Early Sparks of Conflict
This 1831 slave uprising in Southampton County, Virginia, was led by an enslaved preacher.
Answer: Who was Nat Turner?
This 1820 compromise banned slavery north of the 36°30′ line.
Answer: What was the Missouri Compromise?
This act allowed settlers to vote on whether slavery would be allowed in Kansas and Nebraska.
Answer: What was the Kansas–Nebraska Act?
Dred Scott sued for his freedom after living in this free territory before returning to Missouri.
Answer: What was the Wisconsin Territory?
This state became the first to secede from the Union in December 1860.
Answer: What was South Carolina?
After Nat Turner’s Revolt, Southern states responded by doing this to slave laws.
Answer: What is they tightened slave laws.
The Compromise of 1850 admitted this state to the Union as a free state.
Answer: What was California?
The Kansas–Nebraska Act repealed this earlier compromise that restricted slavery in the territories.
Answer: What was the Missouri Compromise?
The Supreme Court ruled that enslaved people were considered this, not citizens.
Answer: What was property?
The southern states that seceded formed this new nation and elected Jefferson Davis as president.
Answer: What was the Confederate States of America?
The tariff tariff introduced in this year angered the South so much it was nicknamed the “Tariff of Abominations.”
Answer: When was 1828?
This controversial law was strengthened by the Compromise of 1850 and required escaped slaves to be returned.
Answer: What was the Fugitive Slave Act?
Violent clashes between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas became known by this name.
Answer: What was Bleeding Kansas?
According to the Court’s decision, Congress did not have the power to ban slavery in these areas.
Answer: What were federal territories?
This U.S. fort in South Carolina became the site of the first shots of the Civil War.
Answer: What was Fort Sumter?
In 1832, South Carolina claimed it had the right to declare federal tariffs null and void in this crisis.
Answer: What was the Nullification Crisis?
As part of the Compromise of 1850, this activity was banned—but slavery itself remained legal—in Washington, D.C.
Answer: What was the buying and selling of slaves?
This Massachusetts senator was brutally beaten with a cane after giving a speech called “The Crime Against Kansas.”
Answer: Who was Charles Sumner?
This Supreme Court ruling declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.
Answer: What was the Dred Scott decision?
President Lincoln announced he would send these supplies to Fort Sumter, escalating the crisis.
Answer: What were provisions (supplies)?
This 1833 law gave President Andrew Jackson authority to use the military to enforce tariff collection.
Answer: What was the Force Bill?
The Compromise of 1850 temporarily eased tensions but ultimately failed to resolve this central issue.
Answer: What was slavery and its expansion into the territories?
The violence and political fallout from Kansas helped lead to the creation of this political party opposed to slavery’s expansion.
Answer: What was the Republican Party?
These two constitutional amendments eventually overturned the Dred Scott decision.
Answer: What were the 13th and 14th Amendments?
The Civil War officially began at this time on April 12, 1861.
Answer: What was 4:00 a.m.?