Growing sectional conflict over slavery erupts between 1854 to 1859 when, under the doctrine of popular sovereignty, proslavery and antislavery advocates for control of the new United States territory of Kansas wage a small civil war, “Bleeding Kansas”.This conflict serves as a grim dress rehearsal for the American Civil War, launched in the spring of 1861 by the state of South Carolina in response to the election in 1860 of Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln to the presidency.