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After the election, the talk of secession spread around, the Congress scrambled to try to make a compromise that would hold the states together. But, Lincoln declined any compromising that would include extending slavery in new land. So, on December 20, 1860, South Carolina delegates voted and separated from the Union. Six other stated followed South Carolina's actions and they joined to become the Confederate States of America.

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#14 Abraham Lincoln is elected as President

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#14 Abraham Lincoln is elected as President

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Lincoln won with just 40 percent of the votes, all of them were from the North and in the South, he wasn't even on the ballot. Because of this election, the South no longer had the power to shape national events and policies, they also feared that Congress would try to abolish slavery.

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John Brown planned to take the federal arsenal that was loaded with weapons and with those weapons he wanted to arm slaves for a rebellion that would end slavery. Brown launched his raid in 1859, all of Brown's raid was killed or captured during the raid and Brown himself was convicted treason and was given a death sentence.

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During Lincoln-Douglas Debates Senator Stephen Douglas claimed that the Dred Scott decision settled the slavery issue, but in Lincoln's opinion slavery was a moral, not legal issue. Lincoln lost the election, but his arguments made him a national figure and brought the moral issue of slavery into sharp focus.

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The Dred-Scott decision was 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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Preston Brooks attacked Charles Sumner on the Senate floor in retaliation for his speech in Lawrence, Kansas about being against the Lawrence Raid. Most Northers took this as an example of the Southerners' brutality.

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After the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, settlers poured into Kansas. There were settlers that supported slavery and those who didn't which lead to two separate governments in the territory. On May 21, 1856, pro slavery settler from Missouri invaded Lawrence, Kansas, the home of the antislavery government. Armed invaders burned a hotel, looted several homes, and threw printing presses of two abolitionist newspapers into the Kaw river. The raid provoked rage in the North and two day after the Lawrence raid, John Brown and seven followers invaded Pottawatomie, Kansas and dragged five men from their home and killed them with swords.

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The Kansas- Nebraska Act created two new territories, Nebraska and Kansas. It abolished the Missouri Compromise by leaving it up to the settlers to vote if slavery was allowed. This Act was passed in 1854. The Northerners were struck in the face with this act, they saw slavery marchings across the plain.

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Under the Fugitive Slave Act, a person arrested as a runaway slave had almost no legal rights and any person who helped a slave escape could be jailed. Southerner believed the act didn't do enough for their property and Northerners did nothing to support this act. Because of this tens of thousands fugitive slaves were living in the North during the 1850s and only 299 were returned.

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On January 21, 1850, Henry Clay created a plan to end the deadlock over California. His compromise would enter California as a free state, let the Utah and New Mexico territory decide whether to allow slavery, also end slave trade in Washington D.C, but slaveholder in Washington could still keep their slaves, and included a strong fugitive slave law. The Congress argued the compromise for nine long months until finally in September 1850, Congress adopted Clay's plan.

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In late 1849, California applied for admission to the Union as a free state. However, if California was entered as a free state the balance between free and slave states would be disrupted. California request for statehood was set aside as Southerners threatened to secede from the Union and Northerners opposed slavery as it was a crime against humanity.

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The gag rule kept slavery issues quiet for 10 years. In 1846, David Wilmot created the Wilmot Proviso, that stated slavery should not exist in the new land that could be gained from the Mexico-American War. Southerner strongly opposed Wilmot's amendment and it passed through House, but rejected by Senate.

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After Nat Turner's rebellion, individual slaves continued to rebel and escape to the North for freedom by the help of sympathetic people in the North. Slaveholders demanded that Congress passed a fugitive slave law to help them recapture runaway slaves.

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The Second Great Awakening lead religious leaders of 1820s and 1830s to promise that God would bless those who did the lords works and some people believed that the Lord's work was the abolition of slavery. However, in 1836, congress had voted to set aside antislavery petitions. Abolitionists called this the "gag rules because it tried to silence all debate over slavery. Southerners feared of an event similar to Nat Turner's rebellion to occur in the future, so they adopted stricter laws to control the slaves even more.

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The agreement made by Congress in 1820  under which Missouri was admitted to the Union as a slave state and Maine was admitted as a free state. This compromise maintained the balance between slave and free states.