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The Second Great Enlightenment (Image: Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Great Awakening". Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Nov. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Awakening. Accessed 13 December 2023.)
The Second Great Enlightenment contributed to the start of the Civil War because it caused people to decide where they stood on the issue of slavery. Religion-based ideas of slavery went both ways; slaveholders gained validation for their actions because they were providing religion for their slaves, and abolitionists gained enthusiasm about slavery's removal because slavery disagreed with the idea that all men are equal (the notion that women were also equal seemed ludicrous at the time). -
The formation of exclusive religious communities (Image: Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Shaker". Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 Nov. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shakers. Accessed 13 December 2023.)
Religious communities were formed throughout the United States during the Antebellum Era, creating local tensions and divisions between the communities and nearby towns. These divisions added to the already complex and tense political and emotional divisions between people, races, and sexes. -
The Abolitionist Movement (Image: Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "abolitionism". Encyclopedia Britannica, 16 Oct. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/abolitionism-European-and-American-social-movement. Accessed 13 December 2023.)
The abolitionist cause gained vast amounts of support during the early-mid 1800s. This mass support for the removal of slavery threatened the Southerners who owned slaves and caused them to be guarded and suspicious of the government. The tensions between slaveholders/slavery supporters and the abolitionist party ran high and contributed to the start of the Civil War. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion (Image: Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Nat Turner". Encyclopedia Britannica, 7 Nov. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nat-Turner. Accessed 13 December 2023.)
Nat Turner's slave rebellion caused Southern slaveholders to be suspicious that Northerners were encouraging and helping the slaves to rebel against their masters. The 55 White fatalities made the Southerners ever more suspicious of the North's capability to resort to violence to rid the country of slavery (pitting the two regions against each other). -
The Compromise of 1850 (Image: Urofsky, Melvin I.. "Compromise of 1850". Encyclopedia Britannica, 4 Dec. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/event/Compromise-of-1850. Accessed 14 December 2023.)
The Compromise of 1850 outlined which American states would be slave and free in the new Western territory (from the Mexican-American War). California was admitted to the Union as a free state, New Mexico and Utah were decided by their inhabitants, the Texas border was established, and the Fugitive Slave Act was amended. The Compromise of 1850 aggravated the Southerners because the only direct benefit they received in the Compromise was the Fugitive Slave Act, but the North gained another state.