-
Henry Highland Garnet’s “Address to the Slaves of the United States of America”
Encourages an open rebellion. The speech was endorsed by convention and failed by one vote . -
Nat Turner Slave Revolt
Largest slave rebellion in history of U.S. The revolt led to a new wave of oppressive legislation that prohibited the movement, assembly, and education of slaves. -
William Lloyd Garrison Published The Liberator
A newspaper against slavery. The Liberator criticized the Compromise of 1850, condemned the Kansas-Nebraska Act, damned the Dred Scott decision and hailed John Brown’s raid as “God’s method of dealing retribution upon the head of the tyrant.” -
American Anti-Slavery Society Begins
Founded to reach mass audiences through lecturing, petition drives, and a wide variety of printed materials. Did not support slavery. -
Sarah Grimke’s Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women published
These letters defended the rights of women to speak in public in defense of a moral cause and were very influential. -
Women’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls
First women's rights convention held in the United States. Led by Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony. Stanton read the Declaration of Sentiments and women demanded vote. -
Harriett Tubman Escapes from Slavery
Tubman escaped slavery and became a leading abolitionist. She helped many slaves gain their freedom through the Underground Railroad. -
Compromise of 1850
Admitted California as a free state. Utah and New Mexico territories would have popular sovereignty over the choice of slavery. Settled the Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute in the former’s favor. Ended the slave trade in Washington, D.C. Made it easier for southerners to recover fugitive slaves. -
Fugitive Slave Act
Forcibly compelled citizens to help capture runaway slaves. Rejected slaves the right to a jury trial and increased penalty for interfering with the rendition process to $1000 and six months in jail. -
Sojourner Truth Delivered her “Ain’t I a Woman” Speech
She was an abolitionist and a former slave, who gave one of history’s most memorable speeches. The speech was about the intersection between women’s suffrage and black rights. She was speaking to Ohio Women’s Convention, and Truth used her identity to point out the ways in which both movements were failing black women. -
Harriet Beecher Stowe Published Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Encouraged that slaves should be free by emphasizing the negative effects when families are separated. Strengthened the abolition movement, and contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Allowed the people in Kansas and Nebraska to decide if slavery should be allowed or not. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30. -
Republican Party Founded
Republican party was founded a few years after Whig party disassembled. Anti-slavery Whigs met in upper midwestern states to discuss the formation of a new party. Their first presidential candidate won 11 of the 16 Northern states. -
Bleeding Kansas
Series of violent political confrontations in U.S. involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements in Kansas. -
Dred Scott Decision
US court ruled that African Americans could not be American citizens; thus, they had no standing to sue in federal court. -
Lecompton Constitution
Allowed Kansas to be admitted into union as a slave state. 6,226 citizens voted for slavery and the Lecompton Constitution and 569 against slavery and the Lecompton Constitution. -
Panic of 1857
A financial panic in U.S. caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy. Began in late 1857 and was the first worldwide economic crisis. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Series of formal political debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, in a campaign for a seat in the senate for Illinois. Lincoln lost the election. -
John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry
Brown hoped that the local slave population would help him and his men capture prominent citizens and seized the federal armory and arsenal. -
South Carolina Secedes from the Union
On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the from the Union, first state to do so. The first shots of the Civil War (January 9, 1861) were fired in Charleston. -
Abraham Lincoln Elected President
Abraham Lincoln is elected as the 16th president of the United States, first Republican to become president. Lincoln received only 40 percent of the popular vote but handily defeated the other three candidates: Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Constitutional Union candidate John Bell, and Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas, U.S. senator from Illinois. -
Democratic Party Splits into Northern and Southern Halves
Since the Democratic vote was spread thin, Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Douglas, Breckenridge, and Bell in the 1860 presidential election. The Democrats' split had defeated their own party. -
Confederate States of America Founded
Rejected the claims of secession and considered the Confederacy illegally founded. -
Firing on Fort Sumter
Start of Civil War. War fought between the north and south on the issue of slavery. This was a war fought to unify the United States. -
Battle of Antietam
In Civil War, Confederate and Union troops clashed near Maryland's Antietam Creek. This was one of the bloodiest days in American military history. The Battle of Antietam marked the culmination of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the Northern states. -
Battle of Gettysburg
Considered the most important battle of the American Civil War. After a victory over Union forces at Chancellorsville, General Robert E. Lee marched his Army into Pennsylvania in late June 1863. On July 1, the Confederates clashed with the Union’s Army of the Potomac. -
Emancipation Proclamation
A proclamation by Lincoln that changed the meaning of the war. The war was no longer just about unifying the states, it was now about slavery. -
Gettysburg Address
Although Lincoln was not the featured orator that day, his 273-word address would be remembered as one of the most important speeches in American history. In this address, he enforced the principles of human equality which is in the Declaration of Independence and connected the sacrifices of Civil War with the desire for “a new birth of freedom.” Also, he invoked the all-important preservation of the Union created in 1776 and its ideal of self-government. -
General U.S. Grant Assumed Command of Union Troops
President Abraham Lincoln promoted Ulysses S. Grant, a major general in U.S. Army, to the rank of lieutenant general. The document placed Grant in charge of all Union troops who were against Confederate forces during the Civil War. -
Sherman’s March to the Sea
From November 15 until December 21, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman led 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. The purpose of this “March to the Sea” was to scare Georgia’s civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. -
Abraham Lincoln Reelected
Since 1812, 1864 election was the first time that a presidential election took place during a war, Civil War. For most of 1864, Lincoln believed he had little chance of being re-elected and because of this, McClellan was a heavy favorite to win the election. -
Lincoln Assassination
On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, shot President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. -
Congress Passed the 13th Amendment
Abolished slavery. -
Lee Surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House
At Appomattox, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders his 28,000 troops to the Union General Ulysses S. Grant, ending the American Civil War. -
Andrew Johnson Became President
During Lincoln's presidency, Johnson was the vice president. After Lincoln's assassination, Johnson became the president of the U.S. -
Johnson Announced Plans for Presidential Reconstruction
In 1865, President Andrew Johnson implemented a plan of Reconstruction that gave white South a free hand in controlling the transition from slavery to freedom and offered no role to blacks in Southern politics. -
Arrival of Scalawags and Carpetbaggers in the South
"Carpetbaggers” are Northerners who moved to the South after Civil War, during Reconstruction. Many carpetbaggers moved South for their own financial and political gains. Scalawags were white Southerners who politically cooperated with black freedmen and Northern newcomers. -
Ku Kux Klan Formed
Ku Klux Klan, two distinct U.S. hate organizations that have employed terror to pursuit white supremacist agenda. One group was founded immediately after Civil War and lasted until 1870s. The other group began in 1915 and is still present. Ku Kux Klan set back the advancement of African Americans after outlawing slavery. -
Freedman’s Bureau Established
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, referred to as the Freedmen's Bureau, was an agency of the United States Department of War to "direct such issues of provisions, clothing, and fuel, as he may deem needful for the immediate and temporary shelter and supply of destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen and their wives and children." -
Civil Rights Act Passed over Johnson’s Veto
Congress that was dominated by Republicans enacted a Civil Rights Act in 1866, overriding a veto by President Andrew Johnson. The law's purpose was to offer protection to slaves freed in the aftermath of the Civil War. -
First Congressional Reconstruction Act passed
U.S. legislation enacted in 1867–68 that outlined conditions where Southern states would be readmitted to Union after American Civil War. Radical Republicans in the U.S. Congress wrote these bills. -
14th Amendment Ratified
Granted citzenship to all persons born or naturalized in U.S., African Americans and former slaves recently freed. -
Andrew Johnson Impeached
This trial was convened by Senate on March 5. It focused on issues surrounding Johnson's post-Civil War Reconstruction policy and, his firing of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. -
U.S. Grant Elected President
The Presidential election of 1868 was the 21st quadrennial presidential election, which was held on Tuesday, November 3, 1868. In the first election of the Reconstruction Era, Republicans nominated Ulysses S. Grant and he defeated Democrat Horatio Seymour. -
15th Amendment Ratified
Granted African American men the right to vote. -
Creation of the Radical Republicans
Radical Republicans existed during and after Civil War. A member of the Republican Party emancipated the slaves and later to the equal treatment and enfranchisement of freed blacks. More variation was added in political arguments during this time. -
Slaughterhouse Cases (Supreme Court)
Slaughterhouse Cases, in American history, was a legal dispute that resulted in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1873 that limited the protection of the privileges and immunities clause of the 14th Amendment to U.S. Constitution. -
U.S. v. Cruikshank
United States v. Cruikshank was an important United States Supreme Court decision in United States constitutional law, one of the earliest to deal with application of Bill of Rights to state governments after adopting the 14th Amendment. -
Period of “Redemption” after the Civil War
"Redemption" truly began in Georgia in December 1870 when state elections were held. By then, the state Republican Party suffered from internal divisions and charges of wastefulness and corruption, which were exaggerated by Democratic politicians and newspapers, but did have some truth. -
Compromise of 1877
A deal that settled the disputed 1876 U.S. presidential election, pulled federal troops out of state politics in the South, and ended the Reconstruction era.
