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Period: 27,000 BCE to
Beginnings to Exploration
Where the First Americans, European and Native- American Societies, Collision Course, Columbian Exchange, The Protestant Reformation, Spanish Colonization, French Colonization, English Colonization take place. -
1000
Dark Ages
The "Dark Ages" is a historical periodization, traditionally referring to the Middle Ages, that asserts that a demographic, cultural and economic deterioration occurred in Western Europe following the decline of the Roman Empire. -
Jun 7, 1494
Treaty of Tordesillas
An agreement between Spain and Portugal to clear up confusion on newly claimed land in the New World. According to the pope, Portugal will get all the land in the east and Brazil, Spain will get the rest in the west. -
1500
Columbian Exchange
The Columbian Exchange refers to a period of cultural and biological exchanges between the New and Old Worlds. Exchanges of plants, animals, diseases and technology transformed European and Native American ways of life. Beginning after Columbus' discovery in 1492, the exchange lasted throughout the years of expansion and discovery. The Columbian Exchange impacted the social and cultural makeup of both sides of the Atlantic. -
1509
Henry VIII
King of England, he famously married a series of six wives in his search for political alliance, marital bliss and a healthy male heir. His desire to annul his first marriage without the pope's approval led to the creation of a separate Church of England. -
1517
Martin Luther
Luther penned a document attacking the Catholic Church’s corrupt practice of selling “indulgences” to absolve sin. His “95 Theses,” which propounded two central beliefs—that the Bible is the central religious authority and that humans may reach salvation only by their faith and not by their deeds—was to spark the Protestant Reformation. -
1550
The Renaissance
A period of great revival of interest in the classical learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome.The Renaissance also witnessed the discovery and exploration of new continents, the substitution of the Copernican for the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the decline of the feudal system and the growth of commerce, and the invention or application of such potentially powerful innovations as paper, printing, the mariner's compass, and gunpowder. -
Roanoke
The Roanoke Colony was established in 1585 on Roanoke Island, North Carolina. It was a late 16th-century attempt by Queen Elizabeth I to establish a permanent English settlement in North America. The colony was founded by Sir Walter Raleigh. The colonists disappeared during the Anglo-Spanish War, three years after the last shipment of supplies from England. Their disappearance gave rise to the nickname "The Lost Colony". There is no conclusive evidence as to what happened to the colonists. -
Chesapeake Colonies
In 1607, English settlers first landed in Virginia. Inadequately supplied or prepared, they survived at first by trading with and stealing from the Native American people they encountered. After a time the English learned how to grow the natives' primary food crop, 'Indian corn' or maize. They also discovered the natives' habitual pleasure, tobacco. Later became wealthy by exporting the cash crop tobacco -
Period: to
English Colonial Societies
When The Chesapeake Colonies, The New England Colonies, The Caribbean Colonies, Proprietary Colonies were form. In addition, this is when the Colonial Problems, Salem Witch Trials and Navigation Acts, and The Rise of Britain take place. -
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was the first agreement for self-government to be created and enforced in America. An agreement which set up a government in Plymouth Colony for the Pilgrims when they first settle in the New World. -
Tobacco
Tobacco was a major cash crop in the Chesapeake colonies. During the 1700s, many plantation owners were able to increase their fortunes by selling tobacco to Europeans and Africans. Tobacco later became a profit maker in the American colonies -
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution of England was a blood-less coup which led to the overthrow of King James II in 1688 and the establishment of William and Mary as monarchs. The Glorious Revolution abolished absolutism and established a constitutional monarchy in England in which parliament had basic sovereignty over the king. -
English Bill of Rights
English Bill of Rights was a British Law, passed by the Parliament of Great Britain in 1689 that declared the basic rights and liberties of the people and settling the succession in William III and Mary II following the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when James II was deposed. -
Salem Witch Trials
The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft.More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft, the Devil’s magic, and 20 were executed. Eventually, the colony admitted the trials were a mistake and compensated the families of those convicted. -
Act of Union
The Acts of Union were a pair of Acts of Parliament passed in 1706 and 1707 by the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The Acts were the implementation of the Treaty of Union negotiated between the two states. The Acts created a new state, the Kingdom of Great Britain, by merging the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland. -
The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement which advocated freedom, democracy and reason as the primary values of society. It started from the standpoint that men's minds should be freed from ignorance, from superstition and from the arbitrary powers of the State. The period was marked by a further decline in the influence of the church, governmental consolidation and greater rights for the common people. -
Triangular Trade
The journey with ships travelling from all over Europe carrying manufactured goods to different ports along the African coast to trade for slaves. The ships from Africa then sailed across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and Americas to trade the slaves for raw materials. Finally the ships from America returned back to Europe with raw materials such as sugar, tobacco, rice and cotton. -
Atlantic Slave Trade
The Atlantic Slave Trade connected the economies of three continents. It is estimated that between 25 to 30 million people, men, women and children, were deported from their homes and sold as slaves in the different slave trading systems. In the transatlantic slave trade alone the estimate of those deported is believed to be approximately 17 million. These figures exclude those who died aboard the ships and in the course of wars and raids connected to the trade. -
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Colonial America to 1763
Experienced of society changes, The Enlightenment, The Great Awakening, Slavery in the Colonies, Colonial Growth, The French and Indian War. -
The Great Awakening
A Protestant religious revival that swept Protestant Europe and British America in the 1730s and 1740s. The Great Awakening pulled away from ritual, ceremony, sacramentalism, and hierarchy, and made Christianity intensely personal to the average person by fostering a deep sense of spiritual conviction and redemption, and by encouraging introspection and a commitment to a new standard of personal morality. -
Seven-Years War / French and Indian War
The French and Indian War was a global conflict involving the major powers of Europe, began in 1754 as disputes over land claims in the Ohio Valley lead to a series of frontier battles between the French and British. The war and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763, provided Great Britain enormous territorial gains in North America, but disputes over subsequent frontier policy and paying the war's expenses led to colonial discontent. -
Virtual Representation
The idea that the British parliament members virtually represented British colonists by speaking for all instead of just the district they were from.The concept of virtual representation originated in 1765 when the thirteen colonies expressed their grievance against British Colonists for denying direct representation in the British parliament to these colonies. -
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The Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War, also known as the American War of Independence, was a global war that began as a conflict between Great Britain and her Thirteen Colonies, which declared independence as the United States of America. -
Treaty of Paris 1763
The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years’ War between Great Britain and France, as well as their respective allies. In the terms of the treaty, France gave up all its territories in mainland North America, effectively ending any foreign military threat to the British colonies there. -
Revenue Act / Sugar Act
The Sugar Act of 1764 was a British Law, passed by the Parliament of Great Britain on April 5, 1764, that was designed to raise revenue from the American colonists in the 13 Colonies. The Act set a tax on sugar and molasses imported into the colonies which impacted the manufacture of rum in New England. -
Boston Massacre
An incident on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers shot and killed people while under attack by a mob. The incident was heavily publicized by leading Patriots, such as Paul Revere and Samuel Adams, to encourage rebellion against the British authorities. -
Boston Tea Party
A raid on three British ships in Boston Harbor in which Boston colonists, disguised as Indians, threw the contents of several hundred chests of tea into the harbor as a protest against British taxes on tea and against the monopoly granted the East India Company. -
The Declaration of Independence
The statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule. These states would found a new nation, the United States of America. -
Battle of Saratoga
The Battle of Saratoga, comprising two significant battles during September and October of 1777, was a crucial victory for the Patriots during the American Revolution and is considered the turning point of the Revolutionary War. The Battle was the impetus for France to enter the war against Britain, re-invigorating Washington's Continental Army and providing much needed supplies and support. -
Battle of Yorktown
The Battle of Yorktown was the last great battle of the American Revolutionary War. It is where the British Army surrendered and the British government began to consider a peace treaty. -
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The Constitution
Under America’s first governing document, the Articles of Confederation, the national government was weak and states operated like independent countries. At the 1787 convention, delegates devised a plan for a stronger federal government with three branches–executive, legislative and judicial–along with a system of checks and balances to ensure no single branch would have too much power. -
Treaty of Paris 1783
The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War. -
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation served as the written document that established the functions of the national government of the United States after it declared independence from Great Britain.It established a weak central government that mostly, but not entirely, prevented the individual states from conducting their own foreign diplomacy. -
Shay's Rebellion
Shays’ Rebellion was a series of protests during 1786 and 1787 of American poor farmers from western Massachusetts led by Daniel Shays, a former captain in the Continental army. Bad harvests, economic depression, the drop in the price of crops, and heavy taxes passes by the state to pay off the Revolutionary War debts leading citizens to rebel against the United States’ government. -
Federalists
The first American political party, wanted a stronger national government and the ratification of the Constitution to help properly manage the debt and tensions following the American Revolution. The party controlled the federal government. -
Anti-Federalists
Republicans, or the Democratic-Republican Party, was founded in 1792 by Jefferson and James Madison. The party was created in order to oppose the policies of Hamilton and the Federalist Party. Anti-federalists were those who support weak central government and the ratification of the Constitution in 1788, preferring instead for power to remain in the hands of state and local governments. -
Virginia Plan
The Virginia Plan, also known as the Large State Plan, was based on a national and state government system with a Separation of Powers consisting of legislative, executive, and judicial branches. A bicameral legislature (two houses) consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate would feature proportional representation. -
New Jersey Plan
The Virginia Plan, also known as the Small State Plan, was a proposal for the structure of the United States Government. Under the New Jersey Plan, the unicameral legislature with one vote per state was inherited from the Articles of Confederation. This position reflected the belief that the states were independent entities and as they entered the United States of America freely and individually, so they remained. -
Connecticut Plan
An agreement that both large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that in part defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution. It retained the bicameral legislature along with proportional representation of the states in the lower house, but required the upper house to be weighted equally between the states. Each state would have two representatives in the upper house. -
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New Republic
The United States' first years under the new Constitution, the new government, diplomacy and conflict, and politics of the early Republic. -
Bank of the United States
The First Bank of the United States was needed because the government had a debt from the Revolutionary War, and each state had a different form of currency. It was built while Philadelphia was still the nation's capital. Alexander Hamilton conceived of the bank to handle the colossal war debt, and to create a standard form of currency. -
Whiskey Rebellion
Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 started with a tax, a tax on distilled liquors to help pay off the debt from the American Revolution. Pennsylvania and Kentucky farmers were upset and rebelled against the government because whiskey was economically important and earned large profit for them. The Whiskey Rebellion, under the Constitution, showed that the government can enforce the law. -
Pinckney's Treaty
An agreement of friendship between the United States and Spain.The treaty was an important diplomatic success for the United States. It resolved territorial disputes between the two countries and granted American ships the right to free navigation of the Mississippi River as well as duty-free transport through the port of New Orleans, then under Spanish control. -
Election of 1796
The election of 1796 was the first major political contest between Republicans and Federalists. John Adams ran as a Federalist, and Thomas Jefferson as a Republican. Adams won the presidency by three electoral votes. Jefferson became vice president following Constitutional protocol, which stated that the candidate with the second highest number of votes would become vice president. -
Washington's Farewell Address
The final address given to the American people by George Washington. In the 32-page handwritten address, Washington urged Americans to avoid excessive political party spirit and geographical distinctions. In foreign affairs, he warned against long-term alliances with other nations. -
Alien and Sedition Acts
Signed by John Adams in 1789, the Alien and Sedition Acts made it more difficult for immigrants to become US citizens, and included a provision criminalizing false statements critical of the federal government. This provision was squarely aimed at the Democratic-Republican opposition, which had been sharply critical of Adams and the Federalists. -
Election of 1800
In the Election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson (Democat- Republican) won the presidential election with 73 votes to Adams's (Federalist) 65, but the Republican vice presidential candidate Aaron Burr also received 73 votes, making the vote for the presidency a tie. As a result, the Constitution directed that the election be decided by the House of Representatives. -
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The Age of Jefferson
The election of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency in 1800 marked the end of the Federalist era. Jefferson hoped to limit the federal government's power over the states and over the economy. Yet, he took the opportunity to double the size of United States by purchasing the Louisiana Territory from France. Then, Jefferson sent an expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore this vast region. -
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase encompassed 530,000,000 acres of territory in North America that the United States purchased from France in 1803 for $15 million (3 cents an acre), thereby doubling the size of the young republic. It is considered one of the most important achievements of Thomas Jefferson’s presidency. -
Embargo Act of 1807
The Embargo Act of 1807 was a law passed by the United State Congress and signed by President Thomas Jefferson on December 22, 1807. It prohibited American ships from trading in all foreign ports, which will become a big problem because it will hurts the south and northeast's economy. -
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was an armed conflict between the United States and the British Empire. The cause of the War of 1812 were the British attempts to restrict U.S. trade during the Napoleonic Wars and the British Navy’s Impressment of American seamen. The result to the war was a draw, it did not solve diplomatic issues. It is considered as a second war for independence from Britain. Natives will be big losers in this war. -
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The American Industrial Revolution
A period when the United States started to shift from an agricultural society to industrial society. New inventions in the Industrialization moved manufacturing away from handmade goods and cottage industries and marked a shift to powered, special-purpose machinery, factories and mass production. -
Panic of 1819
In 1819, the impressive post-War of 1812 economic expansion ended. Banks throughout the country failed; mortgages were foreclosed, forcing people out of their homes and off their farms. Falling prices impaired agriculture and manufacturing, triggering widespread unemployment. It is one the worst depressions in U.S history. -
McCulloch v Maryland
A landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. The state of Maryland had attempted to impede operation of a branch of the Second Bank of the United States by imposing a tax on all notes of banks not chartered in Maryland. -
Adams - Onis Treaty
A treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to the U.S. and defined the boundary between the U.S. and New Spain. The treaty was negotiated in Washington, D.C. by the American secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, and the Spanish ambassador to the United States, Luis de Onis. -
Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney invented a simple machine that influenced the history of the United States. He invented a cotton gin that was popular in the South. The South became the cotton producing part of the country because Whitney's cotton gin was able to successfully pull out the seeds from the cotton bolls quickly and easily. -
Steamboats
Steamboats gave merchants the ability to ship goods both up and down rivers. This greatly reduced the costs and time required to move goods, allowing port cities to flourish more than ever. In addition to revolutionizing the internal waterways, the steamboat cut the transatlantic travel time from roughly 2 months to a little over 2 weeks -
The Temperance Movement
The Temperance movement is a social movement against the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements typically criticize alcohol intoxication, promote complete abstinence, or use its political influence to press the government to enact alcohol laws to regulate the availability of alcohol or even its complete prohibition. -
Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was a Christian revivalist movement that featured large revival meetings where zealous preachers expressed their ideas to the American public which sparked social reformation such as the Temperance Movement, Women's suffrage and the Anti-Slavery Abolitionist Movement. -
Mormons
Followers of the Mormon religion are known as Mormons and Latter-day Saints (LDS), was founded less than two hundred years ago by a man named Joseph Smith. He claimed to have received a personal visit from God the Father and Jesus Christ, who told him that all churches and their creeds were an abomination. Joseph Smith then set out to "restore true Christianity" and claimed his church to be the “only true church on earth” -
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Cultural Changes
The idea of Transcendentalism, Revivalism, Abolitionist, Temperance movement, the Second Great Awakening, and woman fighting for their right to vote happened around this time period. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was a settlement reached between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in Congress and their opposing views on the extension of slavery into new territories. It admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state and barred slavery from the Louisiana Territory north of the 36°30' parallel. -
Election of 1824
In the Election of 1824, John Quincy Adams was elected President on February 9, 1825, after the election was decided by the House of Representatives. The previous few years had seen a one-party government in the United States, as the Federalist Party had dissolved, leaving only the Democratic-Republican Party. In this election, the Democratic-Republican Party splintered as four separate candidates sought the presidency -
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Age of Jackson
This period constituted great change and issues warranting debate, such as slavery, Indians, westward mobility, and balance of power between the executive and the legislative branches of government.The common man now had the right to vote, without the distinction of owning land, nominating candidates to office, and rewarding the politicians that represented the common man’s interests. -
Canals
Canal, considered a marvel of the modern world at the time, allowed western farmers to ship surplus crops to sell in the North and allowed northern manufacturers to ship finished goods to sell in the West. -
Millennialism
Millennialism is a belief advanced by some Christian denominations that a Golden Age or Paradise will occur on Earth in which "Christ will reign" for 1000 years prior to the final judgment and future eternal state. -
Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the eastern United States. It arose as a reaction to or protest against the general state of intellectualism and spirituality at the time. -
Election of 1828
Democrat Andrew Jackson defeated National Republican John Quincy Adams in the Election of 1828. The 1828 presidential election is considered one of the dirtiest election, because Jackson and the Democratic Party accused John Quincy Adams of engaging in disgraceful politics in order to ensure his victory in the election of 1824 and John Quincy Adams responded with a campaign that focused on Andrew Jackson's military career and personal life. -
Indian Removal Act of 1830
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, authorizing the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. A few tribes went peacefully, but many resisted the relocation policy. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion was the bloodiest and most effective slave rebellion in America’s history, led by Nat Turner during August 1831 in Southampton County, Virginia. The incident put fear in the heart of Southerners, resulted in the strengthen in militias and limited freed slave access to firearms. However, this rebellion was viewed as heroic by Northerners. -
Slave Code
Slaves codes were state laws established to determine the status of slaves and the rights of their owners. Slave codes placed harsh restrictions on slaves' already limited freedoms, often in order to preempt rebellion or escape, and gave slave owners absolute power over their slaves. -
Election of 1832
The major issue in the Election of 1832 was Jackson's determination to eliminate the Bank of the United States. Jackson had vetoed the bill reauthorizing the bank shortly before being renominated. Henry Clay decided to make that veto the major issue in the campaign. However, Clay’s strategy backfired. The bank was widely considered a tool of the rich through Jack's speech. As a result, the bank was extremely unpopular. Jackson won by an overwhelming margin. -
Nullification Crisis
A confrontation between the state of South Carolina and the federal government over the former’s attempt to declare null and void within the state the federal Tariffs of 1828 and 1832. The resolution of the nullification crisis in favor of the federal government helped to undermine the nullification doctrine, the constitutional theory that upheld the right of states to nullify federal acts within their boundaries. -
Abolitionist
Abolitionist in the United States was the movement before and during the American Civil War to end slavery in the United States. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism is a historical movement to end the African and Indian slave trade and set slaves free. -
Whig Party
Originally formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson ) and his Democratic Party. In particular, the Whigs supported the supremacy of the US Congress over the Presidency and favored a program of modernization, banking, and economic protectionism to stimulate manufacturing. -
First Police Forces
First forces were established in the 1830s and 1840s because tensions needed to be dealt with. -
Telegraph
Developed in the 1830s and 1840s by Samuel Morse and other inventors, the telegraph revolutionized long-distance communication. It worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations. -
Election of 1840
Whig candidate William Henry Harrison defeated incumbent Democratic Pres. Martin Van Buren in the Election of 1840. The election of 1840 was the first campaign with slogans, songs, and modern campaign paraphernalia. Harrison was portrayed as a man of the people. Though his views on most major issues were unknown. The economy was the major issue of the campaign. Van Buren shouldered the blame for the poor state of the economy. Harrison promised to get the economy moving again. -
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Westward Expansion
The era of making the U.S become a continental nation from coast to coast, or the idea of Manifest Destiny. Westward expansion was enabled by buying land, wars, treaties and the displacement of Native American Indians. The rapid settlement of territories gained during the process of Westward Expansion was made possible by progressive transportation systems such as roads, canals and the railroads and the belief in the Manifest Destiny of the United States of America. -
Election of 1844
Democratic candidate James K. Polk defeated Whig candidate Henry Clay in the election of 1844 in a close contest that turned on foreign policy, with Polk favoring the annexation of Texas and Clay opposed. -
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny is a term for the attitude prevalent during the 19th century period of American expansion that the United States not only could, but was destined to, stretch from coast to coast. This attitude helped fuel western settlement, Native American removal and war with Mexico. -
Annexation of Texas
On March 1, 1845 the United States Congress passed a "Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States" and Texas was subsequently admitted it to the Union as the 28th state on December 29, 1845. The Texas border dispute with Mexico quickly led to the Mexican-American War during the presidency of James Polk. The Republic of Texas declared independence from the Republic of Mexico on March 2, 1836. -
Mexican American War
Mexican-American War was a war between the United States and Mexico stemming from the United States’ annexation of Texas in 1845 and from a dispute over whether Texas ended at the Nueces River (Mexican claim) or the Rio Grande (U.S. claim). The war—in which U.S. forces were consistently victorious, resulted in the United States’ acquisition of more than 500,000 square miles of Mexican territory extending westward from the Rio Grande to the Pacific Ocean. -
Battle of Mexico City
The Battle for Mexico City refers to the series of engagements from September 8 to September 15, 1847, in the general vicinity of Mexico City during the Mexican-American War. Included are major actions at the battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec, culminating with the fall of Mexico City. The U.S. Army under Winfield Scott scored a major success that ended the war. -
Election of 1848
which Whig candidate Zachary Taylor defeated Democratic nominee Lewis Cass in the election of 1848. This presidential campaign was characteristic of the campaigns of the times, with each side slinging mud at the other. Taylor was attacked as a military autocrat, the Democrats went on to call Taylor “semi-literate”. The Whigs responded by calling Cass a “vagabond of evil”. -
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Sectionalism
Sectional differences within the United States, largely about slavery, grew wider as the country's leaders debated whether to allow slavery to expand into the western territories and as criticism of slavery intensified in some free states. -
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Mexican American war officially ended with the February 2, 1848, signing in Mexico of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty added an additional 525,000 square miles to United States territory, including the land that makes up all or parts of present-day Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. -
Seneca Falls Convention
The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention. It advertised itself as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman". Held in Seneca Falls, New York, it spanned two days over July 19–20, 1848. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 called for the admission of California as a free state; the strengthening of the Fugitive Slave Law; popular sovereignty in Utah and New Mexico concerning the question of slavery; the abolition of the slave trade in D.C.; and the federal assumption of Texas's debt. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. The Act was one of the most controversial elements of the 1850 compromise and heightened Northern fears of a "slave power conspiracy". It required that all escaped slaves were, upon capture, to be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate in this law. -
Election of 1852
Democrat Franklin Pierce defeated Whig Winfield Scott in the election of 1852. This campaign was very personal, with both candidates accusing the other of being a drunk. Scott was accused of being pompous and too in love with his rank. Pierce was accused of collapsing and being a coward during the Mexican American War, where he served as a General; a citizen soldier. Pierce who had been both a Congressman and Senator from New Hampshire was also a recovering alcoholic. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´. -
Election of 1860
In the November 1860 election, Lincoln again faced Douglas, who represented the Northern faction of a heavily divided Democratic Party, as well as Breckinridge and Bell. The announcement of Lincoln’s victory signaled the secession of the Southern states, which since the beginning of the year had been publicly threatening secession if the Republicans gained the White House. -
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The Civil War
A war that was fought between the United States of America and the Confederate States of America, a collection of eleven southern states that left the Union in 1860 and 1861 and formed their own country in order to protect the institution of slavery. -
Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America, also called Confederacy, in the American Civil War, the government of 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union, carrying on all the affairs of a separate government and conducting a major war until defeated in the spring of 1865. -
The First Battle of Bull Run
The First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) was the first major land-based confrontation of the American Civil War. The Union army commander in Washington, Brigadier General Irvin McDowell, gave in to great pressure to begin campaigning before his men’s 90-day enlistments expired, although he did not feel the army was adequately trained yet, leading to a stunning Confederate victory and ending northern hopes of a quick end to the war. -
Trent Affair
The Trent Affair was a diplomatic crisis that took place between the United States and Great Britain from November to December 1861, during the U.S. Civil War. The crisis erupted after the captain of the USS San Jacinto ordered the arrest of two Confederate envoys sailing to Europe aboard a British mail ship, the Trent, in order to seek support for the South in the Civil War. -
Conscription Act
During the Civil War, the U.S. Congress passes a conscription act that produces the first wartime draft of U.S. citizens in American history. The act made all white males between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five eligible to be drafted into military service. -
Battle of Vicksburg
The Battle of Vicksburg, Mississippi, also called the Siege of Vicksburg, was the culmination of a long land and naval campaign by Union forces to capture a key strategic position during the American Civil War. Capturing Vicksburg would sever the Trans-Mississippi Confederacy from that east of the Mississippi River and open the river to Northern traffic along its entire length. -
Gettysburg Address
Lincoln’s 273-word address or one of the most important speeches in American history. In it, he invoked the principles of human equality contained in the Declaration of Independence and connected the sacrifices of the Civil War with the desire for “a new birth of freedom,” as well as the all-important preservation of the Union created in 1776 and its ideal of self-government. -
Election of 1864
Abraham Lincoln defeated Democrat George B. McClellan in the election of 1864. As the election occurred during the American Civil War, it was contested only by the states that had not seceded from the Union. As the election approached, Union triumphs on the battlefield helped propel Lincoln to victory. He declared the election results a mandate to press on for an unconditional victory and a constitutional amendment to end slavery. -
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Reconstruction
The process of reconstructing the Union began in 1863, two years before the Confederacy formally surrendered. After major Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, Abraham Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in which he outlined his Ten-Percent Plan. -
Lincoln Assassination
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. -
Election of 1866
Elections to the United States House of Representatives were held in 1866 to elect Representatives to the 40th United States Congress. The elections occurred just one year after the American Civil War ended when the Union defeated the Confederacy. -
Election of 1868
Republican Ulysses S. Grant defeated Democrat Horatio Seymour in the election of 1868. The campaign was bitter. Grant was hailed as a war hero, but also was tarred with many accusations, including being a drunkard and a "Negro-lover." The Republican campaign consisted mainly of "waving the bloody shirt," a tactic of reminding the voters of the Democrats' lack of support of the war effort. Seymour was also attacked for his backing of the inflationary greenback scheme. -
Black Friday Scandal
U.S. financial sector descended into chaos after rebel speculators Jay Gould and Jim Fisk attempted to corner the nation’s gold market. The robber barons hoped to make a mint by driving the price of gold into the stratosphere, and to help pull it off, they built a network of corruption that extended from Wall Street and the New York City government all the way to the family of President Ulysses S. Grant. The conspiracy finally unraveled on what became known as “Black Friday.” -
Enforcement Acts
The Enforcement Acts were three bills passed by the United States Congress between 1870 and 1871. They were criminal codes which protected African-Americans' right to vote, to hold office, to serve on juries, and receive equal protection of laws -
Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873, also referred to as the Long Depression, was a financial crisis that triggered a depression that lasted for six years in Europe and North America and led to economic hardships, civil unrest, protests, demonstrations and the first nationwide strikes. -
Election of 1876
Republican Rutherford B. Hayes defeated Democrat Samuel J. Tilden in the election of 1876. The election of 1876 was one of the closest races in American history. It tested the Constitution and resulted in a compromise that ended Reconstruction in America. -
Compromise of 1877
The Compromise of 1877 was one of a series of political compromises reached during the 19th century in an effort to hold the United States together peacefully. It took place after the Civil War and was thus an attempt to prevent a second outbreak of violence
