South Carolina and other states secede

With America on the rocks, and war breaking out the South felt the need to secede. Virginia seceded first, they did so by passing an Oridinance of Sucession on April 17, 1861. The Confederacy responded by moving the capital to Richmond, Virginia. By early June of 1861, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tenessee has also seceded. Lincoln didnt want to lose anymore states, and he was willing to do anything to keep America together. To prevent Maryland from seceding he ordered martial law there, to keep them under control. Lincoln also promised to leave those states that were undecided alone, as long as the Confederacy did so too. But later, the nuetral Kentucky people became angery, because Confederate invasion, they decided to go against the Confederates in the war. Missouri was also able to stay in the Union with federal forces. Now the only issue was how the preservation of America would play out on the battlefield.

Ft. Sumter Falls

In April Lincoln announced he wanted to resupply Fort Sumter. But President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy, didnt like the idea of federal troops in the South's most important harbor. Lincoln warned them, that they would fire at the supply ship if necessary. But they knew this would lead to war with the United States. But avoiding that thought, Davis decided to take Fort Sumter, he thought this might keep the peace. But then Confederate leaders delivered a letter to Major Robert Anderson telling him to surrender on the morning of April 12, 1861. But then the cannon was shot, and Confederate forces were bombarded at Fort Sumter for 33 hours. It wrecked the fort, but no one was killed, until Anderson and his tired men surrendered. This was the start of the Civil War.

Election of 1860

The South could not find a Democrat to nominate for President. They didnt agree with some of the ideas that Stephen Douglas had, but no one else fit their likings either. But they then later decided on Douglas running for President to represent them. The North, and Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln. He became well known with the earlier debates, and was very much liked in the North. The Republicans did more then just argue about the slavery issue though, they also talked about higher tariffs, new homestead laws for the West, and the Transcontinental Railroad. This greatly angered the Southerners, but either way Lincoln won the election without Southern support. This was a huge victory for the North. But also left no choice but for the South to secede. Which the South thought to be themselves fighting for American rights.

John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry

John Brown was a fervent abolitionist who believed in the freedom of slaves. In 1859 he came up with a plan to seize the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, to free and arm the slaves of the South. Which was a rebellion against slaveholders. On October 16, 1859, Borwn and 18 followers seized the arsenal. But soon later, he was faced with the U.S. Marines, which they had rushed from Washington D.C. to Harpers Ferry. 36 hours later, Brown was captured, he was tried, and sentence to death. He was executed on December 2, 1859, and he wrote a note to one of the jailers, saying that the only way the slavery issue would be solved in America would be through blood shed. Northerns viewed Brown as a "noble cause" and it also helped stregthen abolitionist feeling in the North. Where as the Southerns took the raid as evidence that Northerns were actively planning to murder slaverholders.

Kansas's Lecompton Constitution

The slavery issue really caused some tension in the government, especially over "bleeding Kansas" because officials couldnt agree between slavery there or no slavery. So when Kansas tried to become a state, they struggled to agree on how it would be represented. It even got to a point where fist fights would break out in the middle of sessions. Then they decided to hold a popular vote, which allowed the antislavery forces to vote down the constitution and the pro-slavery forces approved it. But President Buchanan accepted the pro-slavery vote, and asked that Kansas be entered into the Union as a slave state. The senate quickly voted to accept the Lecompton Constitution, but the House of Representatives denied it. Even Stephen Douglas didnt agree with the situation, he was a Northern leader, but he understood the compromise in order to keep the South in the Union. Government officials decided that they would allow another referendum, and if settlers rejected it, they would hold off statehood for another two years. In 1858 the settlers voted, and rejected the Lecompton Constitution, they didnt want slavery in their state, which led to Kansas becoming not becoming a state until 1861.

Dred Scott Decision

Dred Scott was an enslaved man whose Missouri slaveholder had taken him to live in the free territory before returning to Missouri. Abolitionists helped Scott sue, to end his slavery. He said that the time he spent in the free territory meant he was free. Which then led the case to the Supreme Court. So on March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney was in charge of the case. He ruled against Scott, saying that since he wasnt a citizen he couldnt sue in the courts. But instead of removing the issue of slavery from government, they decide upon the Dred Scott desicion which brought sectional conflict. This pleased the Democrats, but also outraged the Republicans. Southerners told the Northerners to to obey the decision if they wanted them to remain in the Union.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

 

Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, in 1852 changed Northern perspectives on African Americans and slavery. The book sold 300,000 the first year. Stowe presented slavery and African Americans as real people with awful circumstances. She felt she was "painting" or making it clear to Northerns that slavery was an actual horror story taking place in the United States at that time. And all the while Southerners were trying to have the book banned, because it attacked the actual portrayal of slavery. Even though the book was an outrage to the South, it eventially sold millions of copies. Even now some historians believe that this book was one of the causes of the civil war.