From 1861 to 1865 our nation faced a national crisis. The American Civil War devastated the nation, and tried to put an end to the many disputes that trouble the United States of America. The Civil War had many different causes, but three of those stand out above the rest. The three reasons that were important to laying the groundwork for the Civil War were abolitionism, The Dred Scott Decision, and The Kansas-Nebraska Act.
             One of the major causes of the Civil War was abolitionism. The rise of slavery in the early 1800's caused increased tension among the southern slave owners and the northern elite. The Southerners believed that the slaves they owned were better off than the northern "wage slaves" and that the southern society was superior. The slave owners also believed that the slaves were like children that needed to be taken care of until their death. Obviously, the northern elitists disagreed with the southerners arguments and began the abolitionist movement. The abolitionists used the horrible stories of the lives of slaves to sway the people to the ideals of anti-slavery. Abolitionists called the slave owners sinners and claimed that they were immoral humans. The slave owners stated that they were just using slaves industriously, because the nation depended on cotton. This was true, because the northerners did depend on the southern cotton. The southerners were also very upset at the accusations of their immorality, because they believed that the slaves made their society superior and stable. William Lloyd Garrison founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society and published a newspaper called the Liberator, which bashed southern ideals and talked of anti-slavery. Frederick Douglas was another widely known abolitionist. Douglas gave speeches around the country about what it was like being a slave. These personal accounts converted many to the abolitionist move
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