The Nation Breaking Apart

Events Leading to the Civil WarPart III: Pages 4 & 5

Lincoln and Douglas Debate Republicans – antislavery, Democrats –

proslavery Northerners feared that Southerners

wanted to expand slavery to the entire nation

Lincoln, a Republican, was nominated to run against Steven Douglas, the Democrat who sponsored Kansas-Nebraska Act, for a seat in the Senate

They held debates leading up to the election

Lincoln was antislavery, but did not want to abolish it where it already existed. He just wanted to stop it from spreading.

Douglas won the election, but Lincoln gained popularity.

John Brown Attacks Harper’s Ferry

Brown wanted to inspire slaves to fight for their freedom

Planned to capture the weapons in the US arsenal at Harper’s Ferry

Oct. 1859: Brown and followers captured arsenal and killed 4 people

Brown wanted to arm the slaves, but no slaves joined the fight

Brown tried for murder and treason executed

Northern abolitionists publically mourned his death, South outraged by this reaction

The Election of 1860 Lincoln and Douglas competed for votes in

the North Breckenridge and Bell competed for votes

in the South Lincoln won North, Breckenridge won South Since there were more people in the North,

Lincoln won the election Lincoln promised not to abolish slavery in

the South, but Southerners didn’t trust him Southerners saw Republican victory as a

threat to the Southern way of life

Southern States Secede Secede = withdraw

South claimed that states had the right to secede from the Union since they had joined the Union voluntarily

South Carolina was the first to secede, several other Southern states followed this example

Southern states formed a new country, the Confederate States of America

Jefferson Davis = president of the Confederacy

Confederacy made a Constitution modeled after US, but protected slavery

Union Responds to Secession & Efforts to

Compromise Fail Northerners considered secession unconstitutional

They said that states did not have the right to secede and allowing secession would make the US (the Union) weak

Southerners said that Northerners planned to use their majority to abolish slavery

Northerners basically said “well, that is what democracy is all about…”

Lincoln continued to promise the South that he had no plans to abolish slavery

US had several forts in the South that it needed to protect and supply

1861: the war begun!!The Confederacy attacked a

US fort, Ft. Sumter, and the American

Civil War begins