It maintained a delicate balance between free and slave states. On the single most divisive issue of the day, the U.S. Senate was equally divided. If the slavery question could be settled politically, any such settlement would have to happen in the Senate.

​The Missouri Compromise

Was an enslaved African American man who unsuccessfully sued for freedom. U.S. Supreme Court denied the legality of black citizenship in America, and declared the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional.

Dred Scott Decision

​Anaconda Plan, May 3, 1861

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​Emancipation Proclamation

January 1, 1863

​Battle of Vicksburg

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Siege of Vicksburg eventually gave control of the Mississippi River—a critical supply line—to the Union, and was part of the Union’s successful Anaconda Plan to cut off all trade to the Confederacy.