Causes Of The Civil War

The Civil War was one the worst wars that the United States has ever fought in. More soldiers died in this war than any others that the United States has fought in. To understand the Civil War, the events that led to the war need to be understood. The Civil War had many events that would eventually lead to the war. The Fugitive Slave Act was passed by Congress in 1850, and was put into effect throughout the United States. The Fugitive Slave Act stated that any runaway slave was to be returned to their master. This meant that any slave, did not matter their location in the U.S., was to be returned to their plantation owner, back in the south. The act also caused many free African Americans to be taken back to the south by slave catchers in
Dred Scott was a slave that lived in Missouri, and his master moved to Illinois taking Scott with him. They lived there for ten years, where Scott married and started a family. After ten years Scott’s master waited to move back with Scott and his family. Scott said that he was now a free slave because it had been ten years, and in Illinois a slave was to be set free after ten years. Scott attempted to take his master to the Supreme Court, and the court ruled in favor of the master. The judge dismissed the case because blacks had no citizenship and therefore couldn’t fill a case. The judge told Scott in a letter, that slaves had no rights that whites had to respect and that they were only property. Scott and his family had to go back with Scott’s master and become slaves again. This caused even further division between the south and the north. The south was very happy with the outcome of the judges decision while the northerners were very outraged by
The Northerner democrats nominated Stephen Douglas, but the Southerners nominated John C. Breckinridge. John Bell was nominated by the Constitutional Union Party that was created by the border state Whigs. The Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln who was a moderate which meant that he didn’t want to get rid of slavery but to contain it. Lincoln ended up winning the election with a thirty eight percent vote, but only won the north. The south did not vote for Lincoln and nine states did not even include Lincoln on the ballot. The south's response to Lincoln winning the election was to initiate a secession, and the lower half of the south left the Union. The upper part of the south stayed with the Union, only to leave later on. After the south left, the Civil War officially started soon