pleased slave owners, made some people like Stephen Douglas say that the issue of slavery was resolved, made many abolitionists feel hopeless. It is hard to think that such a negative event for abolition could lead to emancipation. But, I think the Dred Scott case was an important event on the way to emancipation because it showed how easily peoples right's were being taken away. It showed the need for figuring out the country's rules on slavery and sticking with them.

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The Election of 1860 led to emancipation because it elected Abraham Lincoln, who would go on to make the 13th amendment and end slavery. At the time of his election, Lincoln believed that slavery was an important moral issue, but he thought that it should only not continue to spread and be allowed in the current territories. By the end of the war, his opinions changed greatly. Lincoln won the election, representing the new Republican Party against three opposing parties. The election of 1860 was important because it showed how divided the country had become. He won with 40% of the vote, which all came from the North. Lincoln wasn't even on the ballot of 10 Southern states. This shows how the election solidified the divide between North and South and the direct connection of Anti-Slavery States and Pro-Slavery states.

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The Battle of Antietam was fought in three parts, which were basically three separate battles. Lee wanted to win a battle on Union soil to get the Confederate Army to be recognized by European countries. Although no ground was gained from the battle, it led to emancipation because the Union claimed it as a victory which gave Lincoln the idea that the Emancipation Proclamation could work. The Battle of Antietam is referred to as a Union victory. However, it is also referred to as the bloodiest battle in United States history. With 2108 Union soldiers dead, 1,500 Confederate soldiers dead, and an estimate of 50,000 casualties, it was a loss for both sides.

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After the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation on January 1st 1863. It says that if the South didn't end the war then slavery will end in the Confederate states. Lincoln realized that European countries that were against slavery would no longer want to support the Confederacy if they were fighting to keep slavery. It didn't change much about slavery because those states just ignored the proclamation and weren't taking orders from the Union Government in general. The Emancipation Proclamation helped Lincoln gain more support for the war since it then had a clearer purpose.
Even though it didn't end slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation led to emancipation because it changed the goal of the war for Lincoln, from fighting to save the Union, to fighting the war to end slavery.

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Passed by Congress on January 31st 1865 and ratified on December 6th 1865, the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution was very important to emancipation because it was the document that officially abolished slavery. Lincoln had realized that the Emancipation Proclamation was not enough to change anything about slavery. Different than his views before the war, he then knew that slavery had to end everywhere, not just in some states, and not just stopping it from spreading to new territory. It is also one of the things that marks the end of the Civil War.