Dred Scott Decision, March 1857

• Dred Scott was a slave who moved from a Missouri a slave state to free states Illinois and Wisconsin

• In 1846 Scott sues for his freedom because he know lives in free states

• 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that slaves are not citizens

Dred Scott Decision, March 1857

• The court also rules that the Missouri Compromise cannot infringe a slave owners rights to take his property where ever he chooses

• The north is convinced that the south is attempting to spread slavery

Enter Abraham Lincoln

• Illinois congressmen and successful lawyer

• He opposes the expansion of slavery into new territories like Kansas and Nebraska

• Lincoln takes the moral high ground against slavery and he attacks the slave system

The Lincoln and Douglas Debates

• Both are against the expansion of slavery

• Both argue that it will not survive in the west

• Both do not want to use the government to end slavery

• Lincoln comes out of the debates looking like an abolitionist

John Brown’s Raid October 1859

• John Brown hopes to lead a slave revolt at Harpers Ferry, Virginia

• Slaves do not rush to join and he is captured and hung

• Northerners look at him as a hero and southerners worry that more like Brown are coming to the south

The Election of 1860

• Lincoln is elected as the 17th president of the U.S. in 1860

• Southerners fearing Lincoln is going to end slavery secede from the United States

• Lincoln has no plans to deal with the slave issue as the south believes

The Confederate States of America

• Southern states before Lincoln takes office secede from the Union

• On December 20, 1860- South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas leave the Union

• They become the Confederate States of America

Fort Sumter, April 1861

• After the southern states secede from the Union

• South Carolina demands that Union property be surrendered to the south

• Lincoln refuses to allow Fort Sumter to surrender

• Confederate forces fire on fort and eventually force its surrender