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Soon after Lincoln had been elected, the nation had gone wild. "Alarmed senators formed a committee to search for yet another compromise that might hold the nation together"(History Alive Textbook 416). Because of how dissapointed the Southerners had been that Lincoln had been elected, delagates attending a state convention voted on December 20th, 1860 to leave the Union. Later in February 1861, eleven of the Southern states had seceded from the United States to form the Confederate States of America. The states had gone mad.

By Mike Scruggs
www.thetribunepapers.com/2017/08/31/southern-secession-was-lawful-uncovering-the-truth-in-american-history/.

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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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Though Abraham Lincoln won the Presidential Election just by 40 percent, it still was enough to elect him. In fact, in ten Southern states, he wasn't even on the ballot. The election of Abraham Lincoln not only brought hopes for the ending of slavery but for the Northern states to have an advantage over the Southern states. Therefore, this would make the Southern states the minority of the U.S.

By Kenneth T. Walsh
www.usnews.com/news/articles/2008/07/23/abraham-lincoln-and-the-election-of-1860.

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John Brown, an abolitionalist who took violence as an answer. In the year 1859, John Brown and a group of slaves hijacked an arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia and began shooting people, including some U.S. marines, who killed or captured almost all of the slaves in the rebellion. As punishment for the treason Brown had committed, he was sentenced to be hanged. Many Southerners were in fear from this rebellion becuase they knew that this wouldn't be the end of it.
By CivilWar.org
www.civilwar.org/learn/biographies/john-brown.

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Even though Abraham Lincoln ended up loosing the election, he still however made the moral issue of slavery put into sharp focus. Lincoln ran against a man named Stephen Douglas who believed that there was no point in having the whole state either have slavery or no slavery, and to just keep it half and half. Lincoln however did not believe this. Lincoln believed that even though slavery had been put aside from the Dred Scott desicion, that it was a moral, not legal issue.

By Matthew Wills
daily.jstor.org/recording-history-lincoln-douglas-debates/.

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Dred Scott was a former slave who traveled with his owner to Wiscounsin, where slavery was banned. Becasue of his trip to Wisconsin where there is no slavery, he argued that he was a free man since he had gone there, and even went to Court to justify this. In fact, Scott was taken to the Supreme Court for his case. Unfortunately, Scott had lost the case. Sadly since he was property in the first place, it meant that he wasn't allowed to ever go to court. The Dred Scott Decision was then made in court and put into place, which meant that African Americans could never be American citizens. When the slaveholders heard this, they were delighted and thought that the issue of slavery in the territories had been settled. However, the Northerners were "stunned and enraged by the court's ruling"(History Alive Textbook 413).
By National Geographic
www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/mar6/dred-scott-decision/.

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The violence in Congress started when Senator Charles Sumner from Massachusetts said openly in a speech that he believed that Stephen Douglas had plotted with the Southerners to make Kansas allow slaves, and that he is "'a noisome (offensive), squat, and nameless animal''(History Alive Textbook 411). However, Sumner had to know that there would be some sort of consequence to his words. A few days after Sumner had made his speech, Senator Butler's nephew, Preston Brooks violently beat and wounded Sumner for his words. It took Sumner over three years to recover.

By Thomas E. Ricks
foreignpolicy.com/2016/08/05/mulling-kansas-1856-and-america-2016-2/.

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You would have thought that these two distinct groups would eventually see eye to eye, but now they both believe that violence is the way to agree. On May 21st, 1856, proslavery men from Missouri invaded "the home of the antislavery government. Armed invaders burned a hotel, looted several homes, and tossed the printing presses of two abolitionist newspapers into the Kaw River"(History Alive Textbook 410). You would think that the Northerners, who were ususally much wiser and smarter would know not to violently fight back, but soon after the invasion, an abolitionalist named John Brown and his followers decided to get revenge on people who they suspected supported slavery, and hacked to death  five of these men using swords.
By Graham A. Peck
www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2018/02/15/little-giant-thought-backing-slavery-unite-america/ideas/essay/.

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Through the Nebraska-Kansas Act of 1854, there were two new territories that were added to the U.S., Kansas and Nebraska. This act in turn got rid of the Missouri Compromise because it left the settlers up to permit slavery in the new territories.
By Megan O'Boyle
sites.google.com/a/oceanschools.org/the-railroad-express/home/kansas-nebraska-act.

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As expected, nothing could work out perfectly in just one compromise. The Northerners resented enforcing the act and the Southerners were not completely sold that their escaped slaves would be found. Speaking of slaves, there were no rights at all for them in the U.S. because they are property of someone, which means that they belong to their slaveowner. In order to ensure that they wouldn't be caught, many fugitive slaves would run away to Canada so that the authorities couldn't catch them. However, some former slaves choose to stay in the U.S. and rebel. One former slave, Reverend Jarmain Loguen ran to New York and proudly stated, "'I don't respect this law-I don't fear it-I won't obey it'"(History Alive Textbook 408). The reason that Reverend Jarmain Loguen was not caught was because almost all of the Northerners did not try to send the slaves back, in fact of the tens of thousands fugitives living in the North, only 299 were captured and sent back.
By Canada Alive!
canadaalive.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/end-of-the-line-canada-and-the-underground-railroad/.

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Henry Clay, the Senator of Kentucky, had finally come up with a solution to the problems that the U.S. had been facing. His plan was to ban together with Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts to help get his plan through Congress. His plan was to first admit California to the Union as a free state to please the Northerners, then to let the New Mexico and Utah territories to debate whether they would allow slavery, which would please the South. Clay also wanted to end slave trade in Washington D.C. To help/please the Southerners, he would call for "passage of a strong fugitive slave law"(History Alive Textbook 407). Finally after nine months of Congress debating on whether to pass the compromise or not, they decided to pass it. After passing it, mostly everyone was happy for the crisis to be over, but some Southerners were still questioning the compromise.

Ushistory.org   www.ushistory.org/us/30d.asp.

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After gaining land from the Mexican-American War, the U.S. didn't know whether to have the newly gained territory allow slavery or not. To compromise, Southerners proposed a bill to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean so that slavery would be allowed South of the line and banned North of the line. The Northerners rejected this proposal. In late 1849, California applied to be admitted as a free state, but the Southerners objected unlike the Northerners. Since adding California either as a free or slave state would create an uneven side, Congress was stuck trying to decide the solution to this problem.
By Dan Krieger
www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/times-past/article39062163.html.

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After having enough of the "Gag Rule", abolitionists had decided to attempt again to stop slavery. To be more specific, it was President James Polk and Wilmot Proviso who sent a bill to Congress asking first for funds for the upcoming war with Mexico, and secondly the Ammendment made by Proviso which was that "'neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist' in any part of the territory that might be acquired from Mexico as a result of the Mexican-American War"(History Alive Textbook 406). However, the ammendment of the bill known as and written by Wilmot Proviso did not pass, and was strongly opposed by the Southerners in Congress. Therefore, the bill didn't pass.

By Wayne Lawrence
Smithsonian.com  www.smithsonianmag.com/history/slavery-trail-of-tears-180956968/.

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Though hope for many of the slaves had vanished, there was still a chance at freedom. Many of the slaves who had escaped from slavery were helped by sympathetic Northeners who were against slavery and were on their side. However, many of the  slaveholders noticed that they were gone, and demanded that "Congress (should) pass a fugitive law to help them recapture their property"(History Alive Textbook 406).
By Silas Reynolds
www.occidentaldissent.com/2018/01/12/the-cost-of-muh-freedom/.

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After finally settling the debate over states being added as slave states or free states, a powerful issue had opened up to the public. Called the Second Great Awakening, this was another revival of religious freedom, where religious leaders in the U.S. had told people that "God would bless those who did the Lord's work"(History Alive Textbook 405). The work that most religious leaders were talking about was specifically the abolition of slavery. One act that would make "God bless you" was to turn in any escaped slaves.
By Don Jaide
www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/black-slaveswhite-slaves-american-slave-system/.

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The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was when Missouri applied to the Union, which immediately caused a debate to either make Missouri a free state or slave state. Many people agreed with the Tallmadge Ammendment, which prohibited the further introduction of slaves in Missouri, but those who already were slaves in Missouri were to remain until 25 years of age, and by then they would be released and no more slaves would be allowed. During the time of this debate, Maine applied to be a free state and because of this, Senate decided to make Maine a free state and Missouri a slave state which meant that the Tallmadge Ammendment did not go through. This was done because the North had the free states and the South had the slave states, so geographically speaking, it would make more sense and would balance out the number of free and slave states.
By Connor Smith
chapinus.wikia.com/wiki/File:Missouri_Compromise_1820.jpg.