Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War
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This timeline of events leading to the American Civil War is a chronologically ordered list of events and issues that historians recognize as origins and causes of the American Civil War. These events are roughly divided into two periods: the first encompasses the gradual build-up over many decades of the numerous social, economic, and political issues that ultimately contributed to the war's outbreak, and the second encompasses the five-month span following the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States in 1860 and culminating in the capture of Fort Sumter in April 1861.
Dred Scott, an enslaved African-American, who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom. The resulting 1857 Supreme Court decision angered Northern anti-slavery forces, escalated tensions, and led to secession and war.
American Civil War
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The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which had been formed by states that had seceded from the Union.
Frederick Douglass, a former slave, was a leading abolitionist
Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, author of the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854
Sen. John J. Crittenden, of the 1860 Crittenden Compromise
Ambrotype of two unidentified young boys, one in blue Union cap, one in gray Confederate cap (Liljenquist collection, Library of Congress)