The Dred Scott decision was the harbinger of the final irrevocable split between the North and the South. According to many historians, the first shots of the Civil War were fired on October 16, 1859, when the abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). Intending to spark an uprising against Southern slave owners that would bring down slavery once and for all, Brown fought off armed and determined townspeople as well as a company of federal troops under the command of Robert E. Lee. After his capture, Brown was tried in a Virginia court and was swiftly executed. While Southerners saw Brown as a fanatic and a murderer, many Northerners praised him as a hero and martyr for fighting for his beliefs in deeds, not words, against the institution of slavery.

The future battle lines...