How much lead up was there to the first Civil War socially? How many regular people were at the point where they were thinking "okay, this is kind of inevitable"?

by RoundaboutFlare

Just sensing how people in America right now are getting a bit resigned to the fact that something might happen and people are saying we're kind of in this cold war civil war period-- so what was it like the first time around? Were people getting ready for it? Did they know it was coming? I'm guessing they didn't just BOOM start fighting out of nowhere.

freedmenspatrol

More can always be said, but I wrote about this a while back.