Did you know that more men died the Civil War than any other American conflict, and one third of the dead perished from disease? The American Civil War was the war fought between the Union and Confederacy from 1861 to 1865 over the issue of slavery and state’s rights. The main issues leading up to the Civil War were Missouri’s statehood, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Election of 1860. One of the main causes of the Civil War was the issue of Missouri becoming a state. This was one of the earliest issues regarding slavery, because the issue took place in 1820. One of the main issues with Missouri becoming a state was that the Ohio River, the river they used to mark if a state was free or not, ended before the beginning border of Missouri. …show more content…
This act allowed the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide themselves if they wanted to be slave or free. Many people flocked to these territories to vote. Northerners and Southerners bribed many people to move to the territories and vote for or against slavery. Pro-Slavery settlers won the first election, but anti-slavery settlers charged them with fraud and another election was held. Violence erupted while the second election was taking place. Lawrence, Kansas was looted and burned by pro-slavery settlers. In response, John Brown and his anti-slavery followers captured and brutally hacked five pro-slavery men to death. Again, the pro-slavery settlers won and anti-slavery settlers charged them with fraud a second time. At the end of the third election, anti-slavery settlers outnumbered the pro-slavery settlers and Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state. The last main cause of the Civil War was the presidential election of 1860. Abraham Lincoln and John C. Breckinridge were the candidates. Lincoln won the election with more than half of the electoral votes. This caused major controversy. Nobody in the South supported Lincoln and were outraged when he was elected. This ended in the South Carolina seceding from the Union before his inaugural address took place. The rest of the pro-slavery states followed soon after and he Confederacy was formed. In conclusion, the Civil War had three main