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Events Leading to Civil War
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The Missouri Compromise
This was an effort to defuse the rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted into the Union. Missouri was admitted as a slave state and Maine as a free state. However in Missouri, a line was drawn that slavery would was to be excluded from the Louisiana Purchase lands north of latitude 36°30′. This would bring out conflict in the Civil War. https://www.history.com/topics/abolitionist-movement/missouri-compromise -
Compromise of 1850
Due to the debate over the Wilmot Proviso, senators Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas created the Compromise of 1850. This led to the admittance of California as a free state, did not regulate slavery, and strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act. This compelled the North to return escaped slaves to the South which made the tension between the North and the South worse. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/trigger-events-civil-war -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act forced citizens to assist in the capture of runaway slaves and denied slaves the right to a jury trial. This law led to the civil war because many northerners believed that it was unfair that free people were being forced back into slavery. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/fugitive-slave-acts -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin is a book about stories that Harriet Beecher Stowe had heard from fugitive slaves and Underground Railroad conductors on how brutal slavery was. Through this book, Northerners realized how unjust slavery was for the first time and Southerners were angry because they felt it was an inaccurate depiction of slavery. This widened the division between the north and south and contributed to the start of the civil war. http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Uncle_Tom%27s_Cabin -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act - Bleeding Kansas
The Kansas-Nebraska Act caused proslavery and free-state settlers to flee to Kansas hoping to weigh in on the decision on whether the area became a free or slave state. Violence erupted when both sides fought for control which was a key event in the start of the civil war. https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/bleeding-kansas
