-
Nat Turner Slave Revolt
Rebel slaves revolted killing from 55 to 65 people. -
William Lloyd Garrison Published The Liberator
A published newspaper that was successful in supporting the abolitionist movement -
American Anti-Slavery Society Begins
Abolitionists against slavery who met together to express their movement with one another as a group -
Sarah Grimke’s Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women published
Srah Grimkes response was a response to the argument of the subordinate role of women -
Henry Highland Garnet’s “Address to the Slaves of the United States of America”
The following address was about the state of slavery and an abolitionist movement to support the abolishing of slavery -
Women’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls
was the first women's rights convention that discussed the social, religious, and civil conditions of women's rights -
Harriett Tubman Escapes from Slavery
Harriet Tubman broke free from slavery via the underground railroad -
Democratic Party Splits into Northern and Southern Halves
The democratic party began to split over its views on slavery -
Compromise of 1850
Package of 5 deals deciding rules between slavery and anti slavery states -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act or Fugitive Slave Law was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. -
Sojourner Truth Delivered her “Ain’t I a Woman” Speech
A speech supporting both movements at the time for civil rights for African Americans and women. -
Harriet Beecher Stowe Published Uncle Tom’s Cabin
had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S. and is said to have "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War" -
Bleeding Kansas
Violent bloody conflicts in Kansas over whether or not slavery should be legal in the state -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders -
Creation of the Radical Republicans
The Radical Republicans believed blacks were entitled to the same political rights and opportunities as whites. They also believed that the Confederate leaders should be punished for their roles in the Civil War. -
Republican Party Founded
anti-slavery Whigs had begun meeting in the upper midwestern states to discuss the formation of a new party -
Dred Scott Decision
a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on U.S. labor law and constitutional law -
Lecompton Constitution
It contained clauses protecting slave holding and a bill of rights excluding free blacks, and it added to the frictions leading up to the U.S. Civil War. -
Panic of 1857
a financial panic in the United States caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
The Lincoln–Douglas debates were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois, and incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. -
John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry
A slave revolt to attempt to take over a United States Arsenal -
South Carolina Secedes from the Union
The convention then adjourned to Charleston to draft an ordinance of secession. When the ordinance was adopted on December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first slave state in the south to declare that it had seceded from the United States. -
Abraham Lincoln Elected President
Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States, beating Douglas, Breckinridge, and Bell. He was the first president from the Republican Party. -
Firing on Fort Sumter
the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina by the Confederate States Army, and the return gunfire and subsequent surrender by the United States Army, that started the American Civil War -
Confederate States of America Founded
representatives from the six seceded states met in Montgomery, Alabama, to formally establish a unified government, which they named the Confederate States of America -
Battle of Antietam
Antietam was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history with over 23,000 casualties. The battle ended the Confederate invasion of Maryland in 1862 and resulted in a Union victory. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." -
Battle of Gettysburg
considered the most important engagement of the American Civil War. After a great victory over Union forces at Chancellorsville, General Robert E. Lee marched his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania -
Gettysburg Address
a speech that U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered during the American Civil War at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, -
General U.S. Grant Assumed Command of Union Troops
President Abraham Lincoln signs a brief document officially promoting then-Major General Ulysses S. Grant to the rank of lieutenant general of the U.S. Army -
Sherman’s March to the Sea
Union General William T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. The purpose of Sherman's March to the Sea was to frighten Georgia's civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. -
Abraham Lincoln Reelected
the first time since 1812 that a presidential election took place during a war. For much of 1864, Lincoln himself believed he had little chance of being re-elected. -
Johnson Announced Plans for Presidential Reconstruction
gave the white South a free hand in regulating the transition from slavery to freedom and offered no role to blacks in the politics of the South -
Arrival of Scalawags and Carpetbaggers in the South
Many carpetbaggers were said to have moved South for their own financial and political gains. Scalawags were white Southerners who cooperated politically with black freedmen and Northern newcomers. -
Lincoln Assassination
Shot in the head by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln died the next morning. -
Congress Passed the 13th Amendment
abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime -
Lee Surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House
the resulting Battle of Appomattox Court House, which lasted only a few hours, effectively brought the four-year Civil War to an end. -
Andrew Johnson Became President
the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. Johnson assumed the presidency as he was vice president of the United States at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. -
Ku Klux Klan formed
Six Confederate veterans from Pulaski, Tennessee created the original Ku Klux Klan. two distinct U.S. hate organizations that have employed terror in pursuit of their white supremacist agenda. -
Period of “Redemption” after the Civil War
White Democratic Southerners saw themselves as redeeming the South by regaining power. They appealed to scalawags (white Southerners who supported the Republican Party after the Civil War and during the Reconstruction Era. -
Freedman’s Bureau Established
established by Congress to provide practical aid to 4,000,000 newly freed African Americans in their transition from slavery to freedom -
Civil Rights Act Passed over Johnson’s Veto
A Republican-dominated Congress enacted a landmark Civil Rights Act on this day in 1866, overriding a veto by President Andrew Johnson -
First Congressional Reconstruction Act passed
that outlined the conditions under which the Southern states would be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War -
14th Amendment Ratified
The amendment grants citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" which included former slaves who had just been freed after the Civil War. -
U.S. Grant Elected President
the 18th President of the United States working to implement Congressional Reconstruction and to remove the vestiges of slavery. He was, as the symbol of Union victory during the Civil War -
Andrew Johnson Impeached
United States House of Representatives resolved to impeach U.S. President Andrew Johnson, adopting eleven articles of impeachment detailing his "high crimes and misdemeanors", in accordance with Article Two of the United States Constitution -
15th Amendment Ratified
the 15th amendment granted African American men the right to vote -
Slaughterhouse Cases (Supreme Court)
ruled that a citizen's "privileges and immunities," as protected by the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment against the states, were limited to those spelled out in the Constitution and did not include many rights given by the individual states. -
U.S. v. Cruikshank
an important United States Supreme Court decision in United States constitutional law, one of the earliest to deal with the application of the Bill of Rights to state governments following the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment. -
Compromise of 1877
an informal, unwritten deal, that settled the intensely disputed 1876 U.S. presidential election. It resulted in the United States federal government pulling the last troops out of the South, and formally ended the Reconstruction Era.
