Civil War Dbq

In the decades before the Civil War began in 1861, many changes occurred. Many scholars say that the main cause of the Civil War was slavery and the divide it caused between the northern and southern states. There were many events that convinced Southern political leaders that the institution of slavery was under attack by the North. Both the debates over slavery and the importance of slavery changed in this period. These factors caused the southern states to secede and the war to begin.

Events that occurred in the United States between 1846 and 1861 divided the North and South. One of these events was the proposal of the amendment called the Wilmot Proviso. David Wilmot wrote the document in 1846 and his goal was to keep slavery from spreading

The government prohibited the slave trade in the District of Columbia. The Fugitive Slave Act was also a part of the Compromise of 1850. The Fugitive Slave Act required northerners to return runaway slaves to their owners in the South. The act extremely angered the North because they were required to take part in slavery. The South did not like the addition of California as a free state. Their opinions on the Compromise of 1850 further separated the two halves of the country. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was also passed in 1854. It awarded the states of Kansas and Nebraska popular sovereignty. This repealed the Missouri Compromise because it allowed states to decide on their own if they were going to be a free state. It no longer depended on the Missouri Compromise line. It also raised tensions between the North and the South and created a violent atmosphere in Kansas. Pro-slavery and antislavery forces formed in Kansas when the vote for slavery was taking place. Those forces transformed Kansas into a state divided by two separate governments. Kansas had its own civil war that was a strong indication for a future war over slavery throughout the whole country. Next was the Dred

The case went from Missouri courts all the way to the Supreme Court. The chief justice at the time was Roger Taney and he was pro-slavery. He declared that slaves were not citizens and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. This angered the North and further divided them from the South. Anti-sentiment feelings for the opposite half were growing in the citizens of the North and the South. The South was angry at the North for trying to take away their way of life. The North was angry at the South for forcing them to help in the slave trade when they did not want to take part in it. The North was becoming more antislavery. John Brown decided to act on these feelings by planning a raid on Harper’s Ferry. His plans failed and he was arrested but his idea further split the North and the South. These events led the South to believe that the institution of slavery was under attack by the North. The last event that occurred in 1860 was the presidential