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Invention of the Cotton Gin
The Cotton Gin was invented in April of 1793 by Eli Whitney. The machine seperated seeds from cotton. This quickened the proccess and caused a financial boom in the South. Southerners were making more money which made them want to keep their slaves instead of freeing them like they had initial planned before the invention of the machine. -
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Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman
The Underground Railroad wasn't an actual railroad located underground. It was known as such becasue they would use railroad terminology. The 'condictors' would go to the south and free slaves. One of the famous 'condictors' was Harriet Tubman. She was born a slave in Maryland. She escaped in 1849 and later made over two dozen trips back to the south to free other slaves, she freed hundreds slaves during those two dozen trips including her own parents. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise made it so that Missouri was a slave state. Along with all the states south of Missouri would stay slave states. It also made it so that Maine would become a free state. Along with the other northern states and territories to the west were also kept free from slavery. -
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave
An autobibliography of Frederick Douglas' life as a slave. The book is well recieved and widely publicized throughout the country. Fearing capture, he flees to England. The book is seen as one of the most impactful in the American Abolitionist Movement. -
Free-Soil Party
A Political organization that formed to support Wilmot Proviso. They wanted to keep slavery out of the new territories in the west and abolish it in the south. They promised "free soil, free speech, and free men." -
Compromise of 1850
A political agreement that made California a free state. It was made a free state becasue many northeners belived slavery was imoral and it was 'God's higher law' to not have slavery. This angered the southerners for they wanted California to be a slave state. This causes many southern states to threaten to secede from the Union. -
Fugitive Slave Act
An act that slaves who ran away north to be free could be captured and sent back to the south. This even affected African Americans who have been free their entire lives to be captured and sent to the south as a slave. Anyone who assisted run-a-way slaves could be fined or imprisioned. This caused African Americans to flee to other countries for safety such as Canada and England. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
A book written by a housewife named Harriet Beecher Stowe. It changed how northerns viewed slavery. It was very impactful in the Abolitionist Movement. It was the second most best selling book right after the Bible. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Act sperated Kansas from Nebraska. This also made the territories slave territories. This caused tension in the North becasue it made it that areas that had been free for over 30 years now become slave states. -
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Bleeding Kansas
It was a nickname given to Kansas. This was becasue many uprisings occured there over the question of slavery. There was a lot of debate if Kansas would become a free state or a slave state. -
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Declared that African Americans were not citizens so they didn't have any rights. It also declared the Missouri Compromise to be unconstituional. That Congress didn't have the right to decide if the territories could have slaves or not. This was Dred Scott desicion was overturned when the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amerndments were ratified. -
The Election of 1860
At the time, the north and south were at dissagreements and people didn't know if the country would survive the debate over slavery. Abraham Lincoln ended up winning the election which angered many southerners who didn't want him to become president. A few weeks after Lincoln was elected, South Carolina seceded from the Union and soon after the other southern states would follow. -
Beginning of the Civil War
The war first broke out when Confederate soldiers bombared Fort Sumter, South Carolina in 1861. The North had an estimated 22 million troops while the South only had about 9 million. Most of the fighting occured in Virginia and Tennessee. The war ended in 1865 when the general of the Confederate army, Robert E. Lee, surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant.
