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Important Events Before the Civil War
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Missouri Compromise
*Congress spent a lot of time over the deadlock debate over Missouri
*Finally, a compromise was reached stating that Missouri would be admitted in the Union as a slave state if Maine came in as a free state
*This helped maintain the balance between the free and slave states
*No one was happy with this compromise
*It only pushed back the inevitable fight over slavery -
Compromise of 1850
*The creator of the Compromise of 1850 pleased everyone
*California would be admitted as a free state, Utah and New Mexico would become slavery territories. Also, the slave trade in D.C. would end, previously bought slaves could be kept but the nation’s capital would not be a part of the slave trade
*Congress still couldn't decide what to do, and southerners thought about leaving the Union*Once someone said something about war, everyone agreed to the compromise -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
*A bill proposed a train track from California going through the Great Plains, allowing the Nebraska territory open to settlers; it said nothing about slavery, so southerners would only agree if a few changes were made
*The final bill made two territories, Nebraska and Kansas, and scraped the Missouri Compromise saying that the territories would choose by popular vote
*Many people moved to the territories to sway the voting’s. bloodshed broke out in Kansas, which scared and angered -
Dred Scott Case
*Scott was slave from Missouri. He appealed to court, saying that his time in Wisconsin made him a free man.
*The Supreme Justice had been known to be against slavery. Though, the court decided that he could not sue for his freedom because he was not a citizen. The court also said that Scott's stay in Wisconsin did not make him a freeman. The Dred Scott case enraged northerners but delighted southerners. Southerners hoped the controversy of slavery would be in there favor -
Election of 1860
*Democrats couldn't agree on one person to vote for, so Abraham Lincoln easily won. This made the south think they were a minority section.
*The South feared that they had lost all power, and that sooner or later, Congress would try to abolish slavery.
*Senators looked for a compromise, although they knew finding one wouldn't be easy -
Attack on Fort Sumter
*Hotheads from Charleston opened fire on Fort Sumter after they had decided to leave the Union
*After 33 hours of battle, the federal fort took down the Union's flag and replaced with a white one, showing they surrender.
*This showed that all compromises were over, war was coming
