1860: Fury, Then Freedom

The 1860 campaign altered America more than any other election in the nation's history. The new antislavery Republican Party nominated Lincoln, who benefited from a fractured opposition. Proslavery Democrats nominated incumbent Vice President John C. Breckinridge, a Kentuckian, while Northern Democrats ran with Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas. Lincoln won the White House with just 40% of the popular tally and didn't score a single Southern state. By February 1861, the Confederate States of America had penned a constitution. Bloodshed — and emancipation — would follow.

See pictures of Abraham Lincoln.

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