1. Sectionalism & Seething Anger

2. 1848 U.S. Government Political parties were now welcomed as legitimate
Federal government employed a total of 20,000 people
85% of Americans in 1850 still lived and worked on farms
U.S. Treasury had a surplus of over $4 million in 1850

3. Good Vs. Evil 3.2 million blacks were still in bondage
430,000 “free” Negroes were pariahs
Southern white families owning slaves shrank from 1/3 to ¼ in 1850
Small, non-slavery farmers depended on plantations to buy their crops

4. Following the Gold Rush
JEFFERSON DAVIS

5. 1846 Wilmot Proviso
On August 8, 1846, Congressman David Wilmot from Pennsylvania attached a proviso to a bill that slavery be excluded from any territory acquired from Mexico
An Illinois Whig by the name of Abraham Lincoln claimed to have voted for it “at least forty times”

6. Compromise of 1850 FIVE PARTS California admitted as a free state
Utah & New Mexico admitted with no mention of slavery
Settle Texas’ boundary claims for $10 million
Suppress slavery in Washington D.C.
Enact a more stringent fugitive slave law

7. Uncle Tom’s Cabin
“So you’re the little lady who started this Civil War?”
~ Abraham Lincoln to Harriet Beecher Stowe

8. “Know Nothing” Party
Laboring and middle-class native-born Americans sought a third party to attack immigrants AND fight slavery
Profiting from a growing belief that both the Whigs and Democrats were corrupt, Know-Nothings swept the field in Massachusetts

9. 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act
Douglas presented a bill to Congress on January 4, 1854, for the organizing of Nebraska which left settlers free to decide the slavery question themselves
The repeal kicked up “a hell of a storm” when President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill on May 30, 1854

10. “Bleeding Kansas”

11. Dred Scott vs. Sandford
Supreme Court decided the case on March 6, 1857, having argued a full year
Scott lived for five years on free soil prior to the death of his master
The court ruled 7-to-2 against him
As the South celebrated, the North fumed

12. Democratic Split
Democrats’ dissention had now become an open split, with Douglas on one side and President Buchanan on the other
With Democrats in disarray, John Brown launched his reckless foray into northern Virginia in October 1859…he was hung on December 2

13. Election of 1860
Other candidates had alienated Nativists and waffled on the slavery issue
Abraham Lincoln was rock-solid in his anti-slavery beliefs
Lincoln only claimed 40% of the popular vote but picked up 180 electoral votes, 57 more than all his opponents combined

14. Confederate States of America