Events leading up to the civil war

Events Leading Up to the Civil War

Events sometimes force people to make difficult decisions. By the late 1840’s, the

nations' borders stretched beyond the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.

Americans now had to decide whether slavery would be allowed in the new territories of the West. At first, compromise seemed possible. But as the debate and violence increased, Americans came to realize that the nation

could not continue half slave and half free. In the end, the issue would be decided by war.

Territorial Acquisitions

The Missouri Compromise 1820

Second Great Awakening

• “We say to slaveholders—Repeat Now-today-immediately-Such is our doctrine of immediate emancipaton. A doctrine founded on God’s eternal Truth-plain, simple and prefect”

• “Gag Rule”

Emancipator and The Liberator• “ I will be as harsh as truth, and as

uncompromising as justice. On this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! No! I will not excuse-I will not retreat a single inch - AND I WILL BE HEARD”

• William Lloyd Garrison

Nat Turner’s Slave RebellionAugust 13, 1831

Runaway Slaves

Mexican Cession 1848

Slavery in the Mexican Session?Compromise of 1850

• Slave trade banned in Washington, D.C• Strict fugitive law passed

Poster warning the colored people of Boston to beware of slave catchers

Harriet Beecher Stowe

• “So this is the little lady that started the big war” A.L.

The Kansas Nebraska Act 1854

Southern Chivalry

Dred Scott

• African Americans are not citizens• Scott remains a slave under Missouri law• Congress cannot ban slavery in any territory• The Missouri Compromise is unconstitutional

Abraham Lincoln and

Stephen Douglas Debates

John Brown and Harpers Ferry

• “I am quite certain that• crimes of this guilty land• will never be purged away• but with blood”

• •

Election of 1860

Fort Sumter