Traces the causes of the Civil War, including the abolitionist movement, debates between the North and the South over slavery, the economic roots of the slave system, political divisions between free and slave states, and the Dred Scott...

In this Crash Course video, John Green teaches you about the election of 1860. The tensions between the North and South were rising, ultimately due to the single issue of slavery. The North wanted to abolish slavery, and the South wanted...

Learn about John Brown's bloody struggle in Kansas against the slave system. [2:02]

In 1859, John Brown seized a federal armory at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, taking several hostages but failed to incite a revolution. Authorities found a link between Brown and Frederick Douglass. [1:41]