Steps to the Civil War

  • Missouri Compromise

    Missouri Compromise
    This caused tension with slavery to rise. It created a 36 30' line that would soon later on get repealed for the free and the slave states.
  • Mexican War

    Mexican War
    This raised more tension on slavery as well. The North saw the war as a southern conspiracy to create more slave states.
  • Wilmot Proviso

    Wilmot Proviso
    This raised tension over slavery. To appease the North, this bill proposed making all land won from Mexico FREE.
  • California Gold Rush

    California Gold Rush
    This raised tension over slavery. The people didn't know whether they wanted to expand slavery to the West or let it be a free state.
  • Compromise of 1850

    Compromise of 1850
    This lowered tension over the expansion of slavery. Because it determined the status of the land from the Mexican Cession including California.
  • Fugitive Slave Law

    Fugitive Slave Law
    This raised tension over slavery. Blacks were falsely identified as runaways, denied jury trials, and kidnapped to the South as slaves.
  • Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published

    Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published
    This raised more tension about slavery. The book made slavery look terrible by all the graphic details in the book. The Southerners then after banned the book.
  • Republican Party Forms

    Republican Party Forms
    This caused the tension to rise with slavery. Southerners saw the Republicans as a threat to slavery to end it.
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act

    Kansas-Nebraska Act
    It raised more tension as well. Because it let the people to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´.
  • “Bleeding Kansas”

    “Bleeding Kansas”
    This raised tension with slavery. Northerners and Southerners were moving to Kansas to get the point across about their thoughts on slavery based on popular sovereignty and fought.
  • Charles Sumner caned in the Senate

    Charles Sumner caned in the Senate
    This caused more tension to be raised. It was based off the speech "The Crime Against Kansas" it had denounced slave states, especially South Carolina also causing him to get beat to death.
  • Dred Scott vs. Sandford

    Dred Scott vs. Sandford
    This raised tension against slavery as well. The Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. The Court also ruled that Congress lacked power to ban slavery in the U.S. territories.
  • John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry

    John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry
    This raised even more tension on slavery. The southerners started to fear more and more slave rebellions, so the South began to take action for war.
  • Abraham Lincoln elected President

    Abraham Lincoln elected President
    This raised more tension. Because Southerners knew that if he was elected President that slavery would soon come to a end.
  • Battle at Fort Sumter

    Battle at Fort Sumter
    This raised tension against slavery it was the first civil war battle. The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment of U.S. Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina, by the Confederates, and the return gunfire and subsequent surrender by the U.S. Army that started the American Civil War.
  • Southern states begin to secede

    Southern states begin to secede
    This raised tension. Because they didn't slavery to end so they then called their selves the Confederate States.