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What provoked the Civil War
What really provoked the Civil War? Well, there are many events that started to provoke it as well as trying to stop it. There were many compromises that tried to stop the Civil War from happening. Those compromises were reversed and it boosted the effort towards the Civil War. The compromises were created to solve problems. It only made more of them. -
The Missouri Compromise
Henry Clay of Kentucky created the compromise to even the balance of free and slave states. Maine was let into the Union as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. Congress drew an imaginary line at 36 degrees and 30'. South of this line, slavery was permitted and north of it, slavery was banned. Northern congressmen who voted to accept MO as a slave state were called traitors.This angered northern citizens who did not support the compromise and pulled the two sides further apart. -
Compromise of 1850
Created by Henry Clay of Kentucky, the Compromise of 1850 stated that California was to be admitted as a free state, and the Utah and New Mexico territories would be ruled by popular sovereignty. It would end slave trade in Washington D.C. It also stated that it had a strong fugitive slave act. Having slavery in the wast was what many Northerners feared. Many Northerners boycotted the fugitive slave act, and helped the slaves. This made many Southerners very furious. -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Created be Stephen Douglas of Illinois, Douglas wanted a railroad to be built to California. He said it was easier to organize the Great Plains into the Nebraska and Kansas Territory. The territory was north of the Missouri Compromise line and the bill said nothing about slavery. The south agreed to vote for it if Douglas changed it a little in there favor. The Kansas Nebraska Act brought terrible visions of slavery to Northerners. Douglas said the climate was not suitable for slave farming. -
The Dred Scott Case
In 1857, a Dred Scott and his master traveled to Wisconsin to visit the master's family. When they returned, Scott went to the Supreme Court and argued that his stay in Wisconsin made him a free man because he crossed the Missouri Compromise Line. When the verdict came on March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Tanny stated that the Missouri Compromise Line was unconstitutional and that a man like Dred Scott could not be allowed to sue for freedom. Northerners saw this as a disgrace to the Constitution. -
The Election Of 1860
In 1860, the Republicans, the Democrats, and the Constitutional Union Party (CUP) voted for presidency. The Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln. The Democrats in the North voted for Stephen Douglas. The Democrats from the South voted for John Breckinridge. Finally, the CUP voted for John Bell. Lincoln won the election and this made Southerners furious because the Republican party was anti-slavery. Now, the south could not overturn any anti-slavery bill proposed in Congress. -
Attack on Fort Sumter
When Lincoln was elected, the South was provoked to secede from the Union to form their own union. In December 20, 1860, senators came together to form a group to stop the Union from dissolving. The same day, South Carolina seceded from the Union. By 1861, six more states seceded from the Union forming the Confederate States of America. On April 12, 1861, they opened fire on the Union Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. This attack unleashed a fury of the south in the north. This was war.
