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Nat Turner Slave Revolt
On the evening of August 21–22, 1831, an enslaved preacher and self-styled prophet named Nat Turner launched the most deadly slave revolt in the history of the United States. Over the course of a day in Southampton County, Turner and his allies killed fifty-five white men, women, and children as the rebels made their way toward Jerusalem, Virginia (now Courtland). -
William Lloyd Garrison Published The Liberator
For the entire generation of people that grew up in the years that led to the Civil War, William Lloyd Garrison was the voice of Abolitionism. Originally a supporter of colonization, Garrison changed his position and became the leader of the emerging anti-slavery movement. His publication, The Liberator, reached thousands of individuals worldwide. -
American Anti-Slavery Society Begins
As the main activist arm of the Abolition Movement, the society was founded in 1833 under the leadership of William Lloyd Garrison. By 1840 its auxiliary societies numbered 2,000, with a total membership ranging from 150,000 to 200,000. -
Sarah Grimke's Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women published
Sarah Grimke helped pioneer the antislavery and women’s rights movements in the United States. The daughter of a South Carolina slave-holder, she began as an advocate for the abolition of slavery, but was severely criticized for the public role she assumed in support of the abolitionist movement. In Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, and the Condition of Woman (1838), Grimke defended the right of women to speak in public in defense of a moral cause. -
Henry Highland Garnet's "Address to the Slaves of the United States of America"
In August of 1843 in Buffalo, New York, Henry Highland Garnet gave an inspirational speech that shocked the delegates of the National Negro Convention. In came to be known as the "Call to Rebellion" speech, Garnet encouraged slaves to turn against their masters. -
Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls
Seneca Falls Convention, assembly held on July 19–20, 1848, at Seneca Falls, New York, that launched the woman suffrage movement in the United States. -
Harriet Tubman Escapes from Slavery
Born into slavery in Maryland, Harriet Tubman (c. 1820 to March 10, 1913) escaped to freedom in the North in 1849 to become the most famous "conductor" on the Underground Railroad. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 consists of five laws passed in September of 1850 that dealt with the issue of slavery. ... As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished. -
Fugitive Slave Act
Following increased pressure from Southern politicians, Congress passed a revised Fugitive Slave Act in 1850. Part of Henry Clay's famed Compromise of 1850—a group of bills that helped quiet early calls for Southern secession—this new law forcibly compelled citizens to assist in the capture of runaway slaves. -
Sojourner Truth Delivered her "Ain't I a Woman" Speech
"Ain't I a Woman?" is the name given to a speech, delivered extemporaneously, by Sojourner Truth, (1797–1883), born into slavery in New York State. Some time after gaining her freedom in 1827, she became a well known anti-slavery speaker. -
Harriet Beecher Stowe Published Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe's inspiration for Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which made aiding or assisting runaway slaves a crime in free states. Uncle Tom's Cabin, which was first published in 1852, is thus a deliberate and carefully written anti-slavery argument. -
Bleeding Kansas
But Kansas was next to the slave state of Missouri. In an era that would come to be known as "Bleeding Kansas," the territory would become a battleground over the slavery question. The reaction from the North was immediate. -
Republican Party Founded
The first statewide convention that formed a platform and nominated candidates under the name Republican was held near Jackson, Michigan on July 6, 1854. It declared their new party opposed to the expansion of slavery into new territories and selected a statewide slate of candidates. -
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. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´. ... Violence soon erupted, with the anti-slavery forces led by John Brown. -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott v. Sanford was a 1857 Supreme Court case in which a slave, Dred Scott, tried to sue for his freedom on the grounds that his master moved him to a free territory. -
Lecompton Constitution
By 1857, they drew up a pro-slavery document called the Lecompton Constitution, which would make Kansas a slave state. But first, the Lecompton Constitution had to be approved by Congress. ... In the end, Kansas became a free state in 1861. -
Panic of 1857
The Panic of 1857 was a nation economic depression caused, principally, by Europe's declining purchase of U.S. agricultural products. ... While the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company's failure triggered the Panic of 1857, Ohioans weathered the depression relatively well. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
The Lincoln-Douglas debates were significant because of the issues discussed between the candidates during the debates. By the 1850s, slavery had become a major political issue. Douglas was an incumbent senator who had established himself as a supporter of popular sovereignty on the subject of slavery. -
John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry
Abolitionist John Brown leads a small group on a raid against a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in an attempt to start an armed slave revolt and destroy the institution of slavery. -
South Carolina Secedes from the Union
South Carolina was the first state to organize such a convention, meeting in December following the national election. On December 20, 1860, delegates convened in Charleston and voted unanimously to secede from the Union. President James Buchanan declared the secession illegal, but did not act to stop it. -
Democratic Party Splits into Northern and Southern Halves
Because the Democratic vote was spread so 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
The initial Confederacy was established in the Montgomery Convention in February 1861 by seven states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, adding Texas in March before Lincoln's inauguration), expanded in May–July 1861 (with Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina) -
Abraham Lincoln Elected President
Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States (1861–65), who preserved the Union during the American Civil War and brought about the emancipation. -
Firing on Fort Sumter
Just before sunrise on April 12, 1861, a shell exploded above Fort Sumter. It was the first shot fired in the American Civil War. Major Robert Anderson led the small force of U.S. soldiers at Fort Sumter. Anderson could not use his most powerful cannons to answer the Confederate attack. -
Emancipation Proclamation
On this day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which sets a date for the freedom of more than 3 million black slaves in the United States and recasts the Civil War as a fight against slavery -
Battle of Antietam
Beginning early on the morning of this day in 1862, Confederate and Union troops in the Civil War clash near Maryland's Antietam Creek in the bloodiest single day in American military history. -
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg was one of the turning points of the American Civil War. The South lost many of its men, including generals and colonels, and Gen. Robert E. Lee lost all hope of invading the North. He fought the rest of the war on the defensive. -
Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address is a speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln at the November 19, 1863, dedication of Soldier's National Cemetery, a cemetery for Union soldiers killed at the Battle Of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. -
Sherman's March to the Sea
From November 15 until December 21, 1864, 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
Lincoln's victory made him the first president to win re-election since Andrew Jackson in 1832, as well as the first Northern president to ever win re-election. Lincoln was assassinated less than two months into his second term, and he was succeeded by Andrew Johnson, who had to work toward emancipation of all slaves. -
General U.S. Grant Assumed Command on Union Troops
He demonstrated his capacity for command during assignments on the U.S. frontier and in early Civil War operations. When General Ulysses S. Grant assumed command of all Union armies in early 1864, he chose Sheridan as his new cavalry commander. -
Lincoln Assassination
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, murderous attack on Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on the evening of April 14, 1865. -
Lee Surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House
On April 9, 1865, near the town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. ... But the resulting Battle of Appomattox Court House, which lasted only a few hours, effectively brought the four-year Civil War to an end. -
Johnson Announced Plans for Presidential Reconstruction
A clash between President Johnson and Congress over Reconstruction was now inevitable. By the end of 1865, Radical Republican views had gained a majority in Congress, and the decisive year of 1866 saw a gradual diminishing of President Johnson's power. -
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. Scalawags typically supported the Republican Party. -
Congress Passed the 13th Amendment
Lincoln recognized that the Emancipation Proclamation would have to be followed by a constitutional amendment in order to guarantee the abolishment of slavery. The 13th amendment was passed at the end of the Civil War before the Southern states had been restored to the Union and should have easily passed the Congress. -
Andrew Johnson Became President
Andrew Johnson (1808-1875), the 17th U.S. president, assumed office after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). Johnson, who served from 1865 to 1869, was the first American president to be impeached. A tailor before he entered politics, Johnson grew up poor and lacked a formal education. -
Klu Klux Klan Formed
Ku Klux Klan, either of two distinct U.S. hate organizations that have employed terror in pursuit of their white supremacist agenda. -
Freedman's Bureau Established
Congress established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands in 1865 to assist in the reconstruction of the South and to aid formerly enslaved individuals transition to freedom and citizenship. Administered by the War Department, the Bureau followed the department's war-inspired record-keeping system. -
Civil Rights Act Passed over Johnson's Veto
The Civil Rights Act (1866) was passed by Congress on 9th April 1866 over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. ... The activities of organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan undermined the workings of this act and it failed to guarantee the civil rights of African Americans. -
Creation of the Radical Republicans
By 1866, the Radical Republicans supported federal civil rights for Freedmen, which Johnson opposed. By 1867, they defined terms for suffrage for freed slaves and limited early suffrage for many ex-Confederates. ... The Radicals were opposed by former slaveowners and white supremacists in the rebel states. -
First Congressional Reconstruction Act Passed
The Reconstruction Act series of laws were passed by the Radical Republicans in Congress who had almost complete control over the policies made in government in relation to the Reconstruction of the South following the Civil War. -
Andrew Johnson Impeached
The Tenure of Office Act, passed over Johnson's veto in 1867, stated that a president could not dismiss appointed officials without the consent of Congress. ... President Johnson was impeached by the House of Representatives on February 24, 1868 and the Senate tried the case in a trial that lasted from March to May 1868. -
14th Amendment Ratified
The 14th Amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws. The 14th Amendment was intended to protect the rights of former slaves after the American Civil War. The 14th Amendment was approved by Congress in June of 1866 and ratified by the states on July 9, 1868. -
U.S. Grant Elected President
Ulysses S. Grant was born on April 27, 1822, in Point Pleasant, Ohio. He was entrusted with command of all U.S. armies in 1864, and relentlessly pursued the enemy during the Civil War. In 1869, at age 46, Grant became the youngest president in U.S. history to that point. -
15th Amendment Ratified
Fifteenth Amendment, amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States that guaranteed that the right to vote could not be denied based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The amendment complemented and followed in the wake of the passage of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments, which abolished slavery and guaranteed citizenship, respectively, to African Americans. -
Slaughterhouse Cases (Supreme Court)
Slaughterhouse Cases. Slaughterhouse Cases, in American history, legal dispute that resulted in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1873 limiting the protection of the privileges and immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. -
U.S. v. Cruikshank
United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542, was 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. -
Period of "Redemption" after the Civil War
In United States history, the Redeemers were a political coalition in the Southern United States during the Reconstruction Era that followed the Civil War. ... During Reconstruction, the South was under occupation by federal forces and Southern state governments were dominated by Republicans. -
Compromise of 1877
During Reconstruction, the North had imposed relatively true democracy on the South. It had protected African Americans and their political and social rights. ... Once the Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction, the governments of the Southern states started to take away the rights that the freed slaves had enjoyed.
