Differences Divide North and South

The North had more people living in cities and more factories, while the South depended upon farming as a way of life.

As demand for cotton increased, Southern plantation owners used more slaves to help raise and harvest their crops.

Bad feelings over the growth of the North and the question of the spread of slavery to the frontier led to fierce arguments.

Africans in Slavery and Freedom

Some slaves secretly damaged plantations they worked on.

Some slaves attacked people in rebellions.

Some slaves used the Underground Railroad to reach freedom in the North.

Facing a National Problem

The Missouri Compromise balanced free states and slave states and created an imaginary line between them

The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed people living in those territories to decide whether to allow slavery.

The Compromise of 1850 allowed people in New Mexico and Utah to decide whether to allow slavery and punished people who helped slaves escape.

A Time for Hard Decisions

After Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the U.S., South Carolina seceded from the Union.

Other states joined South Carolina to create the new country called the Confederate States of America.

After President Lincoln decided to send supply ships to Fort Sumter, Jefferson Davis decided to attack the fort- resulting in the Civil War.