Reading 2: Key Issues Leading to the Civil War

As feelings over slavery intensified, the chance for compromise disappeared.

Reading 2: Key Issues Leading to Civil War

Main Points

Political parties take sides in the debate over slaver

• The Republican Party formed in 1854 and united behind the issue of banning slavery in new territories.

• The presidential election of 1856 was divided along clear sectional lines. James Buchanan won most of the South, and John C. Frémont won most of the North.

Main Points, 2

Supreme Court rules against Dred Scott

• Dred Scott was an enslaved African American who sued for his freedom. His case reached the Supreme Court.

• The Court ruled that, as an enslaved person, Scott had no right to sue and that banning slavery was unconstitutional.

• Southerners hailed the decision, but antislavery groups called it a crime. 
  

Main Points, 3

A public debate over slavery.

• Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Stephen Douglas engaged in a series of famous debates about slavery in the 1858 Illinois Senate race.

• Lincoln lost the election but gained a national reputation through the debates.

• In 1859, abolitionist John Brown raided a U.S. arsenal in the hope of arming enslaved African Americans and starting a revolt against slaveholders.

 

Podcast created by Mr. Arnold

Recorded April 19, 2023

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Why it Matters!