An Illustrated History of the USA

ANE\'iNATION

1)",,1Sr,'I1,

Neithersidewon the struggletoco ntrolKans asill
the 183 0s.Becaus eofthe tr o ub leth ere, C on g ress
delayed its admissionto th e U nit edStates. B utin
1858 the supportersofslaverywona victoryo f
anotherso rt.

Aslaven am edD rc d Scot rhadbeen taken byhis
ownertoliveina free state. Seen askedtheSupreme
Courttodeclarethat this hadmadehimlegally fr ee.
Butthe Courtref used.Itsaid that blackslaves hadno
rights as Ameri cancitizen s.Itad ded also that
C o ng ress hadgonebeyo nd its co nstitu tion alpower s
IIIclaiming the fighttoprohib it slaveryin the
westernte rritori es.

The D rcd Scott d ecision causedg reat e xcitem en t in
the Un ited State s.Southernslave o wnerswere
deligh ted .Oppo nent sofslaverywere h o rr ified. The
Su prem e C ourtseemed to besayin gthat freestates
h ad no rig htto forbidslaver}"w ith in their boundaries
an d th atslaveo wne rscould p uttheir slavestowork
anywhere.

A fewyea rs earliero pponelHsofslavery had fo rm ed
a newpoliticalgroupcalledthe Rep ublicanParty.

4H

When SenatorStephen Douglasaskedthevoterso f

Illinoistore-electhimtoCong ressin 1858, hewas

challen gedbya Rep ublicann amed Abraham

Lin co ln. [ n a series of publicdebatesw ithDouglas,

Lin co ln said that th e spreado f slaverymust be

stopped. lIc wasw ill ingtoaccept slaveryIIIthe

stateswh ereit exis tedalready.b ut that was all.

Look in g to the futureofth e Uni tedSta teshegav e his

lis te n ers aw arning" Ahou se dividedagainstitself

cannotstan d. I b elievethat this governmentcan no t

endure per man entl yhalfslaveandhalffree."

Linc oln lo s ethe185Helect ion to Douglas.Buth is

st andagainstslaveryim pressed m an y people.In IH6 0

the Republica n s chosehimastheircand idate ill that

year'spresiden ti alelection.

Hy nowrelation s betweenNorth and Southwere

closetobreaki ng POint .In IH59the same John

B rown whohad foug htin"bleedingKan sas " had

triedcostart a slave rebellionin Virgini a.1I c att acked

anar myweapons sto reat a placecalledH arp ers

Ferr y.T heatt ackfailed andBrownw as cap tured,

rrrcdfo r t reasonandhan ge d. B utth at w asnotthe

endofJohn B ro w n.Man ynort hern ersclaimedth at

h e wasamarty rinth estruggle againstslaver y.They

evenwrote a son gabouthim. "JohnB ro wn'sb o dy

lies a-m old erin g in thegrave."theysang,"hu t his

soul goesmarching011."

Southern ers sawtheraido nHarpers Ferr y

d ifferently. They believed th at it w asa signthat the

Northw asp reparing to use forcetoen dslavery in

th e South. III thepresidentialelectionoflH60th e

southerners p utforwarda candida teofth eirownto

opposeLin coln.T heyt hr eatened th attheSouth

wouldbreakaway,or"secede,"fro m theU n ited

States if Lincoln becam ePresident.

In everyso uthernsta tea m ajori tyo fthecitizens

voted againstLin co ln. Butvotersin theNorth

supporte dh unand he wonth e election. A feww eeks

later,in D ecem berIH60 ,th e stateo f SouthCarolina

votedtosecedefromtheU n itedStates.Itw asso on

joinedby tenmoresouthernstates .InFeb ru ary 1861,

theseelevenstates announcedth attheywerenowan

independ entnation ,theC o n federate Statesof

America,often knownas theConfed eracy.

T henineteent hcentury'sbloodiest w ar , th e

American CivilWar ,was about tobegin.