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Dred Scott was the slave of Dr. John

Emerson, an army surgeon who lived in St. Louis, Missouri. In the 1830s Emerson had taken Scott on tours of duty in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory. After they returned to Missouri, the doctor died, and Scott became the slave of Emerson’s widow.

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In 1858 Illinois Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln for the U.S. Senate. His opponent was Democrat Stephen Douglas, who had represented Illinois in the Senate since 1847.

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Lincoln insisted that he would not change slavery in the South. However, he said that slavery could not expand and thus would eventually die out completely. That idea angered many southerners.

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In this climate of distrust, Americans prepared for another presidential election in 1860. The northern and southern Democrats could not agree on a candidate.

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In 1858 John Brown tried to start an uprising. He wanted to

attack the federal arsenal in Virginia and seize weapons there.

He planned to arm local slaves.

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Democrat Stephen Douglas had predicted that the Kansas ,Nebraska Act would “raise a storm . He was right. The

Kansas-Nebraska Act brought the slavery issue back into the

national spotlight.

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By early 1856 Kansas had two opposing governments, and the population was angry. Settlers had moved to Kansas to homestead in peace, but the controversy over slavery began to affect everyone.

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In his inaugural address, President Pierce expressed his hope that the slavery issue had been put to rest and that no sectional excitement may again threaten the durability of our institutions.

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The newly passed Fugitive Slave Act made it a crime to help runaway slaves and allowed officials to arrest those slaves in free areas.

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Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky had helped to settle the Missouri crisis of 1819–20 and the nullification crisis of 1832–33 by proposing compromises. He now had another plan to help the nation maintain peace.

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The United States added more than 500,000 square miles

of land as a result of winning the Mexican-American War in

1848. The additional land caused bitter debate about slavery.

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had divided the Louisiana

Purchase into either free or slave regions.

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Abolitionists in the North used the stories of fugitive slaves like James Hamlet and Anthony Burns to gain sympathy for their cause. Slave narratives also educated people about their hardships.

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a little-known politician from New Hampshire. Pierce promised to honor the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act. Therefore, southerners trusted Pierce on the issue of slavery.