To what extent did the crises of the 1850s contribute to the outbreak of the Civil War?

Candidates will consider the merits or otherwise of the suggestion that the crises of the 1850s contributed to the start of the Civil War. Candidates may discuss the events in chronological order or in order of suggested importance. While candidates might discuss some issues and events prior to 1850 or post 1859 as other contributors to the Civil War, the focus must be on evaluating the importance of the events of the 1850s. The Compromise of 1850, with its five different acts, might be seen as the beginning of the increased tensions between North and South. Other events could be the publication of Uncle’s Tom Cabin, the Kansas-Nebraska Act and Bleeding Kansas, the Dred Scott case and the Lincoln-Douglas debates. John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry may also be perceived as a crisis due to Southern reaction to it. The South’s reaction to the growth of abolitionism in the North may also be referred to.