A nation divided, a state conflicted, and four years that reshaped American life forever.

The uneasy balance between free and slave states collapsed in the 1850s, as 'compromises' like the Compromise of 1850 and Kansas-Nebraska Act inflamed tensions instead of easing them.

The Second Amendment has sparked centuries of debate: Is it about militias, individual rights, or both? From its 18th-century origins to modern Supreme Court rulings, this question remains central to America’s most heated constitutional argument.