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Free Soil Movement
Many Northerners who opposed slavery in westward expansion did not technically oppose slavery altogether. They opposed slavery in the West in order to keep labor opportunities open for whites only. These Northerners then organized the Free-Soil Party which caused sectionalism with the Southerners who supported the westward expansion of slavery. -
Wilmot Proviso
David Wilmot proposed a bill that forbid slavery in any new territories gained from Mexico. The bill passed in the House of Representative twice but was defeated in the Senate. This caused sectionalism between the Northern Democrats and Whigs and the Southerners while also sparking the creation of a new political party. -
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Causes of Civil War Timeline
A timeline of the sectionalist crises that contributed to the Civil War -
Compromise of 1850
Proposed by Henry Clay in an attempt to settle the ongoing political crisis which would admit California as a free state, allow for issues on slavery in new territories to be settled through popular sovereignty, banned slave trade in District of Columbia, and adopted and enforced a Fugitive Slave Law. Some felt this was necessary to preserve the Union but it angered Southerners who argued they should be given equal rights to the acquired territories. -
Publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
The popular novel uncle Tom’s cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe was one of the most influential books of its time. The story of a slave named Tom and his brutal slave owner Simon moved Northerners and Europeans seeing slaveowners at cruel and inhumane. This angered the Southerners who who accused the Northerners of being prejudiced of the Southern way of life causing more sectionalism. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
Senator Stephen Douglas introduce this act which would divide the Nebraska territory into Kansas and Nebraska territory and allow settlers to decide whether to allow slavery through popular, or squatter, sovereignty. This allowed for the possibility slavery expansion previously closed by the Missouri Compromise. This angered the Northern Democrats who saw the Act as a surrender to slave power and conflict between anti-slavery and proslavery forces increased drastically. -
Formation of the Republican Party
The Republican party was founded in response to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It was composed of free-soilers, anti-slavery whigs and Democrats and it’s main purpose was to oppose the spread of slavery directly rivaling Democrats and Southerners supported slavery increasing tensions. -
Caning of Charles Sumner
Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner accused the Democratic administration in his speech known as the “Crime Against Kansas” including personal attacks against South Carolina Senator Preston Brooks. Brooks’ nephew congressman Preston Brooks defended his uncle by hitting Sumner over the head with a cane, an attack from which he never recovered. The North was out raged by this attack voting to censure Brooks while the South applauded his work again showing the growing passions from each side. -
Dred Scott v. Sanford Decision
Former slave Dred Scott sued for his freedom arguing that his residence on free soil in Wisconsin made him a free man even when he returned to Missouri. The Supreme Court ruled against Scott delighting the Southerners and infuriating the Northerners claiming it the “greatest crime in the annals of the republic” pushing the U.S. closer and closer to Civil War. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
In the race for the Illinois Senate, Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, ran against Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas. Lincoln saw slavery as a moral issue. Douglas supported popular sovereignty and reconciled it with the Dred Scott decision through the Freeport Doctrine. Although Lincoln lost senate he became a national figure and a contender for Republican nomination for president which led to the secession of Southern states and the Civil War. -
John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry
John Brown, funded by Northern radicals, led a band of followers including his sons and former slaves in an attack on the arsenal at Harpers Ferry with a plan to use the guns to arm Virginian slaves in order to rise up in revolt. But his band ended up being captured, tried, and hanged for treason. Some Northerners disproved of Brown’s violence while others viewed him as a martyr. Southerners saw the raid as showing the North’s true intention of using slave revolts to destroy the South. -
Election of Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln beat out three other candidates for the presidency winning a majority of 59% of electoral votes even though only having 39.8% of the popular vote making him a minority president. While carrying every one of the free states, the election was the final push Southern states needed to secede from the Union. Many of them believed Lincoln ,like former president James Buchanan, would allow them to secede peacefully but instead he fought back, which in turn, started the Civil War.
