Essential Question

What events and/or decisions caused conflict within United States that to led to war?

Objective

a. The students will be able to explain a series of events that led to the Civil War.

Background

 

Tensions grew for many years before the first shots rang out at Fort Sumter, signaling the beginning of the Civil War. There was a clear division between the north and the south's perspectives of this young country. The Missouri Compromise, The Compromise of 1850, The Dred Scott Decision, John Brown's Raid, Uncle Toms Cabin, and the 1860's election did not occur in a matter of days of each other. These events spanned forty years. To people in the south, those long years of dissatisfaction intensified when Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860. This was a final straw that led to several southern states seceding from the Union.