Charles Sumner

An abolitionist senator from Massachusetts. He made a speech in which he blamed the south for the violence in Kansas. Congressmen Preston Brooks, from South Carolina entered the Senate floor a few days later and beat Sumner with a cane. People from the south showed their appreciation of Brooks by sending them canes.

Dredd Scott (Decision)

A slave that sued his owner hoping to win his freedom because he was brought into a free territory, but his case went to the Supreme court where it was basically ruled that slaves could not find freedom anywhere in America.

In 1854 a new ____...

...Political party was formed; the Republican party. The members of the Republican Party were mostly from north. This party was founded to stop the spread of slavery and many of its first members were abolitionists. Ran in its first presidential election in just 2 years.

James Buchanan...

...Was elected President against the new political party. From Pennsylvania; didn't do much to stop the Civil War from happening.

Abraham Lincoln

BORN IN KENTUCKY in a log cabin. His parents were often moving around the country to find better farmland; first to Indiana and finally to Illinois. He spent less than a year in school and taught himself how to read. Became SUCCESFULL LAWYER IN SPRINGFIELD and later became a state representative and congressman. Strongly AGAINST SLAVERY and the DRED SCOTT DECISION. Ran as Republican nominee for PRESIDENT IN 1860 against STEVEN DOUGLAS. Lincoln won!

On December 20, 1860...

...South Carolina seceded; they were soon joined by most of the other southern states. Those states created a new country called the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis was their president. LINCOLN REFUSED TO RECOGNIZE THAT STATES COULD LEAVE THE UNION AND WAR WAS CERTAIN!!!!!