The document summarizes key events leading up to the American Civil War. It discusses tensions over slavery and states' rights, including the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and the formation of the Republican Party. It also describes the events in "Bleeding Kansas" between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers, the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, and Lincoln's election in 1860 which prompted seven Southern states to secede and form the Confederate States of America. Congress unsuccessfully tried compromises to prevent secession and civil war.