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Delegates in Charleston, South Carolina, voted to leave the Union on December 20, 1860. Then in February 1861, six more states joined South Carolina and they became the Confederate States of America.

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Abraham Lincoln won the election of 1860, but this election wasn't like any of the previous ones. In ten Southern states, he wasn't even on the ballot for choice. The South was now the minority. They left like they had lost everything.

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Abolitionist John Brown took a rather extreme approach to ending slavery. Brown planned to still weapons from the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry to arm slaves for a rebellion. Most of his men were either killed or captured. Brown was soon after sentenced to death. Many Northerners viewed Brown as a hero, while white southerners were left quite uneasy.

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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 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. From across the South, supporters sent Brooks new canes to replace the one he had broken on Sumner's head. Most Northers viewed the beating as another example of Southern brutality.

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On May 21, 1856 armed pro slavery settlers and border ruffians from Missouri looted homes, burned a hotel in the home of the anti-slavery government, Lawrence, Kansas and then they continued to tossed the printing press of an abolitionist newspaper into the Kaw River. After this a fiery abolitionist (John brown) him and seven followers invaded the pro slavery town of Pottawatomie, Kansas, there they dragged out five men they suspected to be pro slavery from their homes and hacked them to death with swords.

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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. Douglas called this policy popular sovereignty or rule by the people.

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"The Fugitive Slave Act was passed as a part of the Compromise of 1850". "Under the Fugitive Slave Act, a person arrested as a runaway slave had almost no legal rights." Some even started to fight back. "The Fugitive Slave Act also said that any person who helped a slave escape, or even refused to aid slave catches, could be jailed."

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the agreements made in order to admit California into the Union as a free state. These agreements included allowing New Mexico and Utah territories to decide whether to allow slavery, outlawing the slave trade in Washington, D.C., and creating a stronger fugitive slave law.

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In late 1849 California applied to be granted pass to join the Union as a free state. Northerners of course were all for it but the Southerners rejected this request because it upset the balance between slave and free states. After this the year ended with Congress' deadlock over the request.

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After 10 years of peace in Congress due to the gag rule, President James Polk had sent in a bill that requested funds for the war with Mexico. A representative by the name of David Wilmot added an amendment to the bill known as the Wilmot Proviso. Which stated "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist" in any part of the territory that may be acquired from the Mexican-American war. This bill passed through the House but was rejected by the Senate.

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Sympathetic people in the North would help slaves escape to freedom. However, this upset slaveholders because they saw slaves as valuable pieces of property who were being taken (set free) by "Northerners who were no better than bank robbers."

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Shortly after the debate over slavery was once again settled something new and big came into mess it all up again. This Thing was the Second Great Awakening , which was an early 1800's religious revival that promised God would bless those who did the Lord's work.

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An 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.