Election of Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was elected as president in 1860. Lincoln was a necessity to the election of 1860. An important person that was involved in the election of Lincoln was Stephen Douglas, who was in the debate with Lincoln. Douglas won these debates, but if Lincoln would have won, he probably wouldn't have become president.This was the final straw for many Southerners. The Southerners at this time strived off of plantation systems. In contrast with the South, the Northerners lived mostly off of the city life. With that being said, the North was mostly Republicans, or anti slavery, and the South was mostly Democrats, or pro-slavery. Since Lincoln did not want to upset the South, he exclaimed that he would not prohibit slavery. His compromise to this situation was that slavery could not expand. Abraham's reasoning behind this was that it would eventually die out completely. The Southerners believed that their economy and way of life would be destroyed without slave labor. They started to believe that Lincoln was in favor of the Northerners interests. The South also felt like they were losing power because Lincoln had become president without campaigning in a single Southern state. As a result, the Southerners started to seceed from the Union, eventually forming the Confederacy States of America.
Abolitionist Movement
An abolitionist is someone who strongly opposes slavery. John Brown was a very important part of the abolitionist movement. Abraham Lincoln and John Brown were both strong followers of the abolitionist movement, but their opinions of how to solve this problem differed. Lincoln believed that Americans should solve slavery with peace and respect to the slaveowners, and John Brown thought that we should solve slavery with violence. They agreed with the North, who were frustrated with the practice of slavery. The more the abolitionists argued, the more followers they received. People's sympathy began to grow for the abolitionists, and against slavery and slaveholders. A major event that caused this sympathy was the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, telling details about the rough life of slaves. Some more major events that caused sympathy were the Dred Scott case, John Brown's raid, and the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, that stated that it was a crime to aid runaway slaves, and they were not free, even if they were in free territory.