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In the weeks after the election, there was talk about the South seceding. After failing to reach a compromise, in Charleston, South Carolina, on December 20th, 1860, delegates attending the state convention voted to leave the union. Six more states soon left as well, and woudl become the Confederate States of America.

Source: digitalhistory.uh.edu/active_learning/explorations/south_secede/envelope1.jpg

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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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After the presidential race of 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president. However, he won all his votes, 40 percent, from the North, while in 10 states in the South, he wasn't even on the ballot. Thus, Southerners realized they were now the minority, and they feared that Congress would eventually abolish slavery.

Source: npg.si.edu/sites/default/files/blog/6a00e550199efb8833013488bc4bc7970c-pi.jpg

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While Lincoln debated over slvaery, John Brown, responsible for the raid on Pottawatomie, Kansas, took a more violent approach, believing that using weapons was the only way. Trying to seize the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, however, all the men were either captured or killer. However, after John Brown's death, the South was scared of their deaths if a civil war occured, as well as how the North sided with John Brown.

Source: www2.iath.virginia.edu/jbrown/battle2.gif

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Dred Scott, a slave, accompanied his owner to visit Wisconsin, where slavery is outlawed. After returning, he went to court for his freedom arguing that by staying in Wisconsin he was now a free man. Ultimately, the Supreme Court ruled that he could not sue for freedom in a federal court because he wasn't a citizen, nor could he become a citizen. This made the South very happy, but the North was angered by this decision.

Source: media.nationalgeographic.org/
assets/photos/279/774/d27a8ed4-1b43-419d-bfb2-087aade5367e.jpg

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The Lincoln - Douglas Debates were a series debates between Senator Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. The two debated over the issue of slavery. Douglas argued that the Dred Scott Decision had ended this debate but Lincoln disagreed, stating that slavery itself was immoral. Lincoln lost the debate, but it was widely reported, making him a national figure.

Source: cambridgeblog.org/wpcontent/uploads/2012/09/lincoln.douglas.gif

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Senator Charles Sumner, angry over what the proslavery settlers had done in Kansas, gave a fiery speech over his suspicion of Senator Douglas' involvement in the attack on Lawrence. Disagreeing over what Sumner said, South Carolina representative Preston Brooks beat him with a cane on the Senate floor, knocking him unconscious. Southerners cheered him on and paid for his broken cane afterwards, while Northerners viewed this as another case of Southern brutality.

Source: img.timeinc.net/time/
photoessays/2011/top10_pol_feuds/brooks_sumner.jpg

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After the Nebraska-Kansas Act 1854, many settlers moved into those territories. Although most were poor farmers, some moved there to support or oppose slavery. Soon, two governments were made, and the conflict soon became violent. On May 21, proslavery settlers marched into Lawrence, Kansas, home of the abolitionist government and burned a hotel, looted some homes, and toss the printing presses of 2 antislavery newspapers into the river. This caused an uproar in the North, and people pitched in to pay for the printing presses. A few days after, John Brown, an abolitionist, invaded the proslavery of settlement Pottawatomie, Kansas and hacked 5 men to death.

Source: kcpl-vital-app.iii.com:9020/vital/access/services/Download/kcpl:14233/THUMBNAIL001L?view=true

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The Nebraska-Kansas Act of 1854 was an act that Senator Stephan A. Douglas created, formed the territories of Nebraska and Kansas. It also abolished the Missouri Compromise by implementing popular sovereignty. This Act outraged Northerners as they feared these would become slave states and that slavery would "march across the plains."

Source: cdn.history.com/sites/2/2013/12/kansas-nebraska-act-AB.jpeg

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The Fugitive Slave Act was an Act that made Northerners help return fugitive slaves to their owners. However both North and South were unhappy with this law. Northerners were upset because they didn't want enforce this rule, while Southerners were upset that their loss of property wasn't being treated more seriously.

Source: digitalhistory.uh.edu/primarysources_upload/images/effects_of_fugitive_slave_law_l.jpg

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In 1850, Henry Clay, a Kentucky senator and creator of the Missouri Compromise, proposed a new compromise, which would admit California as a free state, allow the New Mexico and Utah territories to decide whether or not to be a slave state, and end the practice of selling slaves in Washington D.C. After 9 exhausting months, the compromise was finally passed.

Source: ushistory.org/us/images/00080486.gif

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Congress debated over what to do with the territory gained with Mexico for the next 3 years. The South propsed that the imaginary line of the Missouri Compromise be extended all the way to the Pacific, allowing slavery below it and outlawing it above it, but the North rejected this compromise. In 1849, California applied to be admitted to the Union as a free state. Northerners openely welcomed California, but the South rejected the application, warning that it would upset the balance. By the end of 1849, Congress was deadlocked again, with Southerners threating to leave and the North denounced  slavery as a crime against humanity.

Source: georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/gastudiesimages/
California%20Statehood%20Stamp.jpg

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In 1846, President James Polk sent a bill to Congress asking for funds for the war with Mexico, with David Wilmot adding the Wilmot Proviso amendment to the bill. This amendment outlawed slavery in all territories acquired from Mexico in the Mexican-American War. This was strongly opposed by Southerners, and the bill only passed the House while the Senate rejected it.

Source: americaslibrary.gov/assets/aa/polk/aa
_polk_wilmot_1_m.jpg

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Many slaves ran to the North to escape slavery, making Southerners outraged that their "property" was disappearing. These fugitives were often helped by people in the North.

Source: cdn.history.com/sites/2/2013/12/under
ground-railroad-hero-H.jpeg

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Although the Missouri Compromise resolved the problem of slavery temporarily, the Second Great Awakening, a revival in religious feeling, abolitionists flooded Congress, causing it to pass the "Gag Rule". The Gag Rule was a law that prevented talk of all congressional debate over slavery. Southerners were angered over how the abolitionists were insulting their way of life.

Source: historycms.house.gov/uploadedImages/Historical_Highlights/1800-1850/abolition-cartoon-display.jpg

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The Missouri Compromise allowed Missouri to be admitted to the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state. It also drew an imaginary line at latitude 36°30' that would outlaw slavery in all states above that line except for Missouri.

Source: britannica.com/event/Missouri-Compromise