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Nat Turner’s Rebellion
A slave named Nat Turner started an uprising through several plantations in Virginia. His fellow rebels killed around sixty white people, but they were eventually suppressed. Virginia lawmakers reacted to the crisis by restricting what few civil rights slaves and free black people possessed at the time, becoming a major tension among blacks and whites. This led to more uprisings and blacks were seen fighting back all the way to and during the Civil War. -
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Conflicts Leading Up to the Civil War
Ten events that lead up to and caused the Civil War to break out: -
Texas Revolution
The Texas Revolution was a series of battles between Mexico and Texas colonists that resulted in Texas’s independence. A treaty was signed that recognized their independence, but the Mexican government then refused to recognize Texas and continued to periodically clash with the state up to the Mexican-American War. The dispute over the border of Texas caused by this rebellion was one of the major causes of the Mexican-American land and disputed territory in Texas. -
Mexican-American War
This was fought between the U.S and Mexico to help fulfill America's "Manifest Destiny" to expand its territory across the entire North American continent. A border along the Rio Grande started off the fighting and was followed by a series of U.S. victories. This resulted in one of the largest territorial expansions in the U.S. The expansion led to conflicts about territory and whether it should be free or allow slaves, becoming one of the major causes of the Civil War. -
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was a proposal to ban slavery in territories gained by the Mexican-American War. The proposal reopened the door to the debate over slavery in the territories and it lasted up until the outbreak of the American Civil War. It pushed for more and more tension between the pro-slavery and free-soilers and was one of the major causes of the Civil War. -
The Compromise of 1850
The compromise admitted California as a free state and did not regulate slavery in the remainder of the Mexican cession. Also, the Fugitive Slave Act was strengthened. This postponed tensions between the North and South, but didn’t address the problem with the division of the US. The new Fugitive Slave Act, by forcing non-slaveholders to pick a side and enhance the tensions between the people who believe and don’t believe in slavery. -
Bleeding Kansas
In 1856, pro-slavery and free-soilers turned violent after fighting for popular sovereignty in Kansas. 700 pro-slavery settlers destroyed the town of Lawrence and to get revenge the abolitionist John Brown and his followers killed 5 pro-slavery supporters.This violence led to a guerrilla war, creating a political crisis among the Democratic Party and further aggravating tensions between the the Union and the future Confederate States just before the Civil War. -
Dred Scott Case
The Dred Scott v. Sandford case increased the tensions between the North and the South. The decision in the Dred Scott case declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional and opened the debate over slavery's expansion once again. The decision divided the Democratic Party into Northern and Southern parties because many Northern Democrats wanted to limit slavery within its boundaries. All of these differences helped hasten the coming of the American Civil War. -
John Brown's Harper Ferry
In October 1859, the U.S. military arsenal at Harper's Ferry was the was assaulted by abolitionists led by John Brown. This was intended to establish a stronghold of freed slaves, but the raid inflamed white Southern fears of slave rebellions and increased the mounting tension between Northern and Southern states before the American Civil War, creating an even more obvious divide between the two regions, -
Lincoln’s Election
When Lincoln was elected as president, Southern states were outraged. He opposed the expansion of slavery and advocated for “negro equality”. This caused 11 states to sucede and created the Confederate States of America. When this happened, Lincoln responded with threats of violence and not allowing the Union to split. His response led to the first battle of the Civil War due to the CSA not surrendering to his demands. -
The Battle of Fort Sumter
After Lincoln stated that he would use any force necessary to preserve the Union, he dispatched an unarmed ship of supplies to Fort Sumter and Jefferson Davis along with his angry associates decided to seize the ship and fort. Confederate guns open fired and eventually Major Robert Anderson, garrison commander, surrendered the fort after the bombardment and it was evacuated the next day. With the firing on Fort Sumter, the American Civil War was officially upon both the North and the South.
