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Major Events
Chapter 19 · 1854–1861
The Kansas-Nebraska Act and "Bleeding Kansas"
1854–1856
The caning of Charles Sumner
1856
The Dred Scott decision
1857
The Lecompton Constitution controversy
1857–1858
The Lincoln-Douglas debates
1858
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
1859
Abraham Lincoln elected president
1860
South Carolina secedes
December 1860