January - Fort Sumter: The Battle That Started the War

Many believe that the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. However, the events that led up to the Civil War really occurred when the Federal government tackled the issue of slavery in the new western territories. With the Missouri Compromise in 1820, slavery was to be excluded for land in the Missouri Territory, north of the 36/30 parallel, or the southern boundary of Missouri. Slavery was to be allowed in the proposed state of Missouri.  

By 1850, as the United States began to move further west in our nation’s quest for Manifest Destiny, the issue of slavery became even more critical. The new territories of California and Texas had been acquired, and as a result of the war with Mexico, another vast area of land was now under U.S. control. The real question became “should the territories allow slavery, or should it be declared free?” The issue became one of state’s rights to choose their destiny.

The Compromise of 1850 settled this dispute and kept our country united. However, this solution was only a temporary fix. Then, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, passed on May 30, 1854, allowing settlers in the Kansas and Nebraska Territories to decide if slavery would be allowed inside their borders. This set off a wave of pro-slavery, and anti-slavery, or abolitionists to the Kansas Territory to claim the area as their own. This set off a wave of violence, and truly the first shots fired before the Civil War, as the territory became known as “Bleeding Kansas.”