“Two events riled anti-slavery forces in America:”
I believe you are overlooking a third, John Brown’s Raid in 1859.
John Brown bears an uncanny resemblance to today’s terrorists, a bearded fanatic who who believes that murdering people is his religious privilege. In his early murders at Pottawatomie creek he and his sons even used swords to slaughter their victims.
Brown’s terrorism was bankrolled by the 19th century equivalent of the Hollywood Left, the wealthy literary set of Boston that included the Howes and the Parkers. Otto Scott wrote a history of them in his book “The Secret Six”.
If I recall correctly the first man killed in Brown’s Harper’s Ferry Raid was a free black man who worked for the railroad. And one of the men they took hostage was Lewis Washington, a grand nephew of George.
In supporting Brown and turning him into a folk hero the North raised the ante to open violence. No longer was the slavery issue to be hammered out in the courts and Congress. The lesson for the South was that war had already been declared on them and they had better recognize it. A year or so later they did.
‘In supporting Brown and turning him into a folk hero the North raised the ante to open violence.’
It is my impression that the military forces of the federal union seized him and turned him over to the government of Virginia to be tried and executed. Please tell me how I am mistaken in this.
Back then, States had much more meaning than they do now. Robert E. Lee was very much against secession, yet wouldn't go against his State. George Thomas, a fellow Virginian, decided that our country was greater than the State (it didn't hurt that he married a lady from New York State and despised slavery).
The Brown raid was very important, but the previous things I wrote about were the main catalysts.