Road To the

Civil War

End of the Mexican War- 1848

When the war was over, US gained many new states, with the addition of new states there posed a problem

Would they be free or slave states?

Fugitive Slave Law- 1850 Package of five bills, passed on September 4,

1850, lessening a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the south and the free states of the North

Made police liable if they didn’t arrest runaway slaves

“slave power”- slaves numbers would become to powerful, take over the South

Kansas-Nebraska Act- 1854 Created the states of

Kansas and Nebraska Debated to allow/not

allow slavery

Bleeding Kansas- 1854

200 people died in a miniature civil war over slavery in the states

Dred Scott Case-1857 Scott was a slave who’s master brought him to the free state

of Illinois and then to free Wisconsin Territory, then back to Missouri.

Scott sued for his freedom because he was living on free land and was a free man.

He lost his case because blacks were not citizens and so they could not sue in a federal court, and the court declared the Missouri compromise unconstitutional.

Lecompton Constitution Rejected 1857 When the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, Kansas was

allowed to determine if they were a free or slave state The Lecompton Constitution was installed to make Kansas a

slave state The people tried to push the constitution through congress ,

but in 1858 it was sent back to Congress for another vote It was a delayed statehood but Kansas voters rejected the

constitution and Kansas became a free state

Harper’s Ferry Raid- 1859 John Brown- radical

abolitionist that was involved in anti- slavery violence.

Lead a group of 17 men to raid the arsenal kept in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia

Wanted to start a slave uprising using the captured weapons

Lincoln-Douglass Debates-1860 Neither candidate wanted

slavery in the states, but they disagreed on how to keep it out

Douglass tried to show that Lincoln was a abolitionist

Lincoln refuted that statement and said he does not want to make blacks and whites equal even though he knows slavery is morally and socially wrong

Failing Economy National banks suffer a depression Depression greater in north then the south Southerners said that the greedy and self

invested manufacturers from the north caused the depression

Bibliography http://americanhistory.about.com/od/civilwarmenu/tp/secessi

onevents.htm http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2932.html http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h83.html http://www.principlesofwar.com/scenarios/19thc/USmexinde

x.htm http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASfugitive.htm

THE END

Hope you enjoyed this Mr. Magnuson!