Sectionalism and debates over slavery led to violence and political rifts because the Compromise of 1850 satisfied neither northerners nor southerners. The slavery debate continued to divide the nation. Soon, the debate turned violent, and the nation headed reluctantly toward civil war. The issue of slavery caused fighting in Kansas and even on the Senate floor. Then abolitionist John Brown and a group of his followers attempted to raid a federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. War seemed inevitable.
