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When Harriet Beecher Stowe was young, she went to a slave state for the first time and saw the tragic things that slaves went through. Eighteen years later, she housed and helped a fugitive slave (Uncle Tom) against the government’s wishes. While Uncle Tom was staying with Harriet, she started writing a book about the horrid living conditions and treatment of slaves. Her book was designed to pull at people’s heartstrings, and to let people know that everyone is human, no matter the color of their skin. She wanted Americans to see slavery for the first time in the eyes of the victims. Harriet once said “I must speak for the oppressed - who cannot speak for themselves” (trafficking institute). More than 300,000 copies were sold of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and a play was also created! Although many people saw slavery in a new and bad way, it also caused anger. This book helped close a door for slavery, but opened a new one for the civil war. For instance, Abraham Lincoln once said “So you're the little woman that started this great war!” (goodreads)

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The Kansas-Nebraska Act came about when Stephen Douglas wanted to organize the Great Plains into  Nebraska territory. Once the plains were organized he wanted to put a railroad that stretched all the way to California. After some time, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed. This act created two separate territories, Kansas, and Nebraska. These two territories could then choose if they would be a free state or slave state. Popular sovereignty was what Stephen Douglas called it. Stephen Douglass thought that “this idea of “popular sovereignty” would resolve the mounting debate over the future of slavery in the United States and enable the country to expand westward with few obstacles. But the Compromise of 1850 (especially the strict new Fugitive Slave Act it contained) galvanized the abolitionist movement and fueled mounting debate over whether the institution of slavery should be allowed to expand along with the nation” (History.com). Another example of popular sovereignty is “Popular Sovereignty would decide if slavery would exist in the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska” (TCI). In the end, the benefits of the Kansas-Nebraska Act did not outweigh the toll that it took on America.

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Dred Scott and his wife Harriet Scott were both enslaved African Americans. They were enslaved in Wisconsin, but their owner moved them to Missouri. Dred and Harriet both filed to be a citizen of the United States. They did this because if you were a slave in a free state, but went to a slave state you would be free. The doctrine was “once free, always free” (history.com). The Dred Scott case went all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court asked many questions. Some justices were against slavery, and some were not, so the case could have gone either way. With the evidence provided, the justices dropped two major bombshells “By a vote of seven to two, the Court had decided that Scott could not sue for his freedom in a federal court because he was not a citizen. Nor, said Taney, could Scott become a citizen because no African American, whether slave or free, was an American citizen—or could ever become one. Second, Taney declared that the Court had rejected Scott's argument that his stay in Wisconsin had made him a free man. The reason was simple. The Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional” (TCI, Lesson 21, Section, 6). This caused a lot of chaos, and also helped spark the Civil War.

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Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas had different views on the issue of slavery, so Lincoln challenged Douglas to debate the subject. They ended up both participated in seven debates throughout Illinois to become the new senator. During the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, “Douglas argued that the Dred Scott decision had put the slavery issue to rest, but Lincoln disagreed. In his eyes, slavery was a moral, not a legal, issue. He declared, “The real issue in this controversy . . . is the sentiment of one class [group] that looks upon the institution of slavery as a wrong, and of another class that does not look upon it as a wrong”” (TCI, Lesson 21, Section 7) After, people started to fill out their ballots “On election day, the voters of Illinois chose members of the state legislature who in turn reelected Douglas to the Senate in January 1859. Although Lincoln lost, the Republicans received more popular votes than the Democrats, signaling an important shift in the political character of the state. Moreover, Lincoln had gained a reputation throughout the North. He was invited to campaign for Republican candidates in other states and was now mentioned as a candidate for the presidency. In winning, Douglas further alienated the Buchanan administration and the South, was soon to be stripped of his power in the Senate, and contributed to the division of the Democratic party” (history.com). These debates/results caused some trouble and helped start the Civil War.

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John Brown’s Raid at Harpers Ferry of 1859:

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John Brown’s Raid at Harpers Ferry of 1859:

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Abraham Lincoln wanted to end slavery in a peaceful approach, while John Brown wanted to take a more extreme method. John Brown’s way of doing this was “Rather than wait for Congress to act, Brown planned to seize the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. An arsenal is a place where weapons and ammunition are stored. Brown wanted to use the weapons to arm slaves for a rebellion that would end slavery” (TCI, Lesson 21, Section 7). In 1859, the raid occurred. Though John wanted the raid to be successful most of his men died or were captured. Eventually, John Brown was convicted of treason, and sentenced to death. His death caused problems between the Northerners and Southerners, leading to just one of the causes of the Civil War. An example of this event causing problems is "Although the raid failed, it inflamed sectional tensions and raised the stakes for the 1860 presidential election. Brown’s raid helped make any further accommodation between North and South nearly impossible and thus became an important impetus of the Civil War" (history.com).

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The election 1860 had four nominees. Abraham Lincoln (Republican Party), John Bell (Constitutional Union Party), John C. Breckinridge (Democrat Party), and Stephen Douglas (Democratic Party). The primary topics discussed were slavery and states’ rights. These nominees had very different ways of campaigning “None of the 1860 presidential candidates did anywhere near the level of campaigning seen in modern-day elections. In fact, except for Douglas, they mostly kept to themselves and let well-known party members and citizens campaign for them at rallies and parades. Much of the campaigning, however, was devoted to getting voters to the ballot box on Election Day. Lincoln’s political experience and speeches spoke for themselves, but one of his main campaign goals was to keep the Republican party unified. He didn’t want his party to reveal any of the discord of the Democrats and hoped to divide the Democratic votes. Douglas campaigned in the North and South to hopefully make up for the divided voter base in the South, and gave a series of campaign speeches in favor of the Union” (history.com). After all of the hard work each candidate put in, the results were finally in. Abraham Lincoln won the election by a landslide “With his opposition divided three ways, Lincoln sailed to victory, but it was an odd victory. Lincoln won the presidential election with just 40 percent of the votes, all of them cast in the North. In ten Southern states, he was not even on the ballot. For white Southerners, the election of 1860 delivered an unmistakable message. The South was now in the minority. It no longer had the power to shape national events or policies, and Southerners feared that, sooner or later, Congress would try to abolish slavery. And that, wrote a South Carolina newspaper, would mean “the loss of liberty, property, home, country—everything that makes life worth having.”” (TCI, Lesson 21, Section 8) This election put people in their place, and some people lost power in the process. In conclusion, the election had a lot to do with the Civil War starting.