How could a country founded on the principles of freedom permit the evils of slavery? Was war inevitable, or was there an alternative solution? Before diving into the course, it's important to outline the path America took to reach this point. This activity will catalogue the most important and notable events that would eventually snowball into the American Civil War. Discuss these events with your classmates, and analyze their significance on the war to come.

The Constitutional Convention agrees to the three-fifths compromise, where every slave will count as three-fifths of a person for determining the population of states, and thus their political power in Congress. This gave southern states a disproportionate amount of political power relative to northern states, leading to lingering resentment.

The Three-Fifths Compromise

South Carolina formally declares secession from the United States, the first of eleven states that would become the Confederacy. In their declaration, South Carolina decreed that their reason for secession was directly due to northern opposition to slavery and the election of Abraham Lincoln.

South Carolina Secedes

Abraham Lincoln is elected President as an outspoken abolitionist. Lincoln campaigned on ending the expansion of slavery, but also allowing it to continue in states where it already existed. Nevertheless, the election of an abolitionist was considered a bridge too far for the southern states, who were outraged at the prospect of being governed by someone so opposed to slavery.

The 1860 Presidential Election

The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper, is published for the first time. Newspapers like The Liberator demonstrated how abolitionist sentiment was becoming more common throughout the United States, and people were beginning to organize with the direct goal of ending slavery.

The Liberator

The Supreme Court rules that civil rights in the US Constitution do not extend to black people. While slaveholding states applaud the decision, it is widely derided in all other states. Considered to this day one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in American history, the Dred Scott case dramatically inflamed national tensions and deepened the divide that would eventually lead to the Civil War.

The Dred Scott Decision

Noted abolitionist and newspaper editor Elijah Parish Lovejoy is murdered in Illinois by a pro-slavery mob. Upon his death, he immediately became a martyr for the abolitionist cause, and details of his death sparked outrage across the north. Abolitionist sentiment skyrockets across the north, and Lovejoy is referred to as "the Civil War's first casualty."

Elijah P. Lovejoy

One of the largest slave rebellions in American history breaks out in Virginia. Though the rebellion was brutally suppressed by state militia, it scared southern states into thinking that other mass uprisings were possible, leading to increased crackdowns and hardening the institution of slavery.

Nat Turner's Rebellion 

Confederate troops fire upon Fort Sumter, beginning the American Civil War.

Firing on Fort Sumter

Congress passes the Kansas-Nebraska Act, allowing states to vote for themselves on whether or not to allow slavery. This effectively ended the Missouri Compromise. Though lawmakers believed this would end the debate over slavery, it had the opposite effect. Northerners were outraged at the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the act led to horrible violence between pro- and anti-slavery settlers in the American west. The Act indirectly led to the rise of the Republican Party, and eventually, Abraham Lincoln.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

Abolitionist John Brown and several supporters attempt to incite a slave rebellion in Virginia. Though unsuccessful, the crisis led the south to believe that their way of life and the institution of slavery was under severe threat. Southern slaveholders believed that northern agitators would continue attempting to incite rebellion until slavery was abolished. John Brown was hailed as a martyr and hero in the north, where he became an icon for the abolitionist cause.

The Harpers Ferry Raid

President James Monroe signs the Missouri Compromise, an act intended to balance the interests of slave states and free states by outlawing all slavery above the 36th parallel while allowing it below. This does not solve the issue of slavery, but instead kicks the can down the road in a series of increasingly fraught compromises that do little to resolve the root issue.

The Missouri Compromise

Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, leading to a massive increase in cotton production across the south. This likewise leads to an increasing demand for slaves, and the enslaved population skyrockets.

The Cotton Gin

Delegates from the seceded states come together to form the Confederate States of America and elect Jefferson Davis as president. This Confederacy is not recognized as legitimate by the American government.

The Confederate States of America

Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes her novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in two volumes over the course of 1852. The novel paints in vivid details the horrifying reality of slave life on southern plantations. The novel shocked America, and had a profound impact on attitudes towards slavery at the time. It was the best-selling book of the century and fueled abolitionist sentiment in America.

Standards for The Tragic Prelude: Events Leading Up to the Civil War

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework