The Civil War

Prior to the Civil War, there was the Age of Reform. The Age of Reform (also known as the Grass Roots movements) shaped and greatly affected the North. While intelligent, inspired idealist were changing the North for the Better the South remained untouched and unaware, leading to tension between the two. In order to know the nations history, you must first know the cause of the Civil War. Slavery caused the Civil War in many ways such as, the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska act.
The Missouri Compromise was put into place to balance out the free states and the slave states. Anything above the longitude 36 30 was a free state and anything below it was a slave state. This compromise helped to avert war for forty years. Even though war was averted the issue of slavery would soon rise again.
It just so happened that what everyone was fearing rose up in 1850. When free soil California came knocking on the door to be admitted into the Union, not wanting California to enter as a free state, “fire-eaters” in the South were voicing ominous threats of succession. Within the compromise of 1850 California became a free state and New Mexico and Utah were given popular sovereignty. After the compromise both the North and the South were determined that this should be a “final” and the explosive issue of slavery should be buried. But this placid period of reason proved all to brief.
The drastic new Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 stirred up a storm of opposition in the North. The Fugitive Slave Act stated that the government would return run away slaves free of charge. This law awakened a spirit of antagonism in the North against the South.
It was because of this new spirit that Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the famous novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” which also caused a lot of tension between the North and the South.
In 1854, Senator Stephen A. Douglas came up with the “brilliant” idea of extending a railroad from Illinois to Nebraska. In order to do so he would need the support of the south. He proposed the idea of cutting the Nebraska territory into the Kansas-Nebraska territory. Kansas and Nebraska were to be given popular sovereignty but the compromise of 1820 stood in their way. Since the Compromise forbid slavery above the sacred 36 30 line, the only way to open the reign to popular sovereignty was to repeal the ancient contract. By this time the North had come to regard the sectional compact as almost as sacred as the constitution itself and were not going to go down without a fight. The Kansas-Nebraska territory was one of the most momentous measures to pass congress and it greased the slippery slope to Civil War.
The Missouri Compromise of 1820, The compromise of 1850,and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, each played crucial roles in leading to the Civil War. The slavery question continued to churn the cauldron of controversy. Attitudes on both sides progressively hardened leading to the Civil war.