#3) <span>Bleeding Kansas was demonstrative of the gravity of the era's most pressing social issues, from the matter of slavery to the class conflicts emerging on the </span>American frontier.In August 1856, thousands of pro-slavery men formed into armies and marched into Kansas.<span>In August 1856, thousands of pro-slavery men formed into armies and marched into Kansas.
#4) </span><span>The decision was only the second time that the Supreme Court had ruled an </span>Act of Congress to be unconstitutional. Dred Scott<span> was born a slave in Virginia in 1795. Little is known of his early years.
#5)</span>Abolitionist John Brown leads a small group on a raid against a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in an attempt to start an armed slave revolt and destroy the institution of slavery.<span>The wounded Brown was tried by the state of Virginia for treason and murder, and he was found guilty on November 2.The 59-year-old abolitionist went to the gallows on December 2, 1859.
#6) </span>General Interest 1860 Abraham Lincoln elected president <span>Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States over a deeply divided Democratic Party, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency.Lincoln, a Kentucky-born lawyer and former Whig representative to Congress, first gained national stature during his campaign against Stephen Douglas of Illinois for a U.S. Senate seat in 1858.For preserving the Union and bringing an end to slavery, and for his unique character and powerful oratory, Lincoln is hailed as one of the greatest American presidents.
#7) The first seven seceding states of the Lower South set up a provisional government at Montgomery, Alabama. After hostilities began at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861, the border states of Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina joined the new government, which then moved its capital to Richmond, Virginia. The term secession had been used as early as 1776. South Carolina threatened separation when the Continental Congress sought to tax all the colonies on the basis of a total population count that would include slaves.The national judiciary, they felt, was packed with their opponents.<span> </span></span>
