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1860 - 1861
After Lincoln was elected, two events happened which determined that the South would be too far gone. One, Lincoln did not like the idea of slavery in the territories. He stated this to a reporter in Illinois. Two, delegates in South Carolina voted to secede from the Union. There was much celebration about this, and other Southern states soon followed suit. These states banded into the Confederate States of America.

Image source:
http://www.bbc.com/

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1860
Lincoln was the nominee for the Republicans. The Democrats were split two ways, the Northern Democrats and Southern Democrats selected different people, and the new Constitutional Union Party also selected a different person. With his opposition split, Lincoln was elected president. The south realized it was now a minority.

Image source:
https://www.history.com/

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1859
Abolitionist John Brown had already made himself known by killing those in Pottawatomie. Now he decided that he would launch a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, in Virginia, to arm the slaves in nearby plantations. It was bound not to work. John Brown was captured at Harper's Ferry and sentenced to death by hanging.

Image source:
https://www.missedinhistory.com/

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1858
Abraham Lincoln was selected to run for the senate. Being an abolitionist, he and Stephen Douglas, who liked slavery as it was, clashed often. Their debates were widely reported, and although he did not win that election, he still made a sizable influence on the population.

Image source:
https://timesofsandiego.com/

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1857
Dred Scott, a slave from Missouri, had stayed a while in Wisconsin. When he went back to Missouri, he sued for freedom, saying his stay on free soil had freed him. The court ruled that this was not the case. They said that slaves were considered property, and that court could therefore not take him from his master. This violated the many laws regarding slavery in territories passed before.

Image source:
https://blackthen.com/

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1856
Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner
was certain that those behind the Kansas-Nebraska Act and other Southern senators were plotting to spread slavery. In an insulting speech, he voiced these concerns, calling Southern senators names. In retaliation, South Carolina representative Preston Brooks beat Sumner with his cane in Congress.

Image source:
http://www.ushistory.org/

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1854 - 1856
After the Kansas-Nebraska Act, both sides of the slavery debate poured into Kansas. They started conflicting very early. In 1856, pro-slavery settlers invaded Lawrence, Kansas. As revenge, John Brown and a few volunteers attacked Pottawatomie, Kansas and killed several settlers suspected of supporting slavery.

Video:
http://www.pbs.org/video/american-experience-pottawatomie-massacre/

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1854
Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois wanted to build a railroad to California. He believed it would be more likely to happen if the Great Plains was organized into territories open to settlers. To win Southern favor, he set up two new territories, Kansas and Nebraska, and allowed them to vote on slavery. This violated the Missouri Compromise.

Image source:
https://www.studythepast.org/

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1850 - 18
The Compromise of 1850 called for a fugitive slave law. It pleased few. To Northerners, they were doing something they considered immoral. The Southerners thought that the law wouldn't guarantee  their slaves back. They were right. Out of the many thousands of fugitive slaves living it the North, only 299 were captured.

Image source:
http://tenthamendmentcenter.com/

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1850
Henry Clay, the creator of the Missouri Compromise, suggested another compromise. This one proposed California to be entered as a free state. It also allowed the Utah and New Mexico territories to decide if slavery was allowed, ended the slave trade in Washington D.C., and added a fugitive slave law. The Compromise was accepted.

Image source:
http://www.wbur.org/

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1846 - 1849
Congress debated on whether slavery should be allowed in the Mexican Cession until California applied for statehood. As California was accustomed to anti-slavery, it would most likely become a free state.  It would upset the balance between slave and free states. Again, Congress was deadlocked over it.

Image source:
https://www.britannica.com/

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1846
President James Polk sent a bill to Congress asking for funds to fight the mounting Mexican War. Pennsylvania representative David Wilmot added an amendment to the bill, saying that slavery would not exist in the future Mexican Cession. This was known as the Wilmot Proviso. It was not well received by Southerners, as expected.

Image Source:
https://www.history.com/

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~1700 - 1862
Slaves often escaped from their masters, and through the Underground Railroad, a secret network of slave sympathizers that worked itself upwards to Canada. As slaves leaked away from their plantations, Southerners' view of Northerners slowly deteriorated. To Southerners, these people were stealing.

Image source:
https://www.neh.gov/

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1830-1839
Congress did not want a civil war, so it decided to table all antislavery petitions. Abolitionists called this the "gag rule", and it prevented even Congress member John Quincy Adams' proposed amendment to the Constitution, that people could no longer be born into slavery after 1845.

Image source:
http://www.abolitionseminar.org/

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1820
Missouri was once again asking for statehood. Congress was deadlocked over it. Finally, Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky suggested the Missouri Compromise, which said that Missouri would be admitted as a slave state, but all states north of 30"30' would be free, except Missouri.

Image source:
http://ushistoryharwood.pbworks.com