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Abolition
The movement to abolish slavery, became the most important of a series of reform movements in America. -
Missouri Compromise
Under this agreement Maine was admitted as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. The rest of the Louisiana Territory was split into two parts. The dividing line was set at 36 30 north latidtude. South of the line slavery was legal. North of the line slavery was banned. This was put in effect by President James Madison. -
Santa Fe Trail
One of the busiest routes, it stretched from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe in the Mexican province of New Mexico. -
San Felipe de Austin
Stephen F Austin continued his fathers's project and established a colony by 1821. The main settlement of the colony was named San Felipe de Austin. By 1825, Austin had issued 297 land grants to the group that later became known as Texas's Old Three Hundred. By 1830, there were more than 20,000 americans in Texas. -
The Liberator
An antislavery newspaper demanding immdediate emancipation written by William Lloyd Garrison a radical white abolitionist -
Mexico Abolishes Slavery
Many of the incoming settlers were southerners who brought their slaves with them. In 1829 Mexico abolished slavery, and insisted that the Texans free their slaves. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
A rebellion where Nat Turner and more than 50 followers attacked four plantations and killed about 60 whites. Whites eventually captured and executed many members of the group, including Turner. -
Stephen F. Austin goes to jail
In 1833, Stephen F. Austin went to the Mexican Government to present petitions for self-government for Texas. On his way home he was imprisoned for inciting revolution. -
Oregon Trail
A trail that stretched from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon. Blazed by two Methodist missionaries named Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, they proved wagons could travel on the Oregon Trail. -
Texas Revolution
The 1836 rebellion in which Texas gained it's independence from Mexico. -
Manifest Destiny
Expressed the belief that the United States was ordained to expand to the Pacific ocean and into Mexican and Native American Territory. -
Texas enters the United States
The 1844 presidential campaign focused on westward expansion. The winner, James K. Polk, a slaveholder, firmly favored the annexation of Texas. -
Mexican-American War
A war that took place fro 1846-1848 between the United States and the Centralist Republic of Mexico.It followed in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered part of its territory, despite the 1836 Texas Revolution. -
The North Star
Frederick Douglass began an antislavery newspaper named The North Star after the star that guided runaways to freedom. He believed that abolition justifed whatever means were necessary to achieve it. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Mexico agreed to the Rio Grande as the border between Texas and Mexico and ceded the New Mexico and California territories to the United States. The United States agreed to pay $15 million for the Mexican cession, which included present day California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, most of Arizona, and parts of
Colorado and Wyoming. -
Harriet Tubman
One of the iconic conductors for the Underground Railroad. Overall she made 19 trips back to the south and is estimated to have helped 300 slaves to freedom. -
Compromise of 1850
This was a compromise formed by Henry Clay which contained provisions to appease Northerners as well as Southerners. To please the North, the compromise provided that California be admitted to the Union as a free state. To please the South, the compromise proposed a new and more effective fugitive slave law. To placate both sides, a provision allowed popular sovereignty, the right to vote for or against slavery, for residents of the New Mexico and Utah territories. -
Fugitive Slave Act
Under this law, alleged fugitive slaves were not entitled to a trial by jury. In addition, anyone convicted of helping a fugitive was liable for a fine of $1,000 and imprisonment for up to six months. -
Underground Railroad
"Conductors" helped slaves to freedom and supplied them with the means to get to the next "station. Eventually the slaves would make it to the north. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
In 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom's Cabin which stressed the moral struggle of slavery. It expressed her lifetime hatred for slavery. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Senator Stephen Douglas introduced a bill in Congress on January 23, 1854, that would divide the area into two territories: Nebraska in the north and Kansas in the south. If passed, the bill would repeal the Missouri Compromise
and establish popular sovereignty for both territories. -
Dread Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott a slave whose owner took him from slave territory to free territory and back. He appealed to the court that he was free because he lived on free soil. On March 6, 1857 congress ruled against him. -
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas Debates
Abraham Lincoln challenged Stephen Douglas to a series of debates based around Slavery. They debated for a seat in the senate. They both agreed that slavery should be abolished, but they had different views on how to do it. -
John Brown's Raid/Harper's Ferry
In 1859 John Brown led a band of 21 men, black and white, into Harper's Ferry, Virginia. His aim was to seize the federal arsenal and start a general slave uprising. -
Abraham Lincoln becomes president
In 1860 Lincoln is eleceted president with less than half the popular vote and no electoral votes from the south. The Democratic Party was split over slavery. Northern Democrats sided with Stephen Douglas while southern Democrats sided with vice president John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. -
Formation of the Confederacy
After Lincoln's election South Carolina seceded from the Union, other Southern states soon followed South Carolina's lead. In 1861 Delegates from these southern states met in Montgomery Alabama and formed the Confederate States of america, or Confederacy. -
Attack on Fort Sumter
As soon as the Confederacy was formed, Confederate soldiers began seizing federal institutions. Fort Sumter being a major fort, Lincoln neither abandoned nor reinforced it. On April 12, Confederate Troops stormed Fort Sumter and captured it. -
Battle of Bull Run
The first bloodshed of the Civil War occured at the creek of Bull Run. It was a seesaw affair, but soon Thomas J. Jackson inspired the southern troops to victory. This victory boosted the Southern morale, and granted Jackson the nickname of Stonewall Jackson. -
Income Tax
The economy of the North greatly benefitted from the war, but living conditions declined. Congress decided to help pay for the war by collecting the nation's first income tax. -
Battle of Antietam
In pursuit of Robert E. Lee, McClellan a union general intercepted Lee's armies at a creek called Antietam. This battle was one of the bloddiest battles in American History with more than 26,000 casualties. The next day, instead of pursuing the battered confederate army McClellan did nothing. As a result Lincoln removed him from command. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln had found a way to use his constitutional power to end slavery. He ordered Union troops so seize enemy supplies, and authorized the army to emancipate slaves. Emancipation became a weapon of war. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. -
Battle at Vicksburg
In 1863 Ulysses S. Grant fought to take Vicksburg. Grant had sent troops to break rail lines as a distraction, he also sent troops to Mississippi to search for confederate troops. AFter every victory the troops morale was boosted. Once Grant had sacked Jackson he moved to barrage Vicksburg with artillery. The bombing was constant and Vicksburg soon fell on July 4. -
Battle at Gettysburg
The most decisive battle of the war fought in Gettysburg of southern Pennsylvania. The three-day battle produced staggering losses: 23,000 Union men and 28,000 Confederates were killed or wounded. Total casualties were more than 30 percent. Despite the devastation, Northerners were enthusiastic about breaking “the charm of Robert Lee’s invincibility." -
Conscription
As fighting intensified , heavy casualties and widespread desertions led each side to impose conscription, a draft that forced men to serve in the army. -
Gettysburg Address
In November 1863, a ceremony was held to dedicate
a cemetery in Gettysburg. There, President Lincoln spoke for a little more than two minutes. The speech helped the country realize that it was not just a collection of individual states; it was one unified nation. -
Sherman's March
In the spring of 1864, Sherman began his march southeast through Georgia to the sea, creating a wide path of destruction. His army burned almost every house in its path and destroyed livestock and railroads. -
Surrender at Appomattox Court House
On April 9, 1865, in a Virginia town called Appomattox Court House, Lee and Grant met at a private home to arrange a Confederate surrender. At Lincoln’s request, the terms were generous. Grant paroled Lee’s soldiers and sent them home with their possessions and three days’ worth of rations. Officers were permitted to keep their side arms. Within a month all remaining Confederate resistance collapsed. After four long years, the Civil War was over. -
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Five days after Lee's surrender Lincoln and his wife went to Ford's Theatre in Washington to see a British comedy. During its third act a man crept up behind Lincoln and shot the president in the back of his head. The shooter was identified as John Wilkes Booth, and was shot dead in a Virginia Tobacco shed. -
Thirteenth Amendment
By the end of 1865 The US Constitution abolished slavery in it's Thirteenth Amendment.
