On April 12, 1861, Confederate troops fired the first shots on Fort Sumter and began what would be the start of one of America’s deadliest battles, the Civil War. Although the official war started in 1861. There had been ongoing economic, political, and social conflicts in the states for decades well before the war started. As the Civil War is commonly acknowledged as a war fought over the issue of slavery, several other factors such as dissimilarities between the North and South’s industrial advancement, the infamous Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the differentiated views on what freedom is between African American and white citizens. These were vital elements to the reason behind the Civil War. The contrast in industrial development between …show more content…
One controversial bill that included the act of popular sovereignty was the Kansas-Nebraska Act which was passed in 1854. Document 7 describes the Kansas-Nebraska Act in more detail “This meant that white settlers moving into the territories from the North and the South would decide if Kansas and/or Nebraska would be free or slave. A bitter contest followed between pro-slavery and anti-slavery supporters for the control of Kansas.” As described in the excerpt when the act was passed lots of violence ensued. This bitter contest over if the Kansas territory should be pro-slave or not was none other than Bleeding Kansas which was a continuous string of bloodshed between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces. This was only one of many more violent cases that resulted after the bill was passed. Document 8 states the uncivilized occurrence between Charles Sumner and Preston Brooks “Two days after the speech, Butler’s kinsman, Preston Brooks, himself a member of the House of Representatives, burst into the Senate chambers and beat Sumner with a cane. Sumner's injuries were serious enough that he had to retire from the Senate for three years.” This conveys that the Kansas-Nebraska Act not only influenced citizens but went so far that even well-known members of the federal government were heavily affected. Preston Brooks, a member of the House of Representatives, almost beat a man to death after he delivered an anti-slavery speech. The Kansas-Nebraska Act overall caused an immense uproar in brutality which ultimately paved the way for the start of a violent