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The Cotton Gin
is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, a job formerly performed painstakingly by hand. -
The Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an agreement passed in 1820 between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories. It prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30' north except within the boundaries of the proposed state of Missouri. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills, passed in September 1850, which defused a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabinis an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852,According to Will Kaufman the novel helped lay the groundwork or the Civil War. Also when the president Abraham Lincoln met her he said " So you the little lady that started this whole debate" -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
An Act to Organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas," this act repealed the Missouri Compromise, which had outlawed slavery above the 36 degrees 30 minutes latitude in the Louisiana Territory and reopened the national struggle over slavery in the western territories. -
The Dred Scott Decision
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the majority opinion. Taney ruled that. Any person descended from Africans, whether slave or free, is not a citizen of the United States, according to the Constitution. -
Lincoln Dougless Debates
The Lincoln–Douglas Debates of 1858 were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for Senate in Illinois, and the incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. At the time, U.S. senators were elected by state legislatures; thus Lincoln and Douglas were trying for their respective parties to win control of the Illinois legislature. The debates previewed the issues that Lincoln would face in the aftermath of his victory in the 1860 presidenti -
John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was an attempt by white abolitionist John Brown to start an armed slave revolt by seizing a United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia in 1859. Brown's raid was defeated by a detachment of U.S. Marines led by Col. Robert E. Lee. -
Election of President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States over a deeply divided Democratic Party, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency. Lincoln received only 40 percent of the popular vote but handily defeated the three other candidates: Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Constitutional Union candidate John Bell, and Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas, a U.S. senator for Illinois. -
Secession of South Carolina
The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 was the final straw for many southerners. The first state that left the Union was South Carolina -
Attack on Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter April 12–13, 1861 was the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina, that started the American Civil War. Following declarations of secession by seven Southern states, South Carolina demanded that the U.S. Army abandon its facilities in Charleston Harbor.
