Reading: How Did the Nation Move Closer to Civil War?

In the years before the Civil War, tensions between the North and South grew worse with each major conflict over slavery. Although slavery had existed since the nation’s founding, westward expansion forced Americans to confront whether slavery would spread into new territories. As a result, political compromises became weaker, mistrust increased, and many Americans began to believe that the nation could not remain united.

One important turning point was the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. This law allowed settlers in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery. This idea, called popular sovereignty, seemed democratic at first, but it led to violence instead of peace. Pro-slavery and antislavery settlers rushed into Kansas in an attempt to influence the vote. Soon, fighting broke out between the two sides in what became known as “Bleeding Kansas.” Rather than settling the slavery issue, the act showed that compromise was failing and that Americans were increasingly willing to use violence to decide political questions.

Another major event was the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision in 1857. Dred Scott was an enslaved man who argued that he should be free because he had lived in free territory. However, the Supreme Court ruled against him. The Court declared that African Americans were not citizens and that Congress had no power to ban slavery in the territories. This angered many Northerners because it suggested that slavery could spread almost anywhere in the country. The ruling also weakened earlier efforts, such as the Missouri Compromise, to limit slavery’s expansion. To many in the North, the decision proved that slaveholding interests had too much power in the federal government.

Tensions increased even more with the actions of John Brown in 1859. Brown was a radical abolitionist who believed slavery was such a moral evil that violence was justified to destroy it. He led a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, hoping to start a slave uprising. The raid failed, and Brown was captured and executed. In the South, many white Southerners saw Brown’s raid as evidence that Northern abolitionists wanted to destroy their society by force. In the North, some viewed Brown as a dangerous extremist, while others saw him as a martyr against slavery. His raid deepened fear and distrust between the sections.

Together, these events made the conflict over slavery more intense. The Kansas-Nebraska Act led to bloodshed in the territories. The Dred Scott decision convinced many Northerners that the federal government protected slavery. John Brown’s raid increased Southern fears of violent abolitionism. By the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, compromise seemed less and less possible. The nation was no longer arguing only about policy. It was divided over morality, power, and the future of the Union itself.