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- South Carolina is the first state to leave the Union. Within a few months, several other states including Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana follow, calling themselves the Confederate States of America.
- The South's secession triggers the outbreak of fighting.

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11. Abraham Lincoln is Elected as President

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11. Abraham Lincoln is Elected as President

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- Republicans back Lincoln. Northern Democrats support Stephen Douglas. Southern Democrats back John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. Lincoln receives 40% of the vote, all cast in Northern states, winning the election.
-  With this victory, the South sees that they are in the minority and that Congress will try to abolish slavery.

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- Lincoln runs against Senator Stephen Douglas for his Illinois Senate seat. Lincoln says that slavery is a moral issue, not a legal one.
- Lincoln loses the election, but the debates raise his profile, making him a national figure.

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- Dred Scott, a slave moves with his master to Illinois, a free state. When his master dies, Scott declares he's free but his master's widow disagrees.
- The case goes all the way to the Supreme Court but Scott loses. The court's ruling makes it clear that slaves are treated as property.

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- Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts gives a speech, "The Crime Against Kansas" that enrages Southerners.
- South Carolina representative, Preston Brooks, attacks Sumner in the Senate, beating him unconscious with a metal-tipped cane.

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- During a raid on Lawrence, Kansas, the home of the antislavery government, a hotel  is burned, homes are looted, and two abolitionist newspapers' printing presses are destroyed.
- In retaliation, abolitionist John Brown and seven followers murder five men in the pro-slavery town of Pottawatomie, Kansas.

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6. The Nebraska-Kansas Act of 1854 (Stephen A. Douglas)

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6. The Nebraska-Kansas Act of 1854 (Stephen A. Douglas)

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- When these territories are added to the Union, popular vote decides their status as a slave or free state.
- Pro-slavery and anti-slavery supporters rush to these states to influence the vote which leads to violence.

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- Anyone helping a slave escape will be severely punished.
- Slaves found anywhere in the country are returned to his/her master.

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- California is admitted into the Union as a free state.
- New Mexico and Utah territories can decide for themselves whether they are slave or free states.
- Slave markets are banned in Washington, D.C..
- The Fugitive Slave Act is passed.

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- Fugitives from slavery escape with the help of the Underground Railroad and sympathetic Northerners.
- Harriet Tubman is a "conductor" on the railroad who leads many slaves to freedom in the Northern states and Canada.

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- The Second Great Awakening, a religious revival, sees abolitionists doing the Lord's work to put an end to slavery.
- Congress enforces a gag rule to set aside indefinitely any antislavery petitions, including John Quincy Adams proposed amendment saying that no one could be born into slavery after 1845.

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1. Missouri Compromise of 1820 (Henry Clay)

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1. Missouri Compromise of 1820 (Henry Clay)

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- Missouri is admitted as a slave state.
- The spread of slavery is prohibited north of the 36th parallel.