Reading 2: Key Issues Leading to the Civil War

Political parties take sides in the debate over slaver

• The Republican Party formed in 1854 and united behind the issue of banning slavery in new territories.

• The presidential election of 1856 was divided along clear sectional lines. James Buchanan won most of the South, and John C. Frémont won most of the North.

Supreme Court rules against Dred Scott

• Dred Scott was an enslaved African American who sued for his freedom. His case reached the Supreme Court.

• The Court ruled that, as an enslaved person, Scott had no right to sue and that banning slavery was unconstitutional.

• Southerners hailed the decision, but antislavery groups called it a crime. 
  

A public debate over slavery.

• Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Stephen Douglas engaged in a series of famous debates about slavery in the 1858 Illinois Senate race.

• Lincoln lost the election but gained a national reputation through the debates.

• In 1859, abolitionist John Brown raided a U.S. arsenal in the hope of arming enslaved African Americans and starting a revolt against slaveholders.

Podcast created by Mr. Arnold

Recorded April 19, 2023

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