WEBVTT

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For forty years, repeated attempts were
made to resolve conflicts between North

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and South. The Missouri Compromise
prohibited slavery in the northern half of

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the Louisiana Purchase and seemed, to
most white Americans, to put the slavery

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question to rest.

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But the acquisition of vast new territories
during the 1840s reignited the

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question of slavery in the western
territories. The Compromise of 1850 was an

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attempt to solve this problem by
admitting California as a free state but

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allowing slavery in the rest of the
Southwest. But the compromise included a

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fugitive slave law opposed
by many Northerners.

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The Kansas-Nebraska Act proposed to
solve the problem of statutes there by

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popular sovereignty --

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A vote by the citizens as to whether 
slavery should be allowed.

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But this led to violent conflict in
Kansas and the rise of

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the Republican party. The Dred Scott
decision eliminated possible compromise

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solutions to the sectional conflict and
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry

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convinced many Southerners that a majority
of Northerners wanted to free the

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slaves and incite race war. Meanwhile,
a growing majority of Northerners

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demanded an end to slavery's expansion.

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The country was on the verge of civil war.