The Missouri Compromise (1820) tried to achieve a balance between the slave and free states. Sectional conflict was heightened by the growing abolitionism in the North and incidents such as the Rebellion of Nat Turner (1831). Conflicts about whether or not to expand slavery into the West developed into national politics and relentlessly destroyed compromise.
The territorial gains obtained through victory in the Mexican-American War (1846-48) put the expansion of slavery on the agenda. The unsuccessful Compromise of 1850 and its Fugitive Slave Act also served to further split the nation by requiring the North to take part in capturing runaway slaves.
The Missouri Compromise line was abolished by the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) which used the principle of popular sovereignty on municipalities to be established. It led to bloody fighting in the state of "Bleeding Kansas", which showed the inability of the country to decide on whether or not slavery can exist in the future.
The Dred Scott decision (1857) of the Supreme Court deprived the Blacks their citizenship, and forbade Congress the right to prohibit slavery in the territories. The raid on Harpers Ferry by John Brown (1859) was an attempt to stir up rebellion among the slaves to increase Southern anxiety and Northern determination to resist the strength of slavery.
The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 against the expansion of slavery led to the election of the eleven states in the South. They were afraid of federal intervention against slavery and so they established the Confederacy. This was a frontal attack on the existence of the Union and this united the rest of the states into war to save the country.
Conclusion:
Slavery was abolished through the 13th Amendment as a result of the Civil war. Birthright citizenship and equal protection were proclaimed by the 14th Amendment and the Black men were provided with voting rights by the 15th one. Nevertheless, the failure of Reconstruction gave Southern opposition an opportunity to implement segregation (Jim Crow), which would preclude equality over the following decades. The war ended with federal dominance, yet the remnants were racist inequality.
