Beginning of Civil War

The Compromise of 1850 only lasted for a few years. People continued to move west, in search of land, prosperity, and a new life. With them, were slave owners, who wanted the same as everyone else.

This heated the debate even further. Another disruption was the new fugitive slave law. This entitled southerners to come north in search of their runaway slaves. This also infuriated many northerners.

Southern slave owners did not have to prove ownership in many cases. All they had to was state the name of the slave, and then take him with them. In one case, a slave owner took a woman and her six children.

In many cases, northern whites would not allow this to happen. They would turn the slave hunters back home with empty hands. In other cases, people would break into buildings and free those that were captured. They would then take the former slave north to Canada.

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a novel entitled "Uncle Tom's Cabin." She did not have any personal experience with slavery, but her writing caused a sensation nonetheless. Her book sold hundred of thousands of copies, and gained sympathies from many northerners on both sides of the slavery issue.

Most likely the final straw before secession, was the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The question of slavery was once again on everyone's mind. Should the new territory become a free or slave state? Politicians from the North and the South, quickly began to argue over the outcome.

The President at this time was Franklin Pierce. Pierce was a successful and reasonable man.