South Carolina and other states secede

After the election of 1860, when President Lincoln became a threat to the south, South Carolina decided to secede from the Union on December 20,1860. South Carolina was the first of many states to secede; by February first of 1861, six more states followed South Carolina and seceded, these states were in the lower south - Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Southerners thought that the secession was a Revolutionary tradition and they believed that they were fighting for American Rights. Shortly after the following states seceded, the Confederate States of America and Jefferson Davis became the president of the Confederacy. Although the South was on it own, a few islands off of the coast of Florida remained Americans property. These islands include Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor and Fort Pickens in Pensacola Harbor. After the Battle of Fort Sumter the upper Southern states seceded. These states include: Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee. As more and more southern states began to secede and the further the nation divided, the civil war inched closer. The secession of the following states contributed to the Civil War because  it caused the separation of the North and the South to be physical.

The Fall of Fort Sumter

U.S. vs. Confederates

At this point in time, the north and south have divided. The south has become thr Confederate States of America, a.k.a the confederacy. The U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln, had declared in April of 1861, that he was going to send more supplies to Fort Sumter. Now, President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, thought that the presence of federal troops in a vital harbor to the South was unacceptable. Davis also thought that firing at a supply ship would for sure lead to a war with the U.S.. As a result, Davis decided to take Fort Sumter before the supply ship could arrive, Davis's logic behind the action was this: he thought that if he was successful, there would be no war. The Confederates then sent a letter to U.S. Major, Robert Anderson, demanding that the U.S. surrender Fort. Sumter by the morning of April 12,1861. Anderson remained relentless
and the time came and Davis held true to his word and began firing upon the fort. The bombardment lasted 33 hours, wrecking the for, but killing no one, until Anderson finally surrendered. This battle had begun the Civil War.

The Bombardment of Fort Sumter

Election of 1860

Within the election of 1860, the candidates running were Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, John Breckenridge, and John Bell. This election turned into two races between the north and south. Lincoln and Douglas held the Northern power while Breckenridge and Bell held the Southern power. Overall, Lincoln and Breckenridge held highest number of votes. Lincoln wanted slavery, while Breckenridge wanted the federal government to protect slavery in the territories. Lincoln ended up winning the election, which was a good thing for the north. However, on the opposing side, the south did not trust Lincoln and believed the only way to preserve the Southern society and culture was to secede. With the nation on the brink of crumbling, the election of 1860 was one of the last things that contributed to the rivalry between the North and the South because the differing opinions had become more severe. 

John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry

John Brown

John Brown was a fiery abolitionist who wanted slaves to fight for their freedom and to rebel their slaveholders. So in 1859 he organized a raid to capture the arsenal at Harper's Ferry because he wanted the slaves to take up arms and fight. On October 16,1859 , Brown was captured at the arsenal and was hung by the U.S. Marines. Henry David Thoreau believed that the death of John Brown "would strengthen abolitionist feeling in the North," and that Brown was "an angel of light." However, Southerners thought that Brown's raid proved that the Northerners were plotting the murdering of the slaveholders. From the following information, one can conclude that the raid on Harper's Ferry further divided the North and South, therefore contributing to the Civil War.

Kansas's Lecompton Constitution

The Lecompton constitution was drafted to help resolve the slavery issue in Kansas. You see, after Bleeding Kansas, President Buchanan urged the territory to apply for statehood to help resolves the problems; so pro-slavery legislature held an election for delegates to a constitutional convention, but anti-slavery supporters from Kansas interrupted the meeting because they believed the convention was rigged. The resulting Lecompton Constitution legalized slavery in Kansas. Although Congress had passed the constitution, Kansas did not achieve statehood until 1861 because settlers did not want slavery in their state. The Lecompton Constitution pushed the nation further to the civil war because the issue, yet again, involved the North and South fighting over which state should become free or not.

Dred Scott Case

The Dred Scott was a slave owned by Sanford. Scott's  "owner" took him into the free state, Illinois (which was currently the territory of Wisconsin), and then was taken back to the slave state, Missouri. Because he had been in a free state, Scott thought he was a free man and the issue of his freedom was debated. Scott tried to sue his owner for his freedom, but unfortunately he lost. This case raised the issues regarding "property" rights. The U.S, declared that African Americans were not American citizens. The case presented the issue of slavery being banned all together, and was resolved by stating that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories. The Dred Scott Case brought to attention the fact that slaves were considered property, and by banning slavery the 5th amendment would would be violated. Which is contradicting because African Americans 5th amendment rights were totally dismissed and ignored. The significance of this case was that it declared that African-Americans were not U.S. citizens. The Dred Scott Case contributed to the Civil War because it made the issue of slavery more present within the society, therefore adding to the negative relationship between the North and the South.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin was a novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, that was very passionate about anti-slavery. The book expressed the moral issues of slavery in an extreme way. The writing fueled abolitionists toward the abolitionist movement of the North. In 1852, the first year the book was published in book form, 300,000 copies were sold. Now these numbers were astonishing for the time. The majority of the readers were Northerners, and it changed the Northern perspectives of the African Americans and the slavery that is often involved. The novel displays Stowe's deception of the enslaved hero, Tom, and the antagonist, Simon Lee; Stowe depicted African Americans as real people that are imprisoned in their horrific situations. Stowe pictured herself as a "painter of the slavery's horrors rather than abstract debater," because she had this outlook, she evoked pathos in many of the readers, causing previous unmoved readers to feel pity and outrage. Because the novel fired up the northern abolitionists, Uncle Tom's Cabin contributed to the start of the Civil War. On the other hand, the Southerners tried to have the novel banned because of its portrayal of slavery, claiming that the writing falsely depicted slavery. Although the Southern rebuttal, the book eventually sold millions of copies and had a huge impact on the public opinion and  also greatly effected the causes of the civil war.