American Revolution to the Civil War

American Revolution to the Civil war

Period: Jan 1, 1776 to Dec 31, 1861

American Revolution

Jul 4, 1776

The colonists need for freedom from Great Britain caused them to strive for their independence. After many unfair acts were placed on the colonists, they began to rebel in order to win the rights they wanted. Core leaders guided the colonists towards victory through many brutal battles. Finaly in July 1776, the elected second continental congress declared independence from the british

Articles of Confederation

Jan 1, 1786

The articles of confederation was the first written form of government. Fearful of a tyrannical government, the colonists strayed away from a strong central power. Instead they formed a league of friendship, giving the states' power. Although the states didnt agree on much, they provided basic rights to their citizens. This alliance between the states created a weak national government which eventually lead to the demise of the Articles of Confederation in 1786

The constitution

Oct 18, 1787

The colonists took months to fix their broken government. The federalists favored a strong national government while the anti-federalists preferred stronger state powers. the delegates agreed to a three-part government that would include executive, legislative, and judicial branches. After failing to find common ground, the Great Compromise was created. Senate= two. House of rep=population. Slaves counted as 3/5s a person. Washington first to become president

The Cotton Gin and Slavery

Oct 27, 1792

Eli whitney's invention of the cotton gin, which seperated the cotton fibers from their sticky seeds, transformed Southern agriculture. Because of the industrial revolution, the demand for cotton increased greatly. the South was growing 75% of the world's cotton. Hpwever, the labor was all done by the slaves. The importance of slavery began to grow. Slaves planted, cultivated, and picked cotton.

Slavery

Oct 22, 1800

<a href='http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Topics/Display/1183585' > In the south, plantations relied on the labor of slaves to grow tobacco, rice, and sugarcane, as well as cotton. Millions of enslaved Africans had already been brought to the Americas. Most slaves lacked education. Slave owners maintained discipline through violence and brutality. This system lasted until the civil war.

Louisiana purchase

Apr 30, 1803

The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. The territory doubled the size of the United Sates by paying $15 million for it. It influenced further expansion westward. President Jefferson also asked Lewis and Clark to voyage west to find the pacific ocean. With the help of a native american named Sacagawea, they found their way there and back creating a map of their findings.

war of 1812

Oct 22, 1812

Us tried to maintain neutrality between France and Britain. The two fighting nations brought the US into their conflict by interfering with U.S. trade on the high seas. Madison, the president at the time, had asked Congress for a declaration of war. New england didnt fully support the war, so the us fought poorly. but finally the war was over after winning victory at New orleans and signing a peace treaty

Missouri Compromise

Oct 31, 1820

Henry Clay created the Missouri compromise, in which Missouri becomes a slave state and Maine becomes a free one. A line is created at 36 degrees 30'; above it is free and below is slave states

Abolition

Oct 27, 1833

<a href='http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Topics/Display/1187635' >the American Anti-Slavery Society formed with a purpose to abolish slavery in the United States. They used newspapers to spread antislavery propaganda. This was big because a newspaper allowed for a former slave, Frederick Douglass, to write for their paper. In response to get people to believe slaves wanted to do their job, the south launced a proslavery propaganda campaign.

Panic of 1837

Oct 30, 1837

Government puts money in 'pet' bank in west. The bank loans money too easily and the people dont pay back their borrowed money. As a result, the united states faces money problems especially in the west. People blame the president. This lead to a depression and hundred banks collapsing. Prices dropped, sales of public land went down, and factories went out of business until 1840.

Manifest Destiny

Oct 27, 1840

Politically, expansionism was a way to extend U.S. liberty to new places and populate the country. Economically, Americans wanted to form new trade routes to the Far East that would increase trade profits. james K Polk won the Democratic nomination and later the election because he supported manifest destiny. He promised to acquire Texas, California, and Oregon for the United States.

Suffrage Movement

Jan 1, 1848

Many women did not have equal rights to men in early american society. In 1848, hundreds of women and a few men met at Seneca Falls in New York.They passed the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions They demanded equal rights to the protection of the law, education, employment—and voting. The Seneca Falls Convention marked the beginning of the serious political movement for women's rights.

Settling Westward

Oct 27, 1848

By 1848, the United States had aquired nearly all of the west. After the Louisiana Purchase, the annexation of Texas and Oregon, and the spoils of the Mexican-American War Ocean, america's geography stretched all the way to the pacific ocean. The population grew from 7.25 million to more than 23 million, and the land available for settlement increased by almost the size of Europe—from 4.4 million to 7.8 million square miles

Railroads and factories

Oct 27, 1850

Many men worked for the railroad. Turnpikes, canals, and railroads fed workers and raw materials to the growing cities.Railroads connected the cotton plantations of the South with the mills and textile factories of New England. men and women filled factories in New England. Factory workers were in great demand and the high wages that were being offered to all people. However soon after they cut the wages in half which lead the workers to protest (but their efforts for fair pay were futile).

Sectionalism leads to Civil war

Oct 27, 1850

As time went on tension between the North and South continued to grow as slavery arose as a more prominent issue. Southerners relied on slavery for their economy to prosper. Northerners increasingly disapproved of slavery on moral grounds and disliked the South's headstrong attitude toward the federal government. This was ultimately leading the country into war

Abolition continues

Jan 1, 1860

America was divided into the radicals, who supported ending slavery, the moderates who favored keeping slavery. and those who were completely ploslavery. Abraham Lincoln was the presidential candidate of the Republican Party, whose platform was "free soil, free men, and free labor." When he won, the southern states saw him as a threat and wanted to succeed from the nation. He was not going to allow for this.

The civil war

Dec 20, 1860

The more the antislavery movement grew in the North, the more the South wanted to secede from the Union. on April 15, 1861, the United States officially declared war on the Confederate States. neither the North nor the South was prepared to wage a war, It was hard for the North in the beginning, even the south believed they would win. However the North pulled off a victory. In 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all the slaves in the southern states